"Perhaps we are wishing for each other upon the same star"

⋆✧⋆✧⋆

I wake up in a position I've grown quite used to recently; my back facing Sterling who is pressed up against me. Not wanting to wake him up, I slowly and carefully remove his arm snaked around my stomach.

"Hey, where are you going?" he groans.

"You're awake?" I turn around, startled by his voice.

"I am now." He looks at me with displeasure evident on his face. "I was comfortable, you know."

"Sorry, darling but I have to get to class."

"Keener," he teases.

"Make fun of me all you want but I'll be the one laughing when you don't graduate."

Sterling just chucks a pillow at me so I pull on his hoodie and run downstairs.

Jemma raises an eyebrow at my outfit choice. "Nice hoodie."

"Right back at you, Jem," I point out the fact that she's in one of Chase's old football hoodies.

"Thanks." She spins to show it off more. "It's my boyfriend's. Remind me again who yours belongs to."

"It's Sterling's," I reply with an eye roll knowing exactly what she's trying to imply.

"Ah, I see, and that's your..." she waits for me to finish her sentence.

"My friend."

"Right, and do you make it a habit to snuggle with all your friends every night?"

My cheeks heat up and I decide I've had enough of this conversation. "I'm going to class now. Bye, Jemma."

I hop into my car and laugh to myself at the fact that Sterling is still in my room and he's going to have to have breakfast with Jemma and Chase without me.

As I pull into campus I chug the last few sips of my coffee and gather my things. Looking at the tall building in front of me, I spot Luke. I text Sterling that there's no need to FaceTime this morning considering I can just walk in with Luke, and I make my way over to him.

"Hey, Luke! What are you doing here?" I ask as we hug.

"I decided to not skip today. Trying to be smart and shit."

I laugh at his explanation and the two of us head inside.

All of a sudden some blonde girl comes up to us and I start to feel weirdly uneasy. Getting a closer look at her face I recognize who she is. Flashbacks to the day in the library when she spotted me and Sterling and decided to grace us with her annoying and frankly bitchy presence.

Abigail or Adeleine, I'm not actually sure which one is her real name.

"Can I help you?" I address her, already wanting to slam my head into the wall in anticipation of what she's about to say. What could she possibly want with me?

"Are you dating Sterling Blake, or what?" I choke on my saliva at her words. Jesus, she just gets straight to the point, doesn't she?

"Pardon me?" I look at her slightly dumbfounded.

"Your hoodie, you're wearing his hoodie. So, are you?

"N-" I begin to deny — not that it's really her business — but I'm interrupted by Luke who has other plans. "Yes, she is. They're together"

Oh lord save me.

"Yup, they're in love actually. Totally nauseating if you ask me. Completely infatuated with each other. Probably getting married someday," Luke rambles on with a big dumb smile across his face.

"Fantastic," she sneers.

"Isn't it? In fact, he actually spent the night with her last night. Now, while I don't know the details, I think we can all make an educated guess on what went down with the two of them. Feeling sore at all there, Dell?" My jaw drops and my eyes almost fall out of my face.

What the fuck? Did he smoke crack this morning?

I look up at Luke with wide eyes and an expression of a mixture of emotions, confusion and irritation being the first two that come to mind. 'Trust me' is all he mouths before he continues talking.

"Anyways, Abigail, I think we better be going," Luke shines her a fake ass smile.

"Adeleine," she corrects her name once again. Right, Adeleine. Personally, I think Abigail suits her more.

"Right, sorry. Man I just always mix that up, don't I? Must not be a very memorable name then." Luke's comments make me laugh.

"Maybe you have early onset Alzheimer's," she jeers.

"Nah, I think it's just you." Luke takes me hand in his and leads the two of us away from my least favourite blonde bitch.

As soon as we get far enough away from her, I slap him on the back of the head. "Oh my god, what was that for?" I whisper-shout at him.

"What was what for?" He acts clueless.

"Everything you just said, Including telling her I was dating Sterling."

"Killing two birds with one stone. I wanted to piss her off after her bitchy comments to you and now she won't annoy Sterling anymore."

"I see," is all I can think to say. I look down at my phone to check the time and realize I'm about to be late. I give Luke one last irritated stare and leave for class.

⋆✧⋆✧⋆

A couple hours later and I'm out of one of the most boring lectures I've ever had to sit through. Now I'm in the library with Sterling studying for a test coming up.

I try to focus on the notes in front of me, looking at what we still need to cover before next week, but I feel him staring at me.

I try to ignore his gaze burning into the side of my head and resume skimming the textbook.

"God, you're beautiful, you know that?" Ok, I guess ignoring him is not the plan for today. His words make me blush and my heart picks up.

"What? No I'm not, I look like a mess right now," I refer to my 3-day unwashed hair and tired face. I look over at him, deciding I can brave his intense eye contact, and he shakes his head. "No, I'm serious, you're breathtaking."

Feeling unsure about what else to say, I blab the only other thing I can think of. "I think people think we're dating."

Sterling's eyebrows furrow in surprise, clearly not expecting those words to come out of my mouth. Honestly, neither was I.

He leans back in his chair and crosses his arms in front of his chest. "And why's that?"

"Because Luke told people we were," I say all too quickly, needing to make sure he doesn't think this is my doing.

"Why?" He seems rather unfazed by this whole thing.

I explain the unwanted intrusion from this morning and recap what Luke said, minus a few of his exaggerations. I talk about how she saw my hoodie and remembered me from the day in the library. I tell him Luke's reasoning behind the two birds one stone theory and the fact that I had nothing to do with it. Sterling actually looks quite pleased with his friend's lies and I'm a bit surprised. Usually, Sterling hates when the boys meddle.

"You're not concerned?" I look up at him, stunned by his little reaction.

"No, why would I be?" His words have me racking my own brain. I mean I guess it's not that big of a deal, so why am I so concerned over it. Why is it messing with my head so badly? "Well, it ruins your reputation," is all I can come up with.

One eyebrow raises and his tongue pokes through the side of his cheek. "My reputation?"

"Yeah, of being the school slut." I have to laugh at my own response. Sterling, on the other hand, doesn't find it nearly as amusing

"I mean your reputation of sleeping with every girl you please. If people think we're together don't you think they'll stop asking you out?"

"My reputation is completely false, you know?" he points out. I mean I've always questioned the validity of his reputation, especially since getting to know him. He doesn't seem like a one-night stand kind of guy, in my opinion.

"It is?"

"Yeah, I mean maybe it was a little accurate my first few months at this school, but definitely not now. It's actually kind of annoying; people making all these stories of me sleeping with girls all the time when it's all lies. I mean if they said this stuff about Owen, they'd be accurate, just not me," Sterling explains.

"No?" I fiddle with my pencil to distract myself from the fact that I'm overly curious over what he's about to say.

"No," he confirms.

"And I mean would it be a bad thing? People thinking we're together?" His eyes peer into my own so deeply I don't know which is more tempting; to look away or to keep his eye contact.

"I don't know, would it?" I give a half-asses answer, too scared to say anything with real conviction.

"I mean, not really, don't you think?" He tucks my hair behind my ears as his gaze moves down to my lips, an action that has me melting into a puddle every time he does it.

"Just because that means people would stop asking you out, something you hate, right?" I try to make sense of his words. The only reason he would think of it as a good thing is because he hates his old reputation. That's got to be it.

"Yeah, that's why." Sterling smiles lightly and looks away, continuing with his work.

Sorry for the short chapter today. I was feeling a little unmotivated and wanted to end this chapter so I can start another one. Hopefully that means the next one won't suck as much ;)

Question of the chapter: Favourite Taylor Swift song? (I spent the whole chapter listening to all her songs and I highly recommend)

Please vote and comment on this chapter if you enjoyed it!

Stay safe and healthy lovelies