"ou're going on a date with Jennie, huh?" Zach asks, shoving his foot in my face while I tie my Jordan's.

I push his foot away. "It's not a date," I roll my eyes, standing up.

"You're right. It's not considered a date unless it's with Anna," Alex teases.

"Anna is my friend. We hang out like any other two friends. You're making it seem like a guy and a girl can't be friends," I tell them, rolling up the sleeves of the shirt.

They have been a major annoyance since I told them that I took Cherries to the tree house. I was planning on keeping my mouth shut and not telling them anything, but Zach asked me where did I go after school on Thursday and I replied with the diner thing until he pulled out the 'Leni was with you, bitch' card. After I called him an asshole for calling me a bitch, I told them the truth; which now I realize is one of the very bad decisions I have made in my life.

I'm never going to admit that though.

"A girl and a guy can be friends. We're friends with the girls after all, however you and Leni can't be friends," Zach insists.

"And why the hell so?" I ask, frowning.

"Because you're supposed to be more than friends. I know that you're not keen on relationships anymore, but she deserves a good relationship and that relationship is with you," he says. "Correct me if I'm wrong, Lexi," he turns to Alex.

Alex glares at him. "Don't call me that and you're not wrong."

Zach turns back to me. "See, man? I have no damn idea why are you hanging out with Jennie anyways. She was with the Dickinson jerk and you–we are not on good terms with him."

"Jennie is very nice and she apologized for what she did. It's not like she meant to get with Dickinson after what happened," I come to Jennie's defend and to be honest, I don't even regret it. She deserves it.

"You're meaning to tell me that you are choosing the girl who slept with the guy your ex-girlfriend cheated on you with over the cute girl that you hang out with most of the times and is considered a childhood friend?" Zach raises his eyebrow.

Who the hell said anything about choosing?

I want to correct him and tell him that Jennie didn't even sleep with anyone too, but I decide on keeping my mouth shut. It's neither my business nor my place.

"I'm not choosing between Jennie and Anna. Jennie is just a new friend and she's actually a very nice person. Anna is a close friend of mine and I'm not going to choose her over Jennie. Why the fuck are we talking about this anyway?" I question in confusion.

"Don't know. I guess that's what happens when I ship too much," Zach frowns.

"I'm going," I tell them, grabbing my car keys from on top of the desk. "Don't blow up the house and stay away from my sister. She's twenty two. That's disgusting. And whoever shits in my toilet; better flushes after they're done."

"That was Zach!" Alex points at him.

"No, it wasn't. Go to hell," Zach throws the pillow at Alex who is sitting on the spinning chair; in which it hits him in the face.

"I don't give a crap who did it. Just flush the toilet after you're done." I walk to the exit of the room.

Please.

"Have fun, shithead!" Zach calls after me.

"Thanks, asshole!" I close the door behind me.

"You wanna make fun of his baby pictures?" I hear Zach asking Alex as soon as I leave the room.

"Hell yeah," Alex responds and I chuckle to myself.

Bastards.

I go downstairs and find Clara sitting on the couch watching one of her useless shows. I don't get what's the purpose of reality tv honestly. Why the hell would I watch people's other lives that last more than sixty episodes? I know that sounds like hypocrisy because I read a lot and reading is literally about reading people's fake lives that usually last more than sixty chapters, but it's actually more useful than that shit. I don't know. I never understood this world.

"I'm going out, Lara," I tell my sister.

She turns her head to me. "Where?"

"The diner," I reply.

"With Anna?"

"No. Jennie."

"Okay. Have fun," she smiles.

"The guys are upstairs by the way," I inform her.

"Did you tell them to stay away from the fridge? Because they literally finish everything," she exaggerates.

"Don't worry. They will stay in my room the whole time," I say.

"Good. I don't feel like babysitting today. Have fun on your date," she waves at me, before she turns back to the telelvision.

"It's not a date," I grumble, walking to the front door, opening it and leaving the house.

I get in my car and drive away. Driving alone is kind of weird for me, I'm used to Cherries being here and her not being here with me is different and not the good different. That is probably the cheesiest thing I've ever said in two years, but it's the truth.

I was a bit surprised when she told me that she doesn't like Alex anymore. The two of them are nice as hell and if they get together, they would be the school's couple or something like that. Believe me, I was not happy about that thought. Cherries is consuming my mind at all times and it's annoying the fuck out of me.

I try doing everything to get her out of my mind and by anything I mean, eating and video games, but that doesn't work. I can't smoke; she took the pack and smoking isn't a solution and drinking gets me fucked up in the morning, so I try to drown myself in other things. It's not working.

I can just simply admit that I actually like her, but there's no way in hell am I doing that. I'm a very stubborn asshole and I know it.

Finally, I pull up at the diner and I get out of the car before strolling inside. I spot Jennie sitting in one of the booths. She notices me and she waves, smiling. I hold up my hand, signaling for her that I saw her and I walk over to the booth before I take a seat.

"Hey," she greets. "You look nice."

"Thanks. You look nice too." I'm not lying. She really does look nice.

"Am I late?" I ask her.

She shakes her head. "No, not at all. I just arrived a few minutes ago."

"Great."

A waiter approaches us. "Hello, I'll be your waiter for tonight. What would you like to order?"

After we both place our orders, we start chatting about random stuff. It is actually going really great that it is starting to feel like a date. Awesome.

"I know that may seem weird, but this feels like a date," Jennie laughs, reading my thoughts.

"Yeah, that's what I thought," I chuckle and she smiles.

Maybe this could evolve into something.

| | | |

"ow that I'm done with my homework," I close my textbook and turn around in my spinning chair to face Molly, smiling at her, "we can play together."

Molly jumps up and down, barking happily and I chuckle at her, then I grab her red ball and go downstairs, passing by Liam who is FaceTiming Sade.

"Hey, Lyn," he greets me.

"Hey, Lee," I greet him back.

"But you know I think it was a bitch move of Kylie to defend her boyfriend over her best friends," Sade's voice comes from the phone. "Sorry, Anna." She apologizes, gesturing to the swear word.

"It's fine," I smile at her through the phone. "Hey, Dee."

"Hey," she greets me back.

"Okay, don't call her a bitch though. Her best friends were criticizing her," Liam tells her, going upstairs.

Although Liam and Sade literally live across from each other, it still doesn't stop them from FaceTiming each other so Sade would update him on everything happening in school. It's how it goes. Sade gets the information and Liam comments. That is one of the very best things in Sade and Sophie too, they can gather information about every single person in the school. It's like a talent in them, beside their beauty.

I slide the balcony door open and go outside in the airy afternoon atmosphere. The weather today is a bit better than the last two days. Sunday was freezing cold and the whole skating thing didn't help. I had to stand in front of the heater for an hour, wiggling my butt near it.

"Ready, Molly?" I raise my arm up in the air with the ball in my hand and Molly lets out a woof of excitement. "Go get it," I throw the ball as far as possible and she darts after it.

For fifteen minutes, I keep throwing the ball for Molly and she chases after it. Sometimes she would make me chase after the ball while she rests down. I swear she is such a spoiled rascal, but she's my spoiled rascal and I love her no matter what.

My eyes involuntarily trail to Luke's house and I find myself just staring at his window while I wait for Molly. I wonder how his hangout session with Jennie went. Maybe they had so much fun that they will hang out again. I never bothered to bring the topic up in school; I didn't want to sound desperate to know every single thing detail about him and another girl.

Why am I always thinking about him?

"Are you waiting for a bird to shit on you or something?" A deep familiar voice says and my eyes snap down to find Luke leaning against the white fence, separating the two houses with his arms on top.

I smile at him and roll my eyes. "You have no filter, you know that?" I walk to the fence and lean against it too.

"So I've heard," he nods, grinning.

Molly brings me back her ball and I crouch down to scratch her head, then I take the ball back from her. That's when Molly notices Luke and she barks cheerfully. Luke raises his eyebrow at Molly in amusement.

"She really likes you," I explain to Luke.

"She does?"

"Yup," I nod.

"Well, I like her too. A lot," he says and I smile at him.

"How did everything go with Jennie?" I finally ask him. Molly tugs on my sweatpants with her teeth and I give her the ball.

"Pretty good. We're going out again on Friday, only as a date," he smiles.

Hold the tinkle up...a date?

"Wow," I smile. "You're dating now?"

"No. At least not yet."

Not yet? Okay then.

"That's great," I give him a genuine smile. I should be happy for Luke. And that's what I'm going to do, even if I'm feeling a slight twinge of jealousy.

"So, what are you up to?" I ask him, changing the subject.

"Nothing much. I just came back from work," he replies.

"That early? It's six in the evening," I tell him.

"It isn't," he says unconvinced.

"Check your phone. It's precisely six in the evening and seven minutes," I say, my eyes glancing up at the sky for a moment. "And twenty three seconds for more elaboration."

He gets out his phone and looks down at it. "Seriously, how do you do that?" He looks at me with a creeped out kind of look.

"Like I said; internal clock," I remind him.

"What else do you know?"

"I also know that your birthday is in two months, fourteen days, five hours, fifty minutes and six seconds," I inform him, feeling proud of myself.

"What the fuck?" He blurts out and I wince at the curse word. "Sorry," Luke apologizes.

"It's okay. Too creepy?" I chuckle.

"Way too creepy," he agrees. "How did you even remember my birthday?"

"Why wouldn't I remember it?" I frown.

"I don't know. It's not that important for you to remember," he shrugs.

"Of course, it is. It's your birthday," I tell him softly. "And I know that we're going to have the biggest party ever, only without too many people and alcohol." I shudder slightly.

He smiles at me, a real genuine smile. "You wanna know something?"

"What?" I tilt my head to the right.

"You're truly one of the most amazing people ever," he says. I can't help but smile widely at him and even though the fence is in between us, I hug him tightly. I'm not really expecting him to hug me back and I'm not surprised when he just places his hand on my back.

"And so are you," I tell him honestly and we last like this for five seconds before we start to pull away.

"Okay, enough cheesy shit. I'm not a fan of those," he chuckles.

"Yeah, me too," I laugh as well.

I hear a ball squeak and I turn around to find Molly staring at us with the ball between her two paws as she lies down on her stomach, then she sticks her tongue out and gives out that semi-smiling expression that every dog can sport.

"She seems to be happy," Luke comments, staring at her.

"She does," I nod. "I bet it's because I actually played her with today like I promised her."

"Probably."

That's when I notice my dad's car pulling up at our house and him getting out of the car. I had to blink a few times to actually realize that it's my father and not any other doppelgänger. He notices me and he sends me a wave. I wave back at him and watch as he walks inside the house.

"That's the first time I've seen your dad in awhile," Luke says.

"Me too," I smile weakly at him. "Well, I'm going to head back inside. See you tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow," he affirms.

"Bye, Luke," I wave at him, backing away.

"Bye, Cherries," he grins and walks away to walk back inside his house.

"Come on, Molly," I signal for her to come, bending down to get her ball and she follows me.

"That was so not cool what you did back there," I tell her.

She barks in response and I speak up. "Yeah, I know that look and don't even think about it."

She shakes her whole body and struts past me, walking back to the balcony entry.

"Well, okay then," I mumble.

| | | |

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