"I'm just going through some stuff with my family, okay? I don't like to talk about it with anybody but that doesn't mean that it's not happening. Every time I've been alone with you, Blossom, I take out my frustration on you. That's not fair, so I've resorted to ignoring you. What I said to you earlier wasn't very appropriate of me either, even if I was just speaking on how I feel. I should've been more empathetic towards your situation," Bryce says, almost whispering, and I instantly feel guilty.

"Is it something to do with your mom?" I dare to ask him, and he shuts his eyes, nodding at me.

"She's only locked up for a year and a half, you know. She didn't actually hurt my dad badly even though she tried to murder him, which worked in her favour it seems. She keeps trying to call me but I really don't like speaking to her. I can never respect her again after what she did, and I guess it's just upsetting knowing that I'm never going to have a good relationship with my mother ever again," Bryce answers.

He moves forward in his seat, looking quite uncomfortable with the fact that he's just shared so many of his feelings with both Jordan and I.

"Shit, Bryce. I had no clue. You don't need to put on a brave face for everybody, you know. People won't find it weird if you share your emotions or whatever," Jordan says, but I find myself a little lost for words.

Unable to think of the right thing to say, I instead walk over to where Bryce is seated.

I sit down on the corner of the cushion, wrapping my arms around Bryce to pull him into a hug.

He hesitates for a moment before he rests his head on my shoulder, letting out a staggering breath.

"Please promise that you'll talk to me next time, Bryce. I don't like it when you ignore me," I almost scold him.

When I pull away from him, I reach up to hold his face between my hands. His eyebrows are furrowed and he looks generally upset, but all I can do it stare at him, hoping he reacts well.

"I'm sorry. I'll do better next time, I swear," Bryce tells me, but I shake my head at him, tracing my fingers down his jawline.

"No, I'm sorry. You don't deserve to have to deal with your parents' crap," I tell him, and he finally gives me a small smile.

Jordan clears his throat from the sofa, and I drop my hands from Bryce's face. We both turn to stare at him, and he had a mocking smile on his face already.

"You two are cute and all, but there's no way that I'm letting you guys have sex in my house, so I advise that you two cool down. But, I'm glad to see that Dr. Jordan has done a good job," he says, and Bryce leans his chin against my shoulder blade in response.

"I told you I need space, but blatantly ignoring me is not what I meant," I remind him, and he suddenly pulls his face away from me.

He also removes his hands from my waist, and I miss his touch.

Neither of us seem to know what to do, which is why we end up simply staring at each other for far too long.

We're reminded of where we are when the TV comes to life from beside us, meaning that Jordan has turned it on in attempting to distract himself from us.

"Okay," Bryce says solemnly, and I'm instantly upset with him.

I want so desperately for him to fight it, to tell me that he doesn't think he can stay away from me because he wants me so badly, but it obviously doesn't come.

Instead, I'm left feeling like a complete idiot for even having these thoughts to begin with.

I stand up from Bryce's seat in a hurry, walking back over to sit next to Jordan on the sofa.

I can feel Bryce's eyes on me the entire way, and it makes me nervous.

I end up curling my legs up underneath my body and crossing my arms to make myself look as small as possible, forcing myself to glue my eyes on the television and away from Bryce.

"You two make zero sense," Jordan snorts, and Bryce finally looks away from me and towards Jordan.

"I know," is all he answers.

🌸🌸🌸

"I already regret agreeing to go with you guys," Jordan says as him, Jasmine, and I pull into the parking lot of the mall.

The past week and a half have been boring as ever. After our chat at Jordan's place, Bryce has been acting a little more normal, but him and I still aren't on good terms.

It's now less than two months until he hears from Columbia which definitely has him on edge, not to mention that I think he's still stressed about his parents.

I had agreed to go dress shopping for the Valentine's Day dance, now just under two weeks away, with Jasmine, which I'm sure will be an event.

Exams being this week, I had been studying non-stop and all I wanted to do was stay in bed all day and nap.

Jordan is the first to step out of the car, followed by Jasmine and I.

We managed to snag a parking spot fairly close to one of the mall's entrances, so it only takes the three of us a few seconds to walk inside the building.

It's a Saturday afternoon, meaning that the mall is totally packed. There're way too many parents pushing their screaming children around in strollers, not to mention all the pre-teens walking around giggling with their arms linked together.

Jasmine thinks for a moment before grabbing Jordan and I's hands, dragging us through the crowded halls of people until we end up in front of a dress store.

Jasmine tugs us both inside, saying a few quick words to the saleswoman who greets us before something in the righthand corner seems to catch her eyes.

She finally drops our hands, heading over to pick up a deep red dress off of the rack.

Jordan and I reluctantly follow her over, and to my surprise, she hands me the dress.

It's beautiful, I won't lie, but I have no clue why she seems so interested in this particular dress.

"You have to try this one on. Bryce loves it when you wear red," Jasmine tells me, before she turns around and begins to walk by the racks and racks of dresses, trailing her finger along each one.

I blink a few times, before I hear Jordan burst out laughing from beside me.

"He likes it when she wears white more," he comments, and I spin around to glare at him.

"Seriously you guys? Why does it matter what Bryce thinks?" I ask them, and neither of them answer me.

Instead, Jordan walks right past me to join Jasmine.

"You're right, but isn't that a bit bridal?" she asks Jordan, pulling a sparkling white dress off of the rack.

She looks it over once before walking over and handing it to me, and I take it from her without a complaint.

I don't like it quite as much as the red one but I suppose I'll still try it on if they want me to.

I decide to walk over to join them, asking, "How about I wear the opposite of red? Green."

Jasmine immediately purses her lips together, shaking her head. "There is no way you're wearing green," she tells me, before grabbing a bright lavender dress off of the rack.

Her eyes go wide with disgust when she gets a full look at it, and she's quick to place it back.

"What colour should I wear?" Jasmine asks, turning around to stare at Jordan and I.

She crosses her arms, tilting her head to the side in a thinking sort of manner as she awaits an answer from us.

"Green," I comment, and she hits me teasingly in the arm, rolling her eyes.

"What about silver?" Jordan suggests, and when Jasmine turns to look at him, she's beaming.

"Great idea! Thank you for your suggestion, Jordan," she says, giving me a side-eyed glare when she says his name, making it very clear that she didn't appreciate my input.

I just laugh it off and so does Jordan, both of us staying put as Jasmine begins her search for a silver dress.

Jordan turns to look at me, a small smile on his face. "She's totally crazy. You can wear whatever colour you want, by the way. We can just remind her that Bryce thinks you look great no matter what," he tells me, and I bite my lip.

"I'm worried about him. I hate that he's acting this way but I'm scared to try and help him," I confess, and Jordan frowns at me.

"I think he'll be okay. I think he's just a little hurt by your rejection," Jordan informs me, and I can't help but to think that maybe he's telling the truth.

Bryce clearly was a little hurt. I don't blame him, but it doesn't make sense to me.

I wish we could go back to when we were ten again, when we didn't have to worry about college, and when we weren't being forced to decide what we want to do with our lives so quickly.

When my biggest worry was learning my lines for the school play and when I always found myself wondering who my first kiss would be with.

I always had hoped it would be Bryce, and lucky me, I guess.

We've always had something going on, and though I've spent all my life denying it, it's inevitably true; I've always had a huge crush on Bryce Bradshaw.

In my eyes, he's basically perfect, and I was absolutely crushed when he moved away from me.

I held back tears for days and days thinking that I would never get to see him ever again, and although I completely hid it, I was beyond ecstatic when he showed up at the cafeteria that day.

I stop the sad thoughts when Jasmine appears in front of Jordan and I.

She's holding at least five dresses in her arms, but she still uses a free hand to gesture for us to follow her to the back of the store, towards the fitting rooms.

She sits down on the small bench, laying the dresses across her lap before grabbing Jordan's hand and pulling him down to sit beside her.

"You go try those on first. We'll wait out here so we can give input," Jasmine tells me, and I nod to her, heading into the closest fitting room to try on the dresses that she's selected for me.

Drawing the curtain shut, I change out of the simple black dress that I'm wearing right now, slipping my shoes off before examining the two dresses before me.

I decide to try on the white one first, unzipping the back zipper before stepping into it.

I pull the dress up, slipping my arms through the narrow straps before reaching behind me to attempt to pull the zipper up myself. I get it about halfway up my back, which is good enough for me, and so I finally take a moment to look at myself in the mirror.

It really is a pretty dress. It makes me feel really good about myself, and as I move around, the skirt has a slight bounce to it. It falls just to my knees, cinching a little at the waist before the skirt starts.

I draw the curtain back, stepping out of the small room so that Jordan and Jasmine can see the dress.

The moment I do, Jasmine lets out a squeal, cupping her hands over her mouth, and Jordan nudges her in the arm as a way of keeping her quiet.

"I don't understand how you're this pretty. It's not even fair," Jasmine whines, and I just give her a small smile, smoothing my hands down across the front of the dress.

"What do you think of the dress?" I ask them, and Jordan is the first to respond.

"You look great Lexi, but it's definitely very wedding-looking," he tells me, and Jasmine pouts a little as she leans her elbow on the tops of her thighs.

"Yeah, he's right. But it's super pretty on you. Let's see the red one," Jasmine says, and I nod, turning around and heading back to the room.

I change out of the white dress, hanging it back on the hanger before zipping the back up.

I then move on to the red dress, climbing into it before pulling it up my body, zipping the zipper shut.

When I turn to look at myself, I instantly fall in love with the dress.

The back is very low-cut but not to an extent that I think is too much, and the jewels of the bodice are beautiful. The straps of this dress are just plain and thin as well, but the skirt is far tighter than the the white dress. It falls midway down my thigh and it fits me really well, to my surprise.

I really like the contrast of the simple tulle skirt and the glitzy top, which is why I feel really confident when I step out to show Jordan and Jasmine.

"Oh my God!" Jasmine exclaims, shooting up from her seat.

She drops the pile of dresses down onto the bench beside Jordan before rushing over to get a closer look at the dress.

"Wow. You look good. Really good," she compliments, and I grin at her.

"Thanks," I say, but I'm not really sure that she heard me as she's just pulled her phone out of the front pocket of her jeans and is now scrolling through something on her screen.

She taps a button before flouncing back over to Jordan, picking her dresses up before taking a seat.

"Hey!" she beams, waving at the phone screen.

Unless she's finally gone completely mad, I can only assume that she must be on a FaceTime call, and this is confirmed by how Jordan leans over to look at her screen, smiling at whoever is there.

"What do you want?" the voice asks, and I cant quite figure out who it is.

Eager to discover what's happening, I stand exactly where I am, not bothering to disappear back into the fitting room yet.

Jasmine rolls her eyes at the speaker, answering, "Oh, shut up. I want your opinion on something."

She taps a button on her phone and then she holds up the device so that it's pointed at me.

I still don't understand what's going on until Jasmine asks, "This dress looks hot as shit on her, right?"

"Of course it does. She always looks good," the voice answers, and I finally figure out two things.

For starters, Jasmine is showing the person at the other end of the line how I look right now.

And second off, that person just happens to be Bryce.

"Seriously Jazzy?" I ask, hurrying over to where she's sitting.

I take the phone right out of her hand, holding up the screen up to see Bryce's face.

He's wearing his glasses, and from what I can see, he's definitely shirtless too.

I press the button so that the camera flips around and he can see me too.

He smiles at the sight of my face, saying, "Hey, Blossom."

I give him a small smile back. "Hey. I'm so sorry she called you. She's been insistent that I get a dress that you'd like and I see that she's definitely taken things too far," I explain, and Bryce tilts his head to the side.

"There's no need for you to stress out about what you wear. You always look beautiful," Bryce tells me, and I simultaneously feel myself blushing as bright red as the dress that I'm wearing.

"Thank you, Bryce. Anyway, I'll see you on Monday," I say, and he nods at me.

I'm just about to hang up the call when suddenly he blurts out, "Wait, do you want to hang out with me tomorrow?"

When I look at his face I see that he's almost a little bit nervous as he waits for my response.

It's cute, which is why I pretend to be thinking about my answer for a few more seconds just so I can see him this way for longer.

"Sure. I'll text you when I get home, okay?" I answer, and he gets the most adorable grin on his face.

"Great. Talk to you then. Bye," he tells me, and I give him one final wave before hanging up the call.

When I turn to Jasmine and Jordan, they both have knowing smirks on their face.

I head back over to hand Jasmine's phone back to her, and when I do she slips it back into her pocket, laughing.

I apologize by saying, "Sorry about that," but Jasmine just smiles harder.

"You guys are adorable," she tells me, standing up from her seat and heading to the fitting room across from mine.

She closes the curtain without another word, leaving me to turn back to Jordan who has a knowing look in his eye.

"Like I've said before, I can't wait for the wedding," he tells me, and I roll my eyes at him, heading back into my fitting room.