I blinked at Miguel, waiting for him to say something. And as if on cue, we burst out laughing at the same time.

"It's that ridiculous, huh?" I asked.

"Yeah, what is up with you?"

I shrugged and replied, "You can blame Mara."

He unlatched his seatbelt and faced me. "She can be nosy sometimes."

"Most sisters are, I guess."

I glanced at our house and no one was out in the porch. But the screen door was wide open. I still have time for a few minutes of conversation before I head in.

"But I can think of reasons why we make a good pair and why other people think so."

I averted my eyes back to Miguel who was now leaning back on his seat. His eyes were on the empty street in front of us. He crossed his arm in front of him, unintentionally flexing his biceps.

"I am definitely better than Stephen. I know it."

"Oh, my God," I chuckled. "That is so mean...and, yeah, also so true."

He laughed. "It means I know how to treat you better."

I nodded. "I think I'm better than Charlotte because I don't break guys' hearts."

He glanced at me and raised an eyebrow. "Really, Bianx? You're going with that? Uh, what about all the boys you dumped in high school?"

"I didn't dump anyone..."

"What about the 'oh, sorry I don't plan on dating anyone yet' speeches you gave? Didn't think you broke their hearts?"

"Alright fine. Well, I'm not materialistic."

He smiled. "Good point. And we won't have any problems about hanging out with friends."

I leaned back and chuckled. "Right, that's a good pro. We won't be jealous of friends."

For sure it would be nice to date someone who gets along with your friends.

We fell silent for a few seconds and I heard him blew a puff of air.

"What?" I asked.

"There are a lot of pros, but I don't think it's gonna work out for us, you know?"

"What do you mean?"

"We know how to be good friends, but I'm not sure how things will unfold when we date each other," he began explaining as he fixed the cuffed sleeves of his shirt.

"I guess so."

"There are things that couples do but friends don't... I don't need to elaborate that one. There are also attitudes that you only show to your partner."

I furrowed my eyebrows as I tried to understand what he was trying to say.

But he was right. Sometimes we become jealous and possessive when it comes to our partners, and that rarely happens to friends.

"Oh, right. And once we date, you'll probably end up buying expensive things for me. Do you know I hate it when you do that to other girls? There are other ways of showing you care other than buying gifts."

"I'm sorry that that gesture offends you," he apologized in a sarcastic manner.

"Well, you can open doors for them, right? Or I don't know. Be supportive of their dreams?"

"But I'm already the supportive kind of boyfriend. And I open doors for everyone—not just my girlfriend."

"Okay," I answered, but I made it sound like I was unconvinced. "But you know you haven't been dating great girls after Khloe. They were just kind of—eh."

"Eh? Wow, so you mean I have a bad taste in women?"

I smirked just to tick him off a little more.

"Coming from a girl who dated a guy like Stephen," he scoffed.

I gasped and shook my head at him. "What I was thinking of was if you would date me, would it mean I'm like those other girls?"

"Again, you're saying I don't have a good taste. But, in my defense, they have good qualities too. It was just overshadowed by the bad ones."

I shrugged.

"But to answer your question, no, Bianca. You are a great girl and you're nothing like them. You're beautiful, talented, and sweet. Also, you are really childish which I think I'm not looking for in a girl."

I gasped for the second time. "You know what? It's been a long day with you and your sister. I need some rest."

He laughed and said, "Stay there."

Then he jumped out of the car in a hurry to open the passenger door for me.

"Let me just..." he mumbled, offering his hand to me as I hopped out of his car.

"You really are a nice guy, Mr. Miguel Villanueva."

He smiled before saying, "I try my best."

"Hey, I want to date a guy like you. And I guess, I still haven't met him yet."

***

"How was the double date, Miggy boy?" Brian asked with a hint of humor.

"It wasn't a date. It was just lunch," I chuckled. "Dude seriously, it was just Bianca."

We had a great time with Mara and James. But of course, there were the occasional stares from Mara saying 'I like this girl' and 'I told you, you look good together'.

She had also asked Bianca if the latter has a boyfriend. As much as possible, I didn't want to talk about it because I thought it would embarrass Bianca. But Bianca was up for Mara's questions. When she had answered, Mara had given me another glance. She was either saying 'I don't believe you're not dating each other' or 'What are you waiting for?', but I only shook my head at her.

When I got home after dropping Bianca off at their house, Mara had interrogated me. She was desperate to hear me say that I was dating Bianca. Good thing James was still at our house, and he believed in me so he had helped me in convincing Mara.

"You know sometimes I wonder why you and Bianca aren't dating," Brian commented.

I laughed. "You too?"

"Because they're best friends?" Lily asked, like it wasn't obvious.

"There is absolutely no rule saying that you cannot date your best friend," Brian answered, a little too defensively.

"Yeah, there isn't a rule about that," Jeff agreed.

"In fact, sometimes the best relationships start off as being best friends."

"Yeah, there is none. But also, what's going on between me and Bianca is totally platonic," I answered. "But everyone's thinking we're dating that you all ended up putting thoughts of dating in our heads."

Brian, Jeff, and Lily all stared at me with their curious faces.

"What? You think we never talked about it? We kind of talked about the pros and cons."

There may be a lot of pros, but when my mind wandered off to other dating stuffs, I knew it was not right. For starters, I couldn't imagine myself kissing her. It just felt wrong. But I didn't bring it up because Bianca might freak out.

"I mean, we both talked about it but we just couldn't see ourselves dating each other. It feels wrong, you know? She's always been like a baby sister to me," I continued.

"Is this because you're almost a year older than her?" Lily asked.

I was the oldest among the seven of us and Bianca was the youngest. But even though I was the oldest, I didn't feel like it most of the time. Maybe because I was never like a big brother to all of them, except for Bianca. Kane and Lily were both more independent than her so they didn't need me to act like an older brother to them.

"She will always be the baby sister I never had."

"I know how it feels, buddy. Between the seven of us, it's always been Kane and Vino who fell in love. Aside from the two of them, I don't think someone will catch feelings and fall for someone else," Brian commented.

Jeff, who was taking a sip of his soda, suddenly choked and coughed. He took out his handkerchief to cover his mouth.

"You okay bro?" Brian asked Jeff.

Jeff gave thumbs up as he continued to cough. Lily offered him her glass of water and he reached for it.

"Like I was saying...I love Kane but not to the point that I want to date her. I liked Bianca during the first week of freshman year, but that's just about it."

"You always like the new faces," I joked.

"On the other hand, I don't think I'll ever fall for Lily. She's like the annoying sister that I have to deal with for the rest of my life," Brian continued.

"Aww, that's so sweet of you. I never thought you'll think of me as your sister. I always pictured you as the antagonist of my life. You know—" Lily laughed.

"That's so mean!" Brian interrupted.

"I can't make you my annoying brother because Luke already filled that position. I needed a title for you and I think the antagonist of my life suits you well."

I laughed at the two as I shook my head. I glanced at Jeff and he was grinning while shaking his head to. All these years of being friends with these two, we got used to their constant banter and teasing. They had been this way ever since I could remember. Sometimes it made me wonder how Kane managed to survive these two since pre-school.

"But I think it would've been nice to see you and Bianca together," Brian mused.

"Maybe if we didn't meet sooner... maybe there would be a chance I'd be interested in pursuing her."