"I told you Miguel is just a friend! He's my best friend. We're like a family—all seven of us," I explained.

It had been days since Stephen met Miguel, and we had the same argument going on since then. Stephen was jealous of Miguel and thought that the latter was a threat to our relationship.

"I don't think he sees you as 'just a friend' Bianca," Stephen insisted.

Apparently for him, visiting your high school friends in their university wasn't a friendly thing to do.

I ran my fingers through my hair and almost pulled it out of frustration.

I thought about Lily's last reminder. You're happy because you haven't started fighting yet. She said that I should expect a few fights here and there. But I didn't see this coming. How was I supposed to know that my boyfriend would be jealous of my best friend? I closed my eyes as I thought of a solution.

"I can give you proof that we're just friends. Pictures. Videos. What do you want? I can tell you stories about them. About how we met, how we became close, just to assure you that there's nothing to be jealous about. There's nothing going on between me and Miguel."

"Do your parents know him?"

I flinched because of the word 'parents'.

"My mom knows him. My family does," I answered.

"Wow, good for him."

"I told you from the beginning that if we are going to do this, we cannot tell my family. I am not allowed to date. Isn't it enough that you're already an exception? You're my first boyfriend. What more can you ask for?"

"I need a reassurance that that Miguel isn't hitting on you."

Oh. My. God. Are all relationships this frustrating?

***

"Hi," I smiled at Charlotte as she walked towards me.

I had been waiting for her class dismissal for the last thirty minutes.

"Hi, handsome," she laughed. "So, where are we going today?"

"Where do you want to?" I asked.

"Coffee?" she asked.

"Sounds good."

We went to the nearest coffee shop, and I ordered a vanilla iced coffee while Charlotte ordered an iced mocha. We talked about school and our plans for next week.

"How many girlfriends have you had again?" she asked out of the blue.

Some girls get turned off when they find out that the guy they're seeing just had one girlfriend. Those girls want a guy with more experience in dating because it means they know what works and what doesn't. But there are other girls who prefer guys who just had a couple of girlfriends and sometimes, one is enough.

The problem was I didn't know which category Charlotte belonged to. But that didn't matter because I was going to admit the truth to her.

"Uh, just one," I muttered.

It was lame for some, but for other girls, they found it sweet.

I only had one girlfriend back in high school, in sophomore year to be exact. Or at least, she was the only one among the girls I had dated who I considered as an official girlfriend. She didn't study in Eastview Academy but we lived in the same neighbourhood. But still it wasn't easy for us because we usually only saw each other during weekend. Or whenever we're free, which meant her parents weren't around. It didn't last very long, and we had to end it, for our own benefit.

Afterwards, I had started liking Helen from our class. I courted her for several weeks. But she wasn't as interested in me as I was to her, so I was rejected.

In junior year, I had dated Kesha from senior year, and she rejected me too saying she didn't want to date someone younger which was ironic because we were already a thing. Also, because she was just a couple of months older than me, so it didn't make so much sense to me. But later on, I found out that it was because of Bianca. She thought that Bianca had a thing for me.

Then I had a fling with Ashley, another senior, but it remained as a fling before we called it quits. She was jealous of Bianca and she wanted me to avoid the latter. It seemed unfair for Bianca if I would avoid her just because I wanted to date someone so I chose Bianca over Ashley.

In senior year, I had decided that I was so done with dating and I would just try my luck in college so here I was.

Charlotte smiled.

"What?" I asked.

"I had three boyfriends already."

"I don't mind to be the fourth one."