Shawn, my cousin, and I had arrived in the airport. I called my mother as soon as we left the airport. She picked up when I called the second time.

"Estoy ocupado, Marcus," María, my mother, answered.

I groaned,"So you can't fetch me and Shawn at the airport?"

"No, no puedo, estoy en una reunión,"

she replied and I heard her talk to someone at the background. She sighed,"Lo siento." she hung up.

"What did aunt say?" Shawn asked as he sat down on the bench of the bus stop.

"She's busy at a meeting," I replied sitting down next to Shawn. He sighed in response and dropped our luggage. María, my mother was a very busy business woman. She was Spanish and my dad, Vincent, was American. They met in Mexico, at the mall. From what I heard, María was the one who made the first move while my dad was shit nevrous. They married about a year after that and had me. María wanted to name me Miguel but dad told her that she had her chance by naming my older brother, Diego.

So Vincent named me Marcus.

My dad and I were close, very close. Four years ago, we were kidnapped by a gang. María and I were utterly confused while dad knew the kidnappers. The kidnappers spoke about wanting their money and dad told them he needed more time.

The gangleader was about to shoot María but dad dived in front of her and he got shot instead. The gang started panicking a bit except the gangleader.

I heard his name.

James Stevenson.

I saw him.

I remembered him.

And fuck it, he was going to pay.

"Marcus, I got us a cab." Shawn picked up his bag and walk to the taxicab waiting across the road. I grabbed my bag before walking to the cab.

"Vamos, Marcus!" Shawn clapped and got in the car. I narrowed my eyes at him but still walked faster. Shawn wasn't Spanish, he just wanted to learn it since he usually came to my house and heard María speaking Spanish to me. After putting my bag in the boot, I got in the car and shut the door.

Shawn and I glanced at eachother when the driver was arguing over the phone with someone. He shouted and cursed until Shawn decided to plug in his ear plugs. It didn't work so we had to hear his shouting increase. While arguing, the cab swerved a bit resulting a hoot from a car behind it.

I groaned and leaned forward. I grabbed the phone from his hand and ended the call. "Stop shouting and focus on the fucking damn road." I gave him a fierce stare but he wasn't looking at me, since I told him to focus on the road. "Thank you." I smiled and placed his phone on the passenger seat. We arrived home safely and Shawn had to leave to see his ex.

I went to my room and I slumped down on my bed. My phone vibrated from my back pocket and I took it out.

I sighed.

Jason annoyed the fuck out of me. I decided not to reply to the message since I didn't like the guy, and I wasn't in the mood in partying. Scrolling down my contacts, I came upon one that caught my eye.

I called Alyssa 'Baby cheeks' because she had the most adorable cheeks, like a baby's. I didn't know if that made sense or not but it made sense to me.

A short moment after, my phone start ringing. It was Alyssa calling me. I smirked and answered the phone.

"Marcus?"

"Baby cheeks."

There was a slight pause before she continued,"Marcus, have you returned home from Paris yet?"

"Yeah, I'm in my house. Tired as fuck, I think I need someone to cuddle with," I mumbled the last part but made sure that she heard me.

She sighed,"Marcus, I have something very important to tell you. I'm truly sorry for this."

I furrowed my eyebrows, confusion taking over. "Why, what happened? Did someone beat y--"

"No, no one has. Not for the past few days which I am very thankful for Marcus but... that's not the thing I wanted to tell you," Alyssa said, starting to worry me. "Um... er... Marcus--"

The line went dead.

I cursed and tried calling Alyssa again but the call went straight to voicemail. Her battery probably died, while was about to tell me something 'very important'.

"Great."

"Despierta! Wake up!" I heard María shout and knock on my bedroom door.

"A minute," my voice came out muffled since my face was on a pillow. María started knocking louder.

"En un minuto!" I said louder but María ignored me. I sighed and got out of bed, I unlocked the door and opened it. Looking at my mother blankly.

She smiled and walked away. I narrowed my eyes at her before I left to take a shower. Afterwards, I brushed my teeth and spent 15 minutes on my hair. I don't usually take this long but today I felt like I wanted to.

I returned to my room and got dressed. I left the room, taking my phone with and going to front door of the house.

"Bye sweetie!" María called from the kitchen. "I love you!"

"Love you too, ma." I chuckled, grabbing the car keys from the coffee table. I went to the garage and got in the car, starting it, I waited for the garage door to slide open. I drove out and made my way to school.

Gaining the attention, as always, I parked my car and got out. I saw Sam and Kendall speak to a group of cheerleaders. Kendall spotted me and told Sam. They winked at the girls simultaneously before walking to me.

"Sam and Kendall." I nodded.

"Marcus." they grinned simultaneously.

"Keeping a secret from us that you were dating the nerd?" Sam said and quirked his eyebrow.

"Wait, what?"

"Everyone found out that you and the sweet cheeks were dating," Kendall said and glanced at a group of girls who were ogling at us. He chuckled and turned back to me.

"Found out? What are you guys talking about?"

"Marcus, Alyssa told everyone that you two were boyfriend and girlfriend," Sam said in a bored tone. "Ever since then, everyone has been befriending her."

"Alyssa Heart told everyone that we were dating?" I asked, not believing it.

They nodded.

"And everyone believed that? No one bullies her anymore?"

"No, why," Sam asked.

"Was she was lying?" Kendall completed the question.

No one bullied Alyssa while I was gone, and all she had to do was lie about being my girlfriend.

"Did you hear? Your boyfriend's coming back." Aaliyah smirked, leaning against the locker next to me.

I started getting nevrous,"O- of course. He is my b- boyfriend." I chuckled nervously. I was meaning to tell Marcus about this but my phone died.

Most students were afraid to greet me since Marcus was here. I was also scared, scared of rejection. Humiliation. And things getting back to the way they were. Me, being bullied every single day, worse since I lied about dating Marcus.

I saw Marcus at the enter the school building and I felt my heart pound against my chest, the difficulty of breathing increasing.

"Lyssa, are you okay? You look like you're about to collapse or something," Aaliyah said from beside, looking at me worridly.

I nodded,"Of course I'm fine."

Marcus walked down the hallway, and had all the attention. The girls fixed their outfits and made it more revealing as they tried to get Marcus' attention.

Back off, he's min-- okay he's not.

The guys smiled and nodded at him, as if wanting to be friends with him. Apparently, you were lucky to be friends with Marcus Sawyer. Sam and Kendall were walking behind him, doing most things simultaneously. Like winking at girls at them at the same time, confusing most girls but still left them squealing in excitement.

Marcus looked like he was searching for someone, looking at mostly girls who thought that he was 'checking' them out.

Finally, after a long time of staring at him, he spotted me. He smiled and started walking my direction. "Uh... I think I'm gonna go," Aaliyah whispered before rushing the other way.

Marcus stood in front of me, staring at me from head to toe before his eyes met mine again. A crowd was formed behind Marcus, just like when Bree asked if I was dating Marcus. Marcus looked at Sam and Kendall and nodded. They turned to the crowd and waved them off and the students scattered to where they were, though some students kept glancing at us. Sam and Kendall also walked away.

Marcus then chuckled to himself before walking closer to me until my back hit the lockers though he didn't stop until the space between us was gone. Him this close, I was pretty sure he could feel my pounding heart.

"Baby cheeks," he whispered, smirking. His hand held mine before slowly caressing my arm. I tried to brush off the nervousness but I couldn't since Marcus had his eyes on me the whole time.

"Marcus," I breathed. I knew why he was acting like this, he had probably heard about me saying that we were dating.

I saw that some girls where glaring at me, though they were friendly before, guess jealously took over them.

"I- I can explain," I stammered, trying to act confident.

"Go ahead, babe." Marcus smiled when he said babe to me. I sighed and went along with his act, I held the back of his neck and stood on my tip toes to whisper it to him because some students were actually staring at us.

From far or near, it looked like we were kissing with our heads tilted in the opposite direction though no one could see our faces. "Marcus, I'm sorry. I told everyone that we were dating and everyone thinks so."

"Why's that?" he whispered back, his warm breath hitting my lips.

"The stuff you bought for me for Valentine's Day, Bree suspected that we were in some kind of relationship since she saw that I had your number and we were hanging out," I explained.

Marcus chuckled, lifting his head into the air slightly. "Wait, wait, so let me get this straight." The amused look on his face almost scared me, like he saw this as a joke. But this 'joke' had changed everything.

"While I was gone; you've been telling everyone that we're boyfriend and girlfriend?" Marcus asked, who looked extremely smug.

I groaned and my eyes finally met his. "Manifestly, since I lied telling everybody that we're dating, my high school life has been awesome. No one bullies me anymore, everyone wants to be my friend and I finally can hang out with friends on weekends. Marcus, please just help me with this. It's my last year and I would like to have at least a nice memory of high school."

Marcus quirked his eyebrow.

I sighed knowing what he meant," And in return, I'll help you with your school work." There was nothing more he could ask of me since the only thing I was was smart. And most people asked me to 'help' them with their school work.

Marcus grinned and before I could ask why, he leaned in and placed his lips on mine. I was shocked at first, his lips felt warm and soft against mine. I was still frozen, but then Marcus held my waist snapping me back to reality. I finally responded to the kiss by tugging him closer and wrapping my arms around his neck.

I heard gasps from the learners around us, capturing of pictures and whispers around.

What have I gotten myself into?