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"I need coffee," I groan in my hands, on our way to school. We had been driving for about five minutes in total silence, but my tastebuds suddenly decided they needed coffee.

"I said I need cof-f-e-e," I drawl in an annoying tone, Gray, on the other hand, refused to give me his attention. Coffee is an essential part of my mornings. Okay maybe not. Maybe I'm just craving coffee because I just watched an IG video of someone making Dalgona. But that doesn't matter!

"Can we please stop at the Starbucks," I plead and pout, tugging lightly on his shirt.

"No, I'm late to school," He replies in a ridiculously high pitched tone, in a terrible attempt to mimic me. I don't talk like that.

"Lame," I blow a raspberry, scrunching my face. He proceeds to ignore me, keeping his eyes locked on the road, while I keep on whining about coffee.

"Coffee."

"Coffee."

"C-o-f-f-ee."

Was I annoying? Yes. Did I care? No.

"I thought maturity came with age?" He teases, a small smile playing on his lips. He turns a corner and pulls up at Dunkin' Donuts drive-thru. "What do you want?"

"Starbucks," I deadpan.

"Hmm..," He stares at me and presses his lips up in a firm line. He blinked twice before starting up the car again. "Off to school, I guess."

"Ah- ah. Wait," I mutter, placing my hand on the steering wheel, prevent him from driving off. I wanted Starbucks coffee but I guess I could do with one from Dunkin'. "Hazelnut iced coffee."

"And I'll have a hot caramel mocha," He says to the lady at the drive-thru with a huge smile. This man smiled at almost everyone, what a flirt!

After getting our drinks, Gray waves goodbye to the lady and drives off. While I hand him his coffee I noticed the lady had written her number by the side of his cup. Were they allowed to do that? If you ask me, I think that's very unprofessional.

"Looks like you've got an admirer," I sneer, pointing towards his cup.

He raises his cup with his free hand to examine the note. "It doesn't matter. I've got my eye on someone else," he smirks and winks at me. Couldn't be me, could it? Well, I don't care. I was done with him and even if I wasn't, I'd never let my emotions show. Never.

I roll my eyes and take a long sip of my coffee before leaning into the chair. I look at Gray and see him pull out a cigarette from the pack. He proceeds to put it in his mouth, balancing it with his teeth.

"You're back to smoking?" I scoff, feeling disgusted.

He looks at me, his left brow arched. "What?"

I point at the cigarette between his teeth. When we were 16, Gray had this bad boy phase. He was smoking, didn't care about school, had a bunch of tattoos and there were even rumors about him being in a gang.

Back then, my ex-best friend warned me not to date him because she thought he was bad news. I refused, calling her a hater. I was super obsessed with him and had this delusional idea that I could change him. Well, guess what happened! Yep. He broke my heart and disappeared. Literally. I had tried stalking his social media, but he deleted it all and even changed his number.

"I thought you had stopped smoking. It's not really cool in case you're wondering," I roll my eyes, staring straight ahead that the road, refusing to meet his eye.

"Being hazel grace now aren't we," He chuckles lightly, his laugh resonating in the car.

I raise my eyebrow, a confused expression plastered on my face. "What?"

"It's not lit," He says, tapping the end of the cigarette with his fingernails. "Technically, I'm not smoking."

"You were gonna lit it eventually," I sneer.

"Do you see a lighter with me?" He asks, showing me his hands briefly before returning it to the steering wheel.

"Then why is it in your mouth?" I cross my arm. Did he really think I was that dumb? You don't put a cigarette in your mouth unless you wanted a smoke.

"It's like a calming mechanism for me," He replied.

That doesn't even make any sense. "How?"

He gives a low sigh and pulls the cigarette from his mouth. "There was a time when smoking was the only thing that made me feel good. I'd lit this bad boy and taking a huge smoke would make everything in the world feel right," He replied, his eyes fixed on the cigarette.

I look and the cigarette and back at him. His eyes held an unfathomable expression. "Sounds addicting," I commented.

"It was," he chuckles. "But one day, I heard one girl talk about how smoking disgusted her and it suddenly made me want to stop. I had a crush on her and didn't want to disappoint her," He laughs, placing the cigarette in his cup holder.

I felt a pang of jealousy, hearing him talk about some girl.

Dear heart, please don't be weird. Remember, we don't like him!

"So how did you stop," I shake my head, trying to focus on the important part of his story.

"It took a while but I finally decided to pretend smoke," he replies, making hand quotes on the word 'pretend'.

"I'd place the cigarette between my lips and pretend to smoke before letting out my breath. It eventually began a habit and every now and then I'd place a cigarette in my mouth, but I'd never lit it," He shrugs and pulls up to the school driveway.

"How well did that work out," I ask, tilting my head slightly.

"Haven't lit one in two years," He clears his throat, biting slightly on his lower lips to stop himself from smiling. A small smile forms on my lips without my acknowledgment, but I don't replace it with a scowl.

I am genuinely proud of him for being able to stop because I heard smoking was as addictive as drugs. "I'm proud of you," I smile.

"What about you? Have you gotten rid of your bad habit?" He asks, unbuckling his seat belt.

I don't have a bad habit. I'm perfect. "What bad habit?" I ask with a straight face, and we get down from the car.

He gives an amused expression before placing his hand inches from his lips and pretends to the nibble on it. My eyes widen as realization dawned on me. "Your nail-biting," He smirks.

I scrunch my nose, feeling embarrassed he remembered. I stare down at my now perfectly manicured acrylic fingernails. "Those are fake right?" He points to them.

I tuck my hands behind my back and pout. "No, they're not," I shake my head.

He narrows his eyes and cocks his head to the side. "You're lying, aren't you?"

"No, I'm not."

"You always pout whenever you lie," He laughs and points to my lips.

I press my lips into a thin line and shake my head. "I don't bite my nails anymore though,"

That was a huge lie. I am still a massive nail bitter. It's a bad habit, yes I know, but I'm extremely used to it. I started fixing my nails in an attempt to prevent myself from biting them, but, I always ended up biting them whenever I take the fake ones off. That's why I always fix my nails. You'd never catch me slipping.

"You're still so deceptive," He shakes his head, laughing.

"What! I've never lied to anyone. I barely lie," I stick out my chin defensively.

"I still remember the first time I met you at a party. You were so big on talking about all the bad things you've done. It was fucking hilarious," He says, throwing his head back as he laughs.

I cringe at the memory. I liked Gray first and I thought I had to be on his level of 'badness' to be with him. Desperate, yes I know.

I had gone to a party that night and couldn't stop lying about a bunch of bad things I've done. Mind you, I didn't hit on him first though.

My plan worked though because that same night, he talked to me for the first time and we ended up exchanging numbers. "I didn't lie," I mutter in a super low voice.

"I knew you were lying from the moment you took a sip of vodka," he laughs, clutching his stomach. I cover my face slightly with my hands. We get it, I was a joke. Did he have to talk about it now?

"If you knew I was lying, why did you still come up to me?" I ask, my hands on my lips as I stuck out my chin.

He stops laughing and looks down at me, a small smile on his lips. "Because I thought it was cute. I thought it was cute how you kept on lying to grab my attention."

His little smile made me feel some type of way. Bubbly? Happy? I don't know, I just really like his smiles. "I didn't do it for you," I lied grabbing my books from my locker.

I'm pretty sure I've lied like five times this morning. The hallway is empty due to the classes going on, but here we were, wasting our time.

"I know you did. You glanced my way like sixty times as you spoke. It was pretty obvious you liked me," He teases, adjusting the strap of his bag.

"No, I didn't," I lie again.

"Yes you did," He says in a whisper lower than before. He is leaning close to my ear, his hot breath fans my neck. My body is stiff a little from the super close proximity. "And you still do," He adds with a drawl.

His last words made me feel a bit mad. Who the hell does he think he is? I definitely don't like him anymore and even if I did, I'd never let him know that. I nudge him harshly with my elbows which makes him fall back, clutching his side tummy, groaning in pain. "What the-,"

"Don't be mistaken, pretty boy. I really don't like you. At least not anymore," I snap, turning on my heels to face him.

"Fuck," He curses, still clutching his sides. I figured I must have hit him harder than I intended to. Oops. Sorry. Not. Sorry.

"I hope we're clear," I give a fake smile and he glances up at me before straightening his back.

"Got it," He replies.

I clutch my bag and walk away from him, heading towards the class. I hear his footsteps behind me a few moments later. It suddenly hit me that we couldn't walk into class together. We don't want to spread rumors now, do we?

"Can I walk in first and you'll come in a few moments later?" I turn to ask him, a small smile on my lips.

He gave me a blank look in reply. Come on, Gray. This is the time you're supposed to speak.

"Okay?" I asked again, giving him an okay sign and he nodded gently in reply.

I adjusted my tote bag strap and walk into class. As expected, all eyes turned to stare at me. The door suddenly opens and Gray saunters in next. Was he kidding me?

"How early of you to show up," the teacher pauses and glances at the class clock. "Three minutes before class ends."

"Not my fault ma'am, Kelch wanted to stop for coffee," Gray says, staring at me with a fake smile. Olay, does anyone have a fucking knife. What the fuck was he doing?

"What did I tell you?" I muttered in a low voice, as my eyes scanned the classroom filled with students staring at us curiously. Don't get me wrong, I love attention. I just don't like em for the wrong reason.

"You didn't say how long I had to stay out," he whispers.

"Wanted to stop for coffee? Did you two drive to school together," Zyair asks and the bell rings. The teacher just gives both Gray and I disappointed looks before walking out of the class. I loved the fact that she was unproblematic. Teachers like Mr. Mathew would have given us detention.

"No!"

"Yes," Gray says at the same time.

"Why?" Zyair asks, placing his hands in his pocket.

Gray proceeds to wrap his arm around my shoulders and whispers in my ear. "Consider this payback for hitting me," He says low enough so only I could hear.

He straightens his back and speaks again before I could reply. "We live together."

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