"Are you going to explain to me what the hell happened between you and Bradshaw on Friday night? He's been avoiding all my questions, but he's a dick anyway. Be a good friend and tell me," Jordan pouts.

He's leaning against Bryce's locker in front of me, trying to pry information out of me that I'm not ready to give up.

"What happened on Friday night? Am I forgetting something? I honestly have no clue what you're taking about," I lie, and it annoys Jordan like mad as he leans his back against the locker, slumping down to the floor with a loud groan.

"This isn't fair. I've been one of the original supporters of your relationship, and now you won't even give me an update?" Jordan whines, and I chuckle, kneeling down beside him on the ground.

"You really need a girlfriend. You need to focus on your own love life," I advise him, and he slaps me in the arm.

I stand up off the floor, going to open my locker and grab my things. I tuck everything into my backpack, and when I'm finished, Jordan is still moping on the floor. He's resting his chin on his knees, curled up in a ball, and I tap him on the shoulder a couple of times to suggest that he should stand up.

"Get off the floor, loser," Bryce suddenly says from behind me, and I automatically feel a hundred times happier.

I'm just about to spin around to greet him when he stops me by pressing his chest right up against my back. He wraps his arms around my waist, holding me tight, and I giggle as he presses a kiss to the top of my head.

"How's my girl?" he asks me, and I tilt my head all the way back to look up at him.

He's grinning at me, and I free myself from his grip to spin around so that I'm facing him. He reaches up to hold my face, and we end up smiling at each other all the way until Jordan clears his throat, standing up from the floor.

He crosses his arms as he approaches, planting himself right in front of us and cocking his head to the side.

"'My girl'? Isn't that a little possessive?" Jordan questions, and Bryce's eyes go narrow at him.

His head snaps around to glare, but Jordan continues standing there with a goofy look on his face.

Bryce looks back down to me, some of the tension easing from his face.

"Do you think that it's too possessive, Blossom?" he asks me, to which I shake my head rapidly.

I absolutely adore these terms of endearment that Bryce keeps using, truth be told, as they make me feel so incredibly cared for.

"See? There's no problem," Bryce says, now speaking to Jordan, who just scoffs.

"So are you guys together or not?" Jordan asks, clearly growing more and more annoyed.

Bryce and I look back at each other, and he raises an eyebrow at me. I know what the question he's trying to communicate is, and so I give him a small smile.

"I don't know, are we?" Bryce responds, and I burst out laughing, letting my head drop backwards onto his chest.

He glides his fingers through my hair, and I let myself forget about all of reality for a second.

"I'm a pathetic third wheel," Jordan complains, and Bryce and I finally step

apart from one another.

Jordan grabs me by the shoulder, basically holding me in place. He looks down at me with a scowl, and all I do is give him an innocent smile.

"Are you, or are you not, in a relationship with that jackass?" Jordan asks me, using his thumb to point to Bryce.

"No. She's not. We really hate each other, if you haven't noticed," Bryce drawls sarcastically, but with a deadpanned expression on his face. "Now get your hands off of her, please."

Jordan does take his hand off me, but not without turning to glare at Bryce.

Bryce remains calm, standing there with his hands in his pockets and a slight smile on his face as he reaches down to take my hand in his. I let him, and Jordan looks down at our intertwined fingers in disgust before strolling away.

"Wait, Thompson, come back," Bryce chuckles, but Jordan ignores him, continuing to walk away.

He raises his middle finger back to us as he heads down the stairs, and Bryce watches him leave all the way until he turns around the corner.

"Why are you here so early? We don't have class first period on Monday or Friday, remember?" I ask Bryce, turning back around to face him.

He lifts his free hand to brush my hair out of my face, tucking it behind my ears before trailing down to hold my face.

"Of course I remember, baby. But I knew you came to school with your brother today so you would be here early. I came to keep you company," he answers me, and I grin at him.

He then continues, suggesting, "How about I drive you on Mondays and Fridays? Then you won't end up waisting time being here so early."

I nod rapidly at him, and he beams at me, chuckling. "Perfect. Let's go to the library for the period, yeah?" he asks, and once again I nod.

We leave the hallway hand in hand, heading towards the library. Because the bell for class hasn't gone yet, there are still quite a few kids left doing work on their laptops or scanning the walls and walls of bookshelves that we see as soon as we enter.

Bryce and I seem to have the mutual thought to go and sit at the table we had sat at exactly a week ago today.

Though unlike last time, we sit right next to each other rather than across the table. Bryce tugs my chair even closer to him to wrap his arm around my shoulder.

"You're not going to start quoting Jane Austen, are you?" I ask him.

I'm careful to keep my voice quiet as to not disturb anyone around us or get shushed by the librarian, and Bryce's response is just as quiet.

"No, but if that gets you off, sure. I did mean those words though; I have loved none but you. I haven't even come close to loving anyone but you. I've never wanted to commit to anyone other than you, either," he tells me quietly.

And I believe him.

I believe every single word that he's saying right now because I have no reason not to.

Sure, I don't really have any clue what he's been up to the past few years of his life as far as romance goes, but he's promised me that he's never had a girlfriend before.

I do know that he's slept with far too many different girls for his own good, but I trust that he can be exclusive with me.

We'll just have to wait and find out.

"Are you okay? What's on your mind?" Bryce asks, pulling me away from those dark thoughts.

I shake my head slightly to clear my mind, and when I look up to him he seems genuinely confused.

"Yes, I'm fine. I just . . ." I start, ending up trailing off in fear of upsetting Bryce with my accusation.

Yet still, he looks concerned for me, and so I conclude that I might as well just be honest with him.

"Are you with me just for sex? Because . . . Well, you didn't ask me to be your girlfriend until after we had already done it. And if you've loved me all this time but never said anything to me before Friday . . . I don't know. I guess I just got the wrong message," I say, and I hate the way that my voice is stuttering right now.

Bryce's brows furrow, and I feel bad that I said anything at all because of how distraught he suddenly looks.

"No. Of course not. I'm sorry that it seemed that way. I would never, Blossom. I want to be with you because I want to make you smile and laugh, and because I'm ten times happier just when you're around me," Bryce says, and somehow it was the exact right thing to say.

All I can do is nod, staring down at the wood of the table in front of me.

Bryce pulls me into a hug, holding me tight to his chest for a moment before giving me a little bit of space.

"We kind of avoided the topic of college on Friday, but I think we need to talk about it," Bryce says solemnly, and I nod, resting my elbow against the table.

"Ivy Day is thirty-nine days from now. I'm growing less and less confident in myself everyday. And that means you hear from Juilliard in forty-two days. What school is your second choice?" Bryce says, and I run my fingertips along a pencil marking on the wood, trying to distract myself.

"I was offered a really good scholarship to U of T back in September but I don't know. I don't have much money for college, and it's just way cheaper if I stay here. I'm definitely going to Juilliard if I get accepted, but I'm already worrying about what's going to happen to my finances; American schools are so darn expensive," I answer, and Bryce takes my hand in his.

"You should go to U of T if not Juilliard. It'll be a good opportunity for you. You'll get to meet a ton of new people," Bryce tells me, and I give him a pathetic attempt at a smile.

"What's your second choice, Bryce?" I ask him, and he shrugs at me.

"Probably MIT or Harvard. I don't really know. I would be okay with Cornell too; it's in Ithaca, so at least I'd still be in the state of New York," he answers me, and I nod at him even though deep inside of me, I'm breaking down at the thought of losing him as quickly as I got him.

He adds on to this, saying, "Forty-two days and we'll know. It's going to be okay. We can make it work no matter what."

He seems to be reading my mind now, and I lean forward to kiss the outer corner of his lips quickly before sitting back in my seat.

We quickly change the topic, ending up discussing our classes seeing as we were still fighting the last time that we were at school. I find out that Bryce actually only has to take two classes this semester, cooking and business. Because he apparently thought he was graduating a year early through ninth and tenth grade, he managed to get a ton of credits in those years.

We spent the whole period in the library, Bryce cracking lame jokes that made me giggle like mad. He then would go on and on complimenting my laugh, and I would have to physically put my hand over his mouth to make him stop.

It made me feel like we were a real couple. Not that we aren't, but sometimes I'm scared that we're going way too fast.

I've known him for thirteen years though, and so that's a little reassuring. I guess it's not like we're jumping right into an intense relationship straight after meeting one another.

We head to cooking class together, and we partner up to cook just like we have every other class. We made mac and cheese today, and it all went pretty smooth until I nearly poured a whole pot of boiling water onto myself while trying to drain the noodles. Bryce laughed it off, coming to my rescue by taking the super heavy pot from my hand and finishing the job for me.

We both ended up eating huge portions of mac and cheese, so when we headed down to the cafeteria at lunch time neither of us were hungry.

We were somehow the last of our group to get to the table, and everyone's eyes were on us when we sat down together.

"So it's true? You two are together?" Ryan asks us.

Bryce feels the urge to rest his hand on my inner thigh, which I'm totally fine with until he decides that it's a great idea for him to carefully trail his fingertips upwards along the stitching of my jeans.

It's the same thing he was doing Saturday morning, when we were sitting a metre away from his father.

"Bryce," I breathe quietly, grabbing his wrist and trying to push his hand away.

It doesn't work, as he grips my thigh harder, refusing to let go.

"Yes. We're together," Bryce says calmly, as if none of this is happening right now.

He's currently using his finger to trace small circles on the top of my thigh, and no matter how hard I try to push him away, I can't work up the strength within me.

"Can you please stop trying to finger your girlfriend under the table, Bradshaw?" Jordan suddenly blurts out, and I feel my face go white.

My brother spits his drink out back into the cup.

"Jordan!" I screech, hitting him hard in the arm.

I hadn't even realized that he was capable of seeing what's going from where he's seated beside Bryce, but I guess that I was totally wrong.

Bryce chuckles lightly from beside me, and I spin around to shoot daggers at him with my stare. I've never been more embarrassed before in my life, and I'm prepared to strangle him to death right about now.

"I love you?" he says nervously when he notices my anger.

I cross my arms at him though, thinking about how easily this could've been avoided.

It's going to be a long school year.

When I finally look away from Bryce and towards everyone else, I see that normal conversation has resumed. Everyone seems occupied again, except for Mateo, that is.

I automatically assumed he was staring because of what Jordan had just said, but I realize that that wasn't the case when he says, gesturing between Bryce and I, "This seems right."

"It's not weird for you?" I ask him, thinking about the slight romance we had going on at the beginning of the year.

Mateo just shrugs at me, tilting his head to the side a little as his eyes meet my boyfriend's.

"What you did was really crappy and not okay, but I get it now, so I'll let it slide," Mateo sighs, and Bryce nods.

"Thanks, Blondie," he says, miraculously managing to ruin the moment.

Mateo rolls his eyes, but when he looks back to me, I see that he's smiling at Bryce's remark.