"I'm currently regretting all my life decisions," Bryce mumbles, placing his bag in the compartment underneath the bus before following me up the steps.

The past week and a half haven't been at all eventful. Classes are getting more and more stressful, or so it seems, and I've resorted to letting Bryce essentially tutor me as far as math goes in hopes of keeping my grade above ninety-three. He's an excellent teacher, and it's been nice having an excuse to spend time together outside of school.

I'm learning that Mateo and Bryce will never be able to get along despite all of my efforts, but Mateo and I are now back to normal. Now that we're on the same page about our feelings for one another, we're totally capable of having a strictly platonic relationship now, no complications.

"I can't believe you managed to convince me to come on this damn trip. I could be asleep at home right now," Bryce huffs, and I turn around to quickly nudge his arm, not wanting to hold up the line of students waiting to file onto this bus.

Bryce was at first disgusted by the idea of spending four hours on a bus with some of the kids at our school, but after much convincing and a little bit of help from his dad too, I managed to get Bryce to come along.

"We both know that you wouldn't be sleeping," I comment, and Bryce rolls his eyes.

We've reached the back of the bus now, and we decide to claim the two seats behind where Jasmine and Jordan are already sitting.

How they've already gotten onto the bus is beyond me, but I'm just grateful that we all ended up on the same bus out of the many that people were sorted onto.

"Can you take the window seat? I need more leg room," Bryce asks me, and I laugh a little, nodding to him before climbing into my chair, setting my backpack down in between my legs.

"Sure, Mr. 'I'm 6'4 but I'm not that tall'," I giggle, and Bryce sighs, sitting down next to me before leaning down to kiss me on the cheek.

"You guys are so cute," Jasmine comments from behind us, and I hear Jordan whisper something in her ear that I can't quite make out.

It seems to shut her up though, because she doesn't say anything more, even as I lean against Bryce, resting my head against his shoulder.

"Tired?" he asks me, and I nod, yawning on accident.

I guess it proves my point because he laughs a little, wrapping his arms around my shoulder and pulling me tighter.

"Thank you for coming," I whisper to him, and I see him smile out of the corner of my eye.

He nods to me. "No problem," he responds, and I allow myself to shut my eyes, tuning out the bustle around us as the bus fills up with students.

I don't bother paying attention as one of the history teachers lectures us from the front of the bus, and neither does Bryce as he spends the time braiding my hair between his fingers.

Something suddenly catches Bryce's eye, because he looks up from me and down the bus' aisle. He gives someone a small wave, and when I follow his eyes to see where he's looking, I see Camila with a smile on her face.

"Are you two best friends now or something?" I question, unable to his the bitterness from my tone.

Bryce's eyebrows lift in surprise, and he pulls away from me so that he can actually look me in the eye. This forces me to sit up in my seat, leaning my back against the window now that Bryce's isn't an option.

"No. Why do you care, anyway? First it was the whole thing with Scarlett a couple weeks ago, and now this?" Bryce questions, crossing his arms across his chest.

I find myself blushing, which is why I hurriedly look away from him, now watching the forests of the highway as the bus speeds past them.

Maybe I had actually fallen asleep for a few minutes, because I can barely remember the bus starting up.

"Oh. You're jealous. I see," Bryce comments, and I bite down hard on my lower lip.

"No I'm not," I lie, and Bryce laughs.

I refuse to say anything more to him, instead digging around in my backpack until I find my phone and earbuds. I pull them both out, plugging the cord into the bottom of the phone before popping the buds into my ears.

I then open up my music, scrolling through until I find the Les Miserables cast recording. I press play on the opening song, shutting my eyes as I lean my head back into the glass pane.

Bryce reaches around me, taking my left earbud out before putting it into his own ear. He's silent for a moment, as if he's trying to decipher what the song is.

"Les Mis?" he asks suddenly, and I nod, impressed that he knew.

He gives me a small smile, and I set down my phone in between us. I look down at my hands in my lap, twiddling my thumbs to keep myself entertained.

I suddenly feel Bryce's arm around me, drawing me closer to him once again. When I look up, I see that he has a content smile on his face as he watches out the window, the exact same way I was just a few moments ago.

"How many musicals do you know?" I ask him, and he looks down to me.

He shrugs, answering, "Not sure. Probably not very many."

A fun idea strikes me, and I lift my phone into my hands again, scrolling through all the albums I have, trying to find a well-known show. I settle for Hamilton, playing the opening number.

Bryce grins, a knowing smile on his face. "That's easy. This shit was huge a few years ago. It's Hamilton," he answers, and I high-five him.

I then play In The Heights, which he guesses as West Side Story, but he guesses the next couple I play for him correctly.

We continue to play our little game for who knows how long, until we're interrupted by Jordan popping up out of his seat. He turns around to look at us, glancing at the earbuds in our ears.

I interpret this is a signal to turn the music off, and so I do.

"Jazzy fell asleep and now I'm bored," he whines, crossing his arms on the back of the seat as he continues to peer over at us.

He has a slight pout to his lips, and he tilts his head to the side as he awaits an answer.

"Sounds like a personal problem," Bryce mumbles.

Jordan blinks at him. Then, turning to me, he asks, "Has he always been this much of a jerk? Because it's annoying, and I don't appreciate his rudeness."

Bryce looks at him with a small smile on his face.

"Too bad. No one is forcing you to speak to me," he answers before I can, and I let out a groan, not ready to deal with another three and a half hours or so of this bickering.

"No one asked you to speak in the first place," Jordan grumbles in reply, and Bryce raises his eyebrows.

"Really? Because if I can recall correctly, you literally just turned around to talk to Lexi and I," Bryce counters, and Jordan blinks a few times, seemingly speechless.

"You're an asshole," he eventually retorts, and Bryce nods at him.

"Indeed I am, and I'm sure that most people would agree," Bryce beams, and Jordan looks confused.

He turns to me for some help in the situation, and I shrug at him. Bryce has always been overly confident, though I don't remember it ever being like this; he seems extra cocky when Jordan is around, and I do have to admit that it can be very entertaining at times.

"I don't know what you expect me to tell him," I say to Jordan, and he sighs, turning away from us to sit down in his seat once again.

"You guys suck," I hear him mumble, and when I look to Bryce he's smiling like a maniac.

"You could maybe at least try to be a little more friendly," I suggest, but he shakes his head at me.

I wrap the cord of my headphones around my phone, tucking both back into my bag before retrieving the thermos of tea I had made this morning. I take a sip of the scolding liquid, not minding how it's burning my tongue a tad bit.

"I'm only nice to the people that I actually like," Bryce states, making sure he says it loud enough for Jordan to hear.

In response, Jordan reaches around his seat to slap Bryce in the knee, making Bryce chuckle.

Bryce leans back, turning to me to ask, "Is that coffee?"

He gestures to my drink as he does so, and I shake my head at him, answering, "No. It's tea."

He smiles a little. "So drinking tea is okay, but not coffee?" he asks me, and I press my lips together.

He taps me on the nose, laughing a little, presumably not expecting a response because he pulls out his phone, opening up an app that seems to bring him to a book.

I peek over his shoulder, immediately noting that the words aren't in English.

"What are you reading?" I question, and he swipes his finger across the screen, bringing him to the next page.

"I'm re-reading War and Peace," he tells me and I have a thought that almost worries me.

"Please tell me that you're not actually reading it in Russian, though," I say, and Bryce shakes his head at me.

He flips through to another page, saying, "No. Russian seems very confusing to learn."

I smile a little, grateful that there isn't yet another language that Bryce has managed to pick up overtime.

His expression is content and focused as he continues to read, and I notice that he seems to be flipping through pages awfully fast. He must read quickly, which would make sense seeing as it seems he's read just about every book that I've ever heard of.

The whole bus read was pretty quiet, apart from a group of girls at the front that thought it was a good idea to start belting songs at the top of their lungs. One of the teachers chaperoning repeatedly requested for them to shut up, but despite her efforts, the girls didn't really listen.

I ended up sleeping for a little bit, waking up to find myself leaning against Bryce's shoulder.

I apologized right away, but he laughed, telling me that it was cute and that there's no need to feel sorry about it. I found his arm around me too, so I guess he really didn't mind much.

After we grabbed our bags from underneath the bus and were handed out the key cards for our rooms, I found Jasmine dragging me by the arm into the dorm building that we're all staying in.

We're on the third floor, meaning that I had to rush up the stairs two-by-two to keep up, trying my best not to fall.

"I'm so glad we ended up sharing a room. I can't stand most of the girls in our grade," she sighs, pushing open the door to our room, which we had just located.

As soon as she steps inside, she drops her bags onto the bed on the left side before dramatically falling backwards onto the piece of furniture as well.

"You do know that we have to be downstairs for tours by one o'clock, right? And since you slept the whole bus ride, if you want to eat lunch, I really advise that you do so now," I tell her, setting my bags down at the foot of the bed before taking a seat.

I reach down to pull my hairbrush out, running the bristles through my hair.

Jasmine seems to be deep in thought as she considers what I suggested, but she shakes her head, rolling over onto her side so that she can face me.

"I'm actually not that hungry. If we have to be down there at one, we only have ten minutes, so why don't we just go find your brother and Bryce and everyone else now while we have some time to spare," she says, and I find that she actually does have a good point.

"Sure," I sigh, getting up from my seat.

I drop my hairbrush onto the duvet before following Jasmine, who is already out the door.

All the sleeping she did on the bus seems to have given her copious amounts of energy, and she's really not thinking as she shuts the door behind me.

"Shit. I left my key in there. You have yours though, right?" she asks me, clearly worried, and I nod at her.

She lets out a sigh of relief, flipping her ponytail over one shoulder before taking my hand, walking me down the hallway towards the staircase.

"I think all the guys are on the upper floors. It's kind of stupid separating the girls and guys because even though they're really trying to stop kids from having sex, they seem to forget that not everyone is straight. Hey, how are we staying in these dorms anyway? Don't students still have class?" she blurts out all at once as we walk into the fourth floor hallway.

I'm about to answer her, but two annoyed voices catch my ear instead.

I glance at Jasmine. "I think we found them," I tell her, and sure enough, Bryce, Jordan, Charlie, and Daniel all coming walking down the hallway.

"I honestly can't believe I'm stuck sharing a room with this dumbass for two nights," Bryce huffs, and Jordan elbows him in the side.

"Well, I think that that 'sounds like a personal problem', Bradshaw," Jordan then says in a mocking tone, making Bryce's eyes narrow.

I feel someone beside me, and I turn around to see my brother standing there.

"They're roommates?" I question, able to put two and two together, and he nods at me, sighing.

I didn't get a chance to even ask Bryce who he was assigned a room with before Jasmine dragged me away, and I'm now not sort of glad that I didn't.

"Honestly what is your problem? I never did anything to you!" Jordan exclaims, him and Bryce walking past all of us and down the stairs, continuing to argue the whole way.

Jasmine, Daniel, Charlie, and I all make eye contact before reluctantly following down all the flights of stairs and out into the open courtyard.

Although we're not late, most kids are already getting split up into groups to be matched with students of the university and our current teachers to guide the tour of the campus.

It's a fairly large open area, with a really pretty fountain in the middle, but there's a decent amount of kids that went on the trip so the space is fairly crowded.

Some groups are already leaving the area, and I'm so focused on them that when someone taps me on the shoulder, I'm totally startled.

"Hey, loser," a teasing voice says, and when I turn around I nearly squeal when I see who's standing there.