*****

"For one, Giulia is missing again."

Brandon was taken aback. "Well, damn."

I gave him a quizzical look. "Well, damn? That's what you have got to say?" I scoffed, crossing my arms under my chest, turning to face him fully.

"Uh... " His casual smile slipped away at my seething stare. He looked around, avoiding my gaze, maybe looking for a way out, but I held my ground. I raised my eyebrows, waiting for a reply. His mouth opened, and then closed, trying to formulate an excuse. "Well, damn... That's a pity! You didn't let me complete my sentence."

I rolled my eyes and snorted. With all the influence, Brandon might just get better than me with the excuses, but not this time.

Attempting to change the topic, he spoke, "So, who took her this time? Francis, Kate, Roger, or-"

"Wow. You are heartless." My mouth hung open, utterly dumbfounded. "She could be in serious trouble right now and you are making fun of her!"

"Is she?"

"She is not--"

"Isn't that good then?"

"You're right but--"

"I'm always right."

"Stop cutting me--"

"Okay." Brandon nodded.

I let out a frustrated groan. Brandon laughed, and I could only stare at him in disbelief. In under a minute, he had me go through ten different emotions. He took too much pleasure out of torturing me. For all I imagined, he could turn out to be the next Christian Grey with all these tendencies. Yup, whip me up and complete those sadistic fantasies of yours.

Clearing my mind before that line of thought went too far, I spoke, "Will you listen to me now?" It was deliberately slow, as if I was trying to get my point across a toddler.

Brandon pouted. His hand rubbing his jaw line as he contemplated on my offer. "Hmm, what will I get in return?"

"In return?"

"Give and take. If we're negotiating I should get something in return."

"Oh. How about... " I pondered. Brandon nodded, eager for me to complete the sentence. The look he was giving me was too obvious. Still inside the corner space of the bathroom, I decided to play with him. I started again, widening my eyes, and acting innocent. "Kiss..."

"Yes?"

"Kiss..." I prolonged the s, making it sound like a hiss.

Brandon still oblivious to my taunting tone, waited for me to complete the sentence with an expectant expression. He repeated, "How about...?"

"Kissing my foot?" I ended abruptly and his face fell. It was hard not to laugh at his disappointed face, because boy, he looked so dejected. But I let it go, and took my phone out, mustering up a disgusted look to taunt him more. "Pervert."

Leaving him standing there zoned out, and pressing my lips to stop myself from grinning ear to ear, I started walking out of the hotel. The media wasn't budging from its position, so I had to take the long route out which had sparser media crowds. I couldn't get why the hotel people were letting them in. They could have blocked the doors or the like. Maybe they had never dealt with so much paparazzi? In any case, I wasn't waiting to dig deeper into that. Much more pressing issue was at hand, and if I didn't take calculated steps, everything could turn into a mess.

"If my pervert tag has been removed, can you tell me what happened to Giulia?"

I looked at Brandon walking side by side with me. Struck again by our humongous height difference, I just twisted my face into a bored scorn. What could I do? Those were his genes, and these were mine.

Though I could have just told him that she was fine--and just missing in the sense that Alard had sent her in a remote area of Singapore for the time being (though we still didn't know where exactly)-- I decided to withhold the information. "I'll tell you. But shouldn't I get something in return?" I used the same ploy he had used on me, and stopped in my tracks.

We had walked pretty far away from the hotel by now. I wasn't even sure if we were walking in the right direction. The opposite direction just increased our taxi fare though, nothing else, since we weren't in a hurry until we actually knew where Giulia was.

Brandon hummed. Instead of being sarcastic, he looked actually excited, with a skip in his voice and a brightened expression on his face. "What would the princess like?"

I motioned to myself. "I am a princess?" It was bewildering to hear Brandon use such cheesy terms... But a girl should enjoy these moments when she could.

"Of course... Not. I was talking about myself." He attempted to flip over his nonexistent hair over his shoulder. The action reminded me so much of Seth and Leo and the Fair that I chortled even though I wanted to fight out this princess complex with him. "What's funny?"

Between short gasps of laughter, I said, "Nothing, princess." It was good that the streets were empty, because a horrible princess impersonator and a hysterically laughing girl made for a poor show. Or I should say, an embarrassing show.

Brandon stopped the act, putting his hands my my shoulder. "Stop laughing already."

Wiping the tears rolling down my eyes, I said, "Well, I never expected this from you."

His hands tightened around my shoulders. I frowned, my laughter fading away at the change of expression on his face. It became much more focused, or I should say, much more focused on one part of my face. He started walking forward. Without realizing it, his dominant steps towards me made me stumble back, until my back hit a building wall. A short gasp released from my mouth at the contact, not expecting it.

What the hell was he doing?

I squeezed the sling purse resting against my body, mustering up the strength to ask him just that. But before I could do that, or even understand what was happening and comprehend the change in the situation at the slightest, he bent forward.

In the fraction of the second it had taken me to blink, Brandon had lowered his mouth and sealed my lips with his.

An electrical like jolt went through me as his hot lips claimed mine, sounding alarm bells in my head. I took in a sharp breath, trying to move my head away, but Brandon held it in place, not leaving me any room move. His lips, and his hand at the back of my head, glued me into a fixed position. My first action was to defend myself, get myself away from him, but his feverish lips tackled and wrestled with mine. They sent burning shards of passion though my body, and with them, I blinked, coming out of the daze.

His other hand moved up from my shoulder and to my cheek, caressing it as he turned his head and explored every nook and cranny of my lips. A slow fire ignited in my body, and I responded, squeezing my eyes shut and kissing him back.

As soon as he felt me respond, he chuckled, his hot breath fanning my neck, and kissed me back with even more intensity. Goosebumps rose up my skin. I wrapped my hands around his neck, forgetting the fact that we were in public.

He broke away for a second, catching his breath. With a quick smile, and hooded eyes, he whispered, "Is this what you expected me to do?"

Brandon didn't wait for an answer. Instead, came back to close the space between our lips. I groaned, as a way of answering his question with a yes.

Expect or not, this was exactly what I wanted him to do.

My mind was almost at the state of mental destruction, squirming under him, in a constant game of push and pull. When his hand slid down to my waist and squeezed it, the new contact acted like adding fuel to fire. I couldn't think that I could want anyone more than this at that moment. Heck, I couldn't think. I pressed my body to him as he pushed me back to the wall and kept me there, molding my body with his. The only space between us was my sling bang, wedging between our bodies, and in short, creating a nuisance.

Just as I planned to strike a deal and finish this business in our hotel room, my phone buzzed.

The vibration came through the bag, and since it touched both of us, the abrupt ring tone made us fly apart like we had been caught red-handed by our parents.

We gasped, and heaved, the rush of oxygen into our systems bringing us back to present reality. The sweat had matted my hair to my face, and I wiped it off, fanning my inflamed cheeks. Brandon was first to break the silence over the familiar ring tone. He looked frustrated, and tensed, and downright irritated. "Pick up the phone. I wanna know who this idiot is."

"The phone, right!" I struggled to open the buckle, hurrying, in case the call got disconnected.

Brandon pushed my hand away, attempting to open the buckle himself. His body was dangerously close to mine once again, the distance between us easily covered in a millisecond. If we forgot about the phone, and just continued... Even as my thoughts went a different direction, I stood still as he pulled the flap open. Disappointment was etched into my whole body. If Brandon just seized me again, and slammed me against the wall, then--

"You can take the phone out."

I blinked. "Yeah." My hand wrapped around the familiar metallic surface of my phone. I took it out, not wasting another second, and looked at the ID.

Still, such a pity.

"Who is it?" Brandon peered over to look at the phone. "Your mom?"

I gulped, an awkward laugh coming out of my mouth. "It's Seth." As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I swiped the screen to the right and picked up the call. "Hello?"

Besides me, Brandon's eyes went wide, but I held a finger to my lips, asking him to stay silent. He mouthed back, "Put on the speaker."

"Fine." I did as he asked. And said again, "Hello?"

"Tyler? Is that you?"

"Yeah, Seth, that's me."

His distorted whispered voice came from the other side. "What took you so long?"

"Just..." I trailed off, still dazed to come up with a better response.

He laughed. "You sound like I caught you and Brandon doing the deed."

Brandon and I jumped to deny the fact. Our voices too high pitched and our replies too fast to be considered normal.

"Of course not!" I shouted.

"As if!" Brandon said equally loud.

Both of us slapped our hand up to our lips, realising our mistake. Seth turned silent, and hesitantly, I spoke again, "Hello?"

"Wow. Here I thought... you would be building mountains of cakes, stuffing yourself with desserts," he trailed off, "but Brandon got himself a better dessert, huh?"

Heat rose up my cheeks. Before I could say anything, Brandon had snatched the phone out of my hands and was talking furiously with Seth. "The hell is your problem, man?!"

The loudspeaker was still on, and I heard Seth whine. "I wanted to talk to Ty! Stop butting in will you?"

Brandon turned, waving the phone in front of me, and practically growled, "Do you want to talk to him?"

It wasn't exactly a question, his eyes begged me to say no. I scratched my head, in a dilemma. "It's okay-"

Seth's shout from the phone cut me off. I winced as he screamed the words, emphasizing each and every syllable, "Ty, if you don't talk to me, I will tell him about that night!"

"What night?" I screamed back since the phone was still in Brandon's hand, a little panicked with the tone he was using.

"DON'T YOU REMEMBER?"

I frowned, really not able to recall a thing. Brandon had already assumed an almighty expression that reflected confusion and demanded an explanation to whatever nonsense Seth was spouting.

"YOU ALMOST CHOKED ME!"

"Okay!" I snatched the phone out of Brandon's hand, heat creeping up my cheek. The flood of memories of finding Seth in my bed resurfaced... Brandon really didn't need to find out about that. Brandon cleared his throat, his jaw tightening, and his eye muscles twitching as I switched off the speaker and talked to Seth. Brandon could wait. Talking to Seth was the priority right now. "Can't you keep it down? Brandon's shooting daggers at me."

He chuckled. "Don't you like it? Aggressive men are the best in bed."

"Oh, god, will you ever live this down?" It was frustrating. Like I was a teacher talking to a kid who never paid attention in the class. Maybe it was Leo who was behind all the bad influence. Not attempting to deny anything anymore, I switched topics. "Did you call me for some reason?"

"Duh, I want to have a heart-to-heart talk with you."

I brought my hand up, slapping my forehead. This kid had definitely smoked weed. "It must be three in the morning there! Are you serious? I'm gonna hang up."

"Wait, wait!" He chuckled. "There's something I have to tell you."

"What is it?" I said, already expecting another joke or snide remark.

"The Principal talked about you in the school today."

"He did what?!" I had spoken it so loud that even Brandon who had been eavesdropping with his ears almost pressed to the phone, backed away.

"Yup. Like all these years you won the baking competitions were for nothing. Because the moment he sees your face on TV, he becomes your number one fan."

"I think I need a minute to take this in."

Seth continued on. "We even did a dumb cheer for you! Haven't you checked your FB? People have been posting on your wall like crazy!"

"Comments?" I winced. Last time I had checked it, the viral video of me slapping Bella had been doing the rounds. What about this time?

"Yup. The whole school is waiting for you to bring back the trophy!"

"They're rooting for me?" I asked, bewildered.

"The. Whole. School."

My head swam with the information. Seth wouldn't lie. And I hadn't checked my messages except for ones from my mother, maybe Rebecca would know more...

"Liam just woke up. He says hi."

"Oh, tell him hi too. And you should go back to sleep. Don't you have practice in the morning?"

"Nah, we're taking off until Brandon comes back." I could hear the yawn from the other side at the mention of sleep. "Ty, before you hang up."

"Yeah?"

"What's up with this Bella bullshit? I know you both made up and all but..."

"She's still a bitch?" I completed the sentence.

"Bingo." He laughed. "So, what is up with her? Is she lesbian? Internet is full of the shit. Do you know anything about it?"

Brandon pulled back from the phone, and we shared a look.

Did we know anything about it?

I replied in an amused voice, "Yeah, a bit of info from here and there. That's it."

***

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