"Who said anything about us being friends?"

I never in my life thought that one sentence could be so relieving yet so fucking annoying at the same time.

I was relieved to have finally escaped the friend zone but I couldn't help but think, at what cost. What even are we anymore.

"Who said anything about us being friends?"

What does it even mean? This question has been nagging me all night.

I had planned to bring it up with Miles but a certain douche thought, it would be a good idea to hit on my girl. If I wasn't so angry, wanting to bash his head in a locker, I would've gaped at his audacity. He was one of the people who bullied her and now... Oh god these people make me want to murder them.

"Hey guys." A smooth voice pulled me out of my thoughts making me look up with a small smile.

There stood Miles with a tray in her hands as she stared at everyone at the table cautiously.

'She's so beautiful.'

Shut up.

"EMILY." Dylan yelled, making her flinch and look at him wide eyed. Her surprise only heightened when Dylan got off his seat and rushed to her to envelope her in a hug.

I could only clench my fist, as that is all I've been wanting to do from the moment I laid my eyes on her.

'Just that?'

Okay maybe not just that...

I groan, as my conscience played with the last bit of patience I had left.

That's the least that I've wanted to do to her but well, the situation hasn't been in my favor and she hasn't given me the vibe that she likes my presence very much.

'Oh well, I don't blame her for that.'

I sighed as I saw Em's eyes widen at Dylan's act of affection, but she hugged him back nonetheless.

When the others at the table started to grumble about him hogging Emily, he pulled back and the girls threw themselves at Emily one by one, greeting Lexi in a less creepy way. Once they were done, Dylan pulled her to the seat next to him which was also conveniently next to me.

Dylan threw a sneaky wink at me before taking his seat. I noticed Alexis being pulled down by Mia, to a seat next to her.

"Davis didn't bother you again, did he?" I asked in a hushed tone, turning Em's attention to me. She turned to look at me with a surprised smile on her face.

"No he didn't. I don't know why though, he hasn't even made eye contact with me while passing the hallway." She chuckled.

A triumphant smile grew on my face as I nodded taking a bite of my sandwich.

As if a light switch went off in her head, I saw from the corner of my eyes as she suddenly turned to look at me, narrowing her eyes.

"What did you do?" It was more of a statement than a question, which made my smile widen as I shook my head in innocence.

Our little conversation was interrupted by the Mia pulling her in a conversation.

"What you pulled yesterday wasn't fair Em." Mia whined. "I feel like a bad friend for not recognising you."

Cole scoffed as he looked at everyone at the table with a smug look. I raised an eyebrow when he reached me, making him look away.

"You guys thought I was crazy. I knew she was familiar." He said crossing his arms over chest.

"Asparagus? Seriously?" Perri retorted looking at Emily making her chuckle, and turned to Lexi. "Brocolli?"

"Oh no! Don't look at me. It was all her. I wasn't in on it." Lexi defended raising her arms in surrender.

"I'm sorry for my lack of creativity guys, but it was, kind of, on a short notice." Miles said rolling her eyes. "It's not your fault though, it's been a long time, I didn't expect to be recognised anyway."

Her gaze wavered to me before she focused on her sandwich and took a bite.

"No, we should've known it was you." Mia sighed, leaning in to look at her. "I mean sure you look like a goddess and all but you're still our best friend. How can one not recognise a person they knew in the past? I've only seen this happen in movies." Mia continued groaning while Alexis patted her back for comfort.

Emily only chuckled in response while everyone else agreed. "If it makes you feel any better, I almost didn't recognise any of you either."

Mia narrowed her eyes at Miles. "You immediately, did."

Miles looked around the table for a second before a sympathetic smile grew on her face. "Yeah I did."

Making everyone groan and look at Miles with guilty looks.

Mia laid her head on her arms that were folded on the table, groaning.

"Stop that, or I will wipe that smile right off your face, mister."

I hadn't realised till then that I wore a smug smile on my face during their conversation.

Perri's accusation made everyone to turn their attention, making me raise an eyebrow.

"I'm pretty sure you stalked her on social media and didn't tell us about it or maybe you heard about Alec being back to school and connected the dots." Perri continued, probably offended that I knew something before her. "I swear if I knew about Alec, I would've easily figured out that you're back. I only got to know about Alec, after lunch. Oh god what is wrong with me? Am I not in the game anymore? Why am I missing out on so mu-"

"Perri! Hey, breathe." Cole cut off her rambling before she runs out of breath and dies.

"Yeah, you need to chill." I said rolling my eyes. "And no, I absolutely did not stalk her on social media." I said while Cole rolled his eyes at that and Dylan cleared his throat, not so subtly, as I narrowed my eyes at those two. "And I only found out about Alec after school yesterday." I shrugged, looking at Mia. Chaos erupted at the table right after I finished talking.

I felt Em's gaze on me and turned to look at her, making her look away. I turned back to my sandwich with a frown.

I saw how it wasn't just me who noticed Emily's different behavior with me, Cole noticed it and sent me a look of sympathy while Dylan smirked, like the creep he is.

I mean yeah she came back after being away for three years and she isn't completely ignoring me. But there's something that's different. She's restraining herself from giving in. She's being cautious when she talks to me, which never used to happen between us. I don't expect her to run into my arms but I don't like her being uncomfortable around me, either.

I had this conversation with the twins between classes today and Cole suggested that I was being paranoid and that I should calm down and have patience.

Dylan did not agree with that and rather than elaborating any further, he stuck to smirking by himself. The smirk hasn't left his face since then and not gonna lie, it's kind of scaring me now.

Logan walks towards the table and takes a seat beside Perri. I didn't even notice that he wasn't here. Perri took it on herself to explain whatever he'd missed, to him.

I turn to look at Miles as she laughs at something Dylan said.

"Hey are you okay?" I asked before I could stop myself.

She turned to me surprised. "Yeah. Why?"

"Let me rephrase that, are we okay?" I probably looked like a lost boy asking for directions. "Am I somehow making you uncomfortable?"

Her lips parted as if she couldn't find words to answer my very sudden question. It only cleared my suspicion when 10 seconds passed and she opened and closed her mouth like a fish.

But of course someone had to cut us off.

A look of relief took over her face while I internally groaned.

"Sorry what?" Em asked flustered turning to Perri.

Perri chuckled looking at me and Miles with a weird look.

"I said how about we come over to your place today, just like old times? We'll also get to meet Alec and Ethan." Perri said looking around the table. "Which reminds me, where's Ethan? I didn't see him yesterday either." She finished, making everyone look at Miles.

She went still. Very still. It's almost as if she stopped breathing.

Lexi looked up from her tray wide eyed, at Miles as she stopped eating, going still as well.

What the hell?

It was for such a short moment that I doubt anyone else noticed. Perri was waiting for the confirmation of the gathering, Mia was cleaning her glasses, squinting at Em, Dylan was busy demolishing his double meat burger and Cole was stealing glances at Perri. Logan, well, wasn't even listening to anything and was texting away on his phone.

"Uh yeah I'm sure Alec wouldn't mind." She said composing herself. I saw with a frown as she clenched her hands into fists under the table. "And well, sorry to disappoint but Ethan isn't here, you'll have to be satisfied with one twin." She said chuckling which was so forced, I almost winced.

Again, I doubt anyone noticed.

And it wasn't because they didn't want to. I know how close we all were as kids, we'd know when any one of us was lying or trying to hide something.

She's gotten good at concealing her emotions. I wouldn't have noticed that something was up, if I wasn't so smitten, either. But we've always been each other's rocks. Miles and I could read each other's emotions, through our eyes and well that's one thing she can't hide.

"What do you mean, he isn't here?" I couldn't help but ask, immediately regretting doing that as I saw her shiver slightly.

"He isn't. That ass decided to finish highschool in London." She didn't turn to look at me and shoved the last of what was left of her sandwich in her mouth.

I noticed how Lexi visibly relaxed when Miles passed her a smile. Miles turned to frown at her now empty tray.

"Really? That's surprising. I never thought you guys would ever be able to go different ways." Cole said, chuckling.

"Well, I guess everything changes as we grow up." Miles smiled, shaking her head.

"Nope. Not everything does." I say, a little too loud, gaining everyone's attention. Even Logan looked up from his phone.

Emily turned to look at me, almost as if she was expecting me to speak up, with a smirk of her own.

"Things don't change, only our perspective towards them, does." I said slightly tilting my head, to angle my face with hers as we stare at each other, neither of us ready to back down.

"Aaand do you know what else doesn't change?" Dylan's voice cut through the silence at the table followed by the sound of him being hit on his head, probably by Mia.

"They were having a moment." Mia whisper yelled.

"No! They were fighting!" Dylan whined.

Miles blinked and turned away, towards Dylan, while I openly glared at him for having the worst timing in the entire world.

"What, Dylan?" Miles asked chuckling, and just like that, my glare melted away at that sound.

'What a simp.'

Dylan turned to Miles smiling after recovering from the blows from everyone at the table. "The fact that one of the sandwiches of this cafeteria is never enough. Right?"

Everyone groans as an amused smile makes its way to Em's face. "Right." She chuckled.

The rest of the people at the table chose to ignore this conversation and started their own chatter. I, myself, would've loved to do that too, if Miles wasn't a part of this.

"So, Ryder," he continued, switching to look at me with a very scary smile. "Why don't you offer Emily the Oreos you're hiding in your bag?"

I frowned, remembering that I actually do have a few Oreos left in my bag. I pulled the packet from my bag, with a suspicious look on my face.

What is he upto? I really don't like the smile on his face right now.

"Oh no it's fine. I'll just grab something from the vending machine." Emily said shaking her head at me.

I rolled my eyes and simply shoved the packet in her hands. "Shut up. Just take it. The vending machine is all the way across the hall."

'Yup. Such a gentleman.'

She scoffed, grabbing it.

My eyes shifted behind her to Dylan and I saw his smile widen, which made my frown deepen. He tried too hard to look unbothered and natural, which was absolutely not working.

A muffled scream pulled me out of my trance as I saw Miles spit out an Oreo and stood up suddenly, making her chair fall back.

That grabbed a lot of attention as the cafeteria went silent.

Many 'what's wrongs' were fired, including me, but no one recieved an answer as Emily struggled to from a word, fanning her tongue.

After wasting effort for like a minute, she ran out of the cafeteria.

Everyone exchanged looks of surprise and followed after her. My eyes narrowed at Dylan as he looked at me with an amused look.

"What did you do?" I growled, grabbing Em's bag that she left in a rush.

"Chill Romeo, wait and watch." He raised his hands in surrender. I glanced at Cole who stood behind him as he rolled his eyes and motioned to where Miles ran.

We ran out of the cafeteria and a little further to the restroom and saw Perri coming out.

"What happened?" I asked frantically.

"Well, you-"

"RYDER FUCKING GREEN" Emily's voice cut her off as I turn to look at her exiting the restroom with a glare directed to me.

I couldn't help but feel a boost of serotonin in me as she finally looked at me with a raw emotion. She finally wasn't holding back. She was acknowledging her emotion towards me. Even if it was rage, it was something.

I know I should be scared shitless right now, with the glare she's sending my way as she makes a beeline towards me, but I couldn't help the heated gaze of my own and a small smirk that grew on my lips, looking at her, all wound up.

"You. Do not. Mess with my food." She said when she reached me. She had to crane her neck to look at me while I looked down into her eyes. She was a good 6-7 inches shorter than me, and I was loving this little kitten trying to intimidate me.

Her face was a few inches away from mine and I could breathe in her intoxicating scent, lavender and mint.

"You just declared war and It. Is. On. Green." She finished with a smirk of her own. I'm not gonna lie, there was this aura she had that almost made me back down. Almost.

Her gaze made heat rise up in my body, including a certain area, making me look at her with the same intensity. I wasn't even sure, what the whole situation was about but I just couldn't bring myself to put a stop to it.

"It is." I said and I think I heard Alexis gasp, muttering an 'oh no' under her breath.

She scanned my face with her smirk intact and snatched her bag out of hand before turning to walk away.

"That. Was. So. Hot." Perri said in disbelief, looking between me and a walking away Miles.

Everyone nodded in agreement as I finally came out of my trance. "What just happened?"

Lexi moved forward placing a hand on my shoulder. "I'll pray for you." She said as the bell for class, rang.

Everyone pointed out the 'hot' interaction between me and Miles before rushing to their classes leaving the twins and me.

"You're welcome." Dylan said with the same smirk he's been wearing all day. "It was nothing that a little wasabi couldn't fix." He pulled out an empty tube of wasabi from his pocket, waving it infront of our faces.

"And why would you do that, genius? If she didn't hate him enough, before, she definitely does, now." Cole said, hitting him on his head.

"No no no, I think he, for once in his life, did the right thing." I said realising his plan as my eyes widen.

Dylan's smile widens as I raise my fist for a fist bump, which he gladly returns.

"What? How?" Cole asked confused and I simply smirked at him.

"Prank war, initiated."