I spent the next week an utter mess. My appetite was gone, I kept reading book pages over and over without having an idea what I had read and it's not that I avoided the boys, it's that I avoided solitary time with Victor. For him not to notice, I invented the most complex bullshit project that kept me in the computer lab for hours. Each time I ran into Yara in the hallway she raised her brow as if to ask 'did you?' and my face constantly looked constipated so the answer was a clear 'no'.

One morning when I checked out of the lab, I found Isla working at the counter. We hadn't hung out as much and she had already moved in with her boyfriend so aside from a passing hello we didn't see one another. She looked up when I greeted her in surprise.

"Hey, how you've been?" I asked and signed my name.

"I didn't see you here, are you hiding? Loverboy was here earlier looking for you," Isla said and I paused, my hand midway from my bag.

"Who?"

"Loverboy, the one you're always with. With the muscles and the tees two sizes too small," she said and leveled me a look, a slight smirk on her red lips. "With the black hair, thinks he's too good for anyone."

Victor.

"Victor." My mouth twisted. "He's not my anything."

Isla's interest peaked and she stared at me with a wry smile. "Wait, are you saying you two are not anything?"

"That's what I'm saying, Isla." I flushed as I stuffed my notebook into my bag.

I watched as the wide Cheshire grin spread on her face as she studied at me with keen interest, her chin on her hand. "But you two -"

"Are nothing," I emphasized. "We're just friends."

"Well!" She shrugged her thin shoulders. "I wish you would've told me that before."

There was something in the way she said it, that coyness mixed with amusement that made my stomach drop into my knees.

"What did you do?" Growing mounting horror spread through me.

Isla pushed her black hair over her shoulder, looking unperturbed. "I said, shouldn't he know where his girlfriend was and not me."

I gasped, covering my mouth with my hands. "Isla!"

"How was I supposed to know?" Isla huffed. "You two are always together, it confuses people!"

"It confuses no one, no one is confused!" I cried, hands in the air. "No one but you!"

People stopped typing in the lab and stared at me. The wild girl. In love with her best friend.

"Well, he didn't correct me!" Isla defended.

"Because he's shy, he'd never correct you!" I moaned into my hands.

Isla's lip twisted. "You should've clarified, and besides, I'm not the only one who has said this."

At that, I looked up. "Tell me everything."

Isla looked at me doubtfully. "Everything?"

"Everything."

I was going to be sick. Absolutely sick. Apparently, people were talking and in such a small College, which acted as an extended arm of High School, meant everyone knew. I wondered if anyone had said anything to Victor or was he just as oblivious. Regardless, I knew one person would be in the know and that one person was on his phone when I stormed up to him in the Atrium.

He kept looking at his phone. "Good afternoon to you too, sunshine."

"We need to talk," I said, pushing Jon's phone down and making him look at me.

"About what?" He still wore his sunglasses despite being inside. Ridiculous.

I looked around to make sure no one else overheard. "Has anyone asked you anything about me and -" I tried to form the ridiculous words in my tongue. "About me and anyone else, like rumors?"

Jon stared at me through his pitch-black sunglasses and a slow smile formed on his face. "Did you fuck the white boy?"

My mouth fell open and my skin flushed.

"No!" I hit his arm and he looked delighted.

"Why not?" he demanded, hand on hip as he yanked his sunglasses off.

"Because he's not my boyfriend or anything and I don't even like him, you man-whore!"

He looked happy with his title. "You're not getting any younger, mami."

"I'm twenty," I let out an exasperated sigh.

"I'm not holding that against you, you know you need only ask, and I can help you," he looked innocent as a lamb. A lamb with fangs and claws.

"I wouldn't let you near my coochie if you were the last healthy male in bubonic plague Europe!" I growled.

"I have no idea what you just said," he smiled, unperturbed. "But I'll take that as a no, thank you."

"No, you take that as hell no," I said and pushed my hair back in exasperation.

"You know maybe if you did ride white boy you wouldn't be as wound up as you are," Jon pointed his sunglasses as me with an honest look.

"Can you please stop being yourself for a second, I'm trying to have a conversation with you."

"Ok," he said.

Then he led me to the sofa which had just emptied, he sprawled his long legs over it, splaying himself wide open and leaving a small tiny section for me to squeeze into.

"Talk to me, Becka. What's the problem? What rumors?"

I pressed myself against the armrest of the couch, trying to avoid his leg as much as possible. "Well, you must first promise, on your penis, that you won't say anything."

"I'm not promising shit on my penis," he said.

"Then I'm not saying anything," I crossed my arms and he shrugged.

"Then don't say anything, I'm not swearing on my penis."

I took a deep breath, trying not to kill him. "Fine. Just promise not to say anything."

"I won't say anything especially not swearing on my penis," he said.

"Fine." My teeth were clenched. "I need you to think and tell me what rumors you have heard about me and...."

I let my hand gesture into the air. Jon followed it with his eyes and then looked at me confused.

"You and who?" he asked.

"Me and -"

"You and who?" A third voice made me jump and there standing was Victor in all his glory. A tight white tee that outlined his perfect body, check, clean-shaven face and chiseled jaw, check. Oh god.

"Me and no one," I said, standing up.

His eyes narrowed as he looked me over. I cleared my throat.

"Isla said you went looking for me at the lab?"

It was his turn to look ashamed and he looked down, hiking his bookbag on his shoulder even higher.

"Yeah," he cleared his throat. "You've been so weird this week, I wanted to make sure you were alright."

"Yup," I said. "Fine, big project."

He looked me over and I had to hold myself still. Blank face. Don't look like you're in love with him. Act normal.

"Ok," he looked annoyed. "Well, I'm heading to the gym."

My nostrils flared and I took a deep breath. "Ok."

"You sure you're alright?" He looked at me carefully and it took all my willpower not to throw my arms around him like a giant pacific octopus.

"Yup." I could not meet his eyes. "Yup, yup, yup."

He pursed his lips and then nodded, walking away from us. He looked sad or something. I watched him go out the glass doors. Then I heard chuckling and turned to see Jon staring at me with a slow delightful smile on his stupid face.

"Oh, man." He shook his head.

"Oh man, what? What are you on about now?" I asked.

He laughed, looking me up and down. "You won't admit it?"

"I wish, truly, that you didn't speak in Morse code," I said with a look to the heavens.

"Becka, who's the stupidest person you know?" He stood up and grabbed his bag, looming over me with that ridiculous smile on his face, as if he'd discovered uranium in his back yard.

"You are, Jon Ramirez," I smiled at him sardonically.

"Exactly, so if I can figure it out..." He shook his head, excited. "Then BANG! Have the nobel academy golden globe mtv statue ready for me!"

"That's not...." I stared at him incredulously. "That's not even a thing. That's a disparate. A mess."

"A mess that I know and you, you've got it bad, girl!" He pointed at my face and made a ridiculous slam dunk noise then he got distracted by a random girl that walked by. "Hey, Jolene! Who's the smartest guy you know?"

And there he went to chase some tail but all I could think was that if Jon fucking Ramirez could figure it out, it was only a matter of time before the entire college found out. I had to run to the bathroom and sit on the toilet with my hands shaking between my knees and taking deep breaths to calm down. I had a complete panic attack.

Recommended Year 2000 Playlist (will grow with each chapter)

1. If You're Gone - Matchbox Twenty

2. Absolutely (Story of a Girl) - Nine Days

3. Hanging by a Moment - LifeHouse

4. Yellow - Coldplay

5. Breathe - Faith Hill