Chapter nineteen.

'Oh God!'

'Don't those words bring back memories.'

Blair dropped the handful of bath products from her grip in shock as she stared at the freshly showered body of Cade who had literally just stepped out of the shower. He only had a small white towel draped across his shoulders leaving everything on display in front of her.

'Oh God! What are you...' Blair's eyes widened and she made the mistake of looking down before averting her eyes.

'I was having a shower, and it seems you just can't get enough,' he smirked stepping forward his eyes lit up with mischief.

Blair raised both hands in surrender, 'No, no wait. I didn't know you were in here...' She stepped back so quickly she bumped into the door hard.

He chuckled, 'Sure, like you didn't hear the shower?'

Blair shook her head frantically, how could she have been so stupid? She hadn't heard the shower at all!

'Oh God, cover yourself up,' she whispered still in shock. It was something else to see this sight first thing in the morning.

Cade smiled and lowered the towel from his shoulder, wrapping it snugly around his waist. 'I'm actually kind of glad you're here.'

'You are?' She was dubious.

'Yes,' he took a few more steps coming face to face with her. 'You've been a little touchy lately, almost grumpy with me. I wanted to see what's up?'

'What's up with me?' Blair was trying to focus on his words but all she could see was the droplets of water on his neck running down.

'Yeah.'

She shook her head taking in what he was saying, 'Wait a second, who cares if I'm touchy Cade? You said so yourself we're not even friends. I don't have to be sunshine and flowers around you all the time.'

He raised an eyebrow in surprise, 'I didn't say that.'

'Well what are you saying then? You're crazy,' she rolled her eyes gaining momentum now. 'I'm getting sick of seeing one side of you in your bedroom when you're charming and sexy and seducing me...And then a totally other side everywhere else. At home, at school...'

'Wait a second,' he interrupted her frowning. 'Are you pissed about school? The whole thing with Lacy?' He swore under his breath, 'I knew that pissed you off. Girls.'

'Yeah I'm mad about it Cade, she's a horrible person to me and it pisses me off when she makes fun of me and you just laugh.'

Cade rolled his eyes in frustration, 'What do you want me to do? What she said was funny! A joke, no need to be so uptight.'

Blair saw red. She opened her mouth to yell at him but decided against it, being seven in the morning and all. Instead she turned on her heels and headed back out of the bathroom. She didn't need a shower anyways.

'Wait! Get back here,' she heard Cade call out as he followed her into the hallway.

She spun around conscious they were arguing in the hallway with Cade only wearing a towel around his waist. The situation screamed awkward.

'Not now,' she hissed at him trying to keep her voice low.

'No, I think this needs to be said,' he replied albeit keeping his voice low. 'You are jealous again! And you take it out on me when we have a specific outlined ...' He paused as though searching for the right word. 'Agreement, to have fun with this and not take it any further.'

Blair's eyes flashed in anger even though his words had a ring of truth to them. 'Whatever needs to be said can wait.'

'What the hell is going on here?'

Blair froze at Hailey's voice.

'Cade why are you naked? Go and put some clothes on geez,' Hailey wrinkled her nose in disgust. 'And why are you guys fighting again? I definitely heard Lacy's name is this what you're fighting about?'

Cade groaned in frustration, 'No Hailey why on earth would Blair and I be fighting over Lacy of all people?' His voice was dripping with sarcasm and Blair wanted to kill him.

Hailey paused looking extremely confused, 'Look I have no idea what this is about but Cade you could be a little nicer to Blair about Lacy. What she did to Blair was horrible and –'

'Hailey!' Blair shook her head slightly. The last thing she wanted was Cade to find out why she and Lacy didn't get along so well. He would most definitely read too much into it.

Hailey frowned and backtracked, 'Whatever, I'm not sure what is going on between you two but you better figure it out I feel like I'm living with my parents during a bad divorce!'

Cade scowled and turned away leaving the girls standing in the hallway in silence.

'You and me need to talk,' Hailey told her best friend sternly.

Blair nodded weakly, 'Ok, but we better get to school thought or we'll be late. How about at lunch time?'

...

By second period the entire school was buzzing.

Blair had noticed something in the air when she arrived that morning but didn't hear anything until her second period class. The whispers were ripe and she could literally see the piece of gossip flitting through the classroom from ear to ear.

'Settle down please,' their teacher barked for the third time that morning.

'Oh my God did you hear?'

Blair strained to listen to the low voices of the girls sitting behind her.

'No, what is going on?' The second girl asked excitedly. 'I feel like something huge had just gone down!'

'Lacy and Noah have broken up!'

'What?' The other girl gasped. 'No way, they are like the 'IT' couple! What happened?'

'I don't know, I guess we'll hear at lunch,' the first girl gossiped excitedly. 'I heard she broke up with him, maybe its another guy?'

Blair felt her heart sink heavily in her chest. She wasn't sure why the news hit her so hard. She didn't actually care about Noah anymore at all. Maybe she had hoped when Noah left her for Lacy they would at least last the two years left of high school!

When the class ended Blair made her way to her next class she shared with Hailey and Brady in a bit of a daze. She passed a group of girls talking loudly about Lacy and her unceremoniously dumping of Noah. These girls were saying it was a very public and brutal affair.

'Blair are you ok?' Hailey asked anxiously as she sat down in between her and a worried looking Brady. 'Have you heard?'

Blair nodded shrugging off their worry. 'I'm fine, why wouldn't I be?'

'I just thought the news might throw you about Noah now being single and all,' Hailey said softly. 'You haven't really even looked at another guy since you and Noah broke up.'

Blair didn't bother saying out loud what she was thinking. She didn't honestly care about Noah being single now, it was more the fact Lacy was single that worried her. It was obvious Lacy had a thing for Cade but she didn't know how Cade felt about her. They would make an obvious couple, the most popular girl in school with the most popular guy. She didn't really stand a chance. But the question playing on her mind was, did she even care?

'I don't care about Noah, that was years ago Hails,' Blair managed a smile. 'Not going to lie though, I'm happy he's unhappy.' She giggled.

On the way to her next class Blair spotted Cade at his locker. Well to be honest she kind of went out of her way to spot him.

'Hey.'

He turned his head to the side and saw her, 'Hi there, you over your little hissy fit this morning?'

'Ok, so I'm a little on edge lately...' Blair admitted biting her lip.

'A little?' Cade scoffed. 'Blair what we're doing is fun,' he paused and he grinned. 'It is beyond fun, it's amazingly fun! But we are not in a relationship, which is something we both didn't want, right?' He studied her face carefully.

Blair nodded slowly.

'So lets quit the weird jealousy thing you have going on with Lacy because I like you, ok? Not her.'

Blair froze and looked up at him.

Cade was sporting his first ever blush around her and she found herself biting back a smile.

'Don't read into it,' he warned her attempting to frown but not quite getting there. 'I just meant...I don't...Uh,' he was getting flustered. 'Let's just keep doing what we were doing ok?'

Blair nodded but she was beaming inwardly. Cade like her.

...

That day at lunch, for some unknown reason Cade joined their table instead of sitting with his usual jock crowd. Blair was surprised but put it down to the fact Brady had also decided to sit at their table for that day and he and Cade were pretty good friends now.

Hailey looked a little disappointed because she had planned on grilling Blair about Cade at lunch. Although the crazy turn of events for the day meant she was going to take it easy on her friend.

'So I wonder how she did it,' Brady was the first to bring up the taboo subject.

'Who did what?' Cade asked through a mouthful of his sandwich.

'Lacy broke up with Noah today, didn't you hear?' Brady was incredulous. 'This is the biggest gossip since that kid fell down the stairs and on top of that hot teacher and everyone thought they were having an affair!'

Blair couldn't help giggle at that, trust Brady to think that was hot gossip. The poor teacher.

'Oh yeah, that Noah kid? He's a bit of a douche isn't he?' Cade wrinkled his nose as though trying to picture Noah in his head. "Does he play soccer?'

'Whatever,' Brady rolled his eyes. 'I wonder how she did it though.'

'Hey Blair are you ok?'

A group of girls had stopped at their table, trays in hand peering down at Blair concerned. Blair frowned trying to remember if she'd ever talked to these girls in her life before. 'We heard about Noah.'

'What about him?' Cade interrupted them frowned. 'And why wouldn't Blair be ok?'

'Oh, didn't you know?' One of the other girls sounded surprised. 'Lacy stole Noah from Blair originally. They were together for ages.'

Cade's mouth dropped open and stared at Blair with interest.

'Thanks, I'm fine,' Blair muttered at them willing them to go away. She was so embarrassed.

'It's just we heard he broke up with her because he's not over you,' a third girl said.

'Well there's a lot of stories floating around isn't there,' Hailey said loudly. 'Maybe someone should find out the truth before spreading a lot of rumours.'

Blair had gone awfully quiet and she could feel Cade's eyes on her. 'I need some air,' she said standing up quickly and exiting the lunch room.

...