he next morning, my brothers were badgering me to tell them who I was dating. I told them they could shove it up their butts. I guess that's what I get for having three brothers.

The day passed by in a daze, I was just excited for Wednesday when we were all free from this prison.

"Hey guys, who are you working with for your term projects?" I asked the table.

"John and I are working on econ." Nicole frowned.

"Really?" I felt kind of bad for their project.

"We were assigned partners." That sucks.

"Me and Stella are doing a psych project." Taylor said.

Hmm, I wondered how that would work out, Jesse had used Taylor to get to Stella. But I bet Stella didn't know that.

"Can't wait to stay up all night and finish them. It's gonna be so fun." It was tradition for all students to spend the whole night working on term projects the Monday after Thanksgiving. It was supposed to be productive work but nobody took it seriously.

"Who are you working with?" Taylor asked.

"Roan and I are doing bio."

From the corner of my eye, I saw Stella grin to herself.

There was a surprise waiting for me when I got to gym class.

Winter, Owen, and Finn were standing in the gym, harassing some of the freshmen. I would say "poor freshmen" but I didn't really feel bad for them.

"What are you doing in my gym class?" I practically shrieked. Didn't they have better things to do?

"What does it look like? We're gonna join you for today!" Owen said enthusiastically and I groaned.

"How did you know what class I had?" I realized immediately after I asked them.

"Stella." All four of us answered. No doubt Stella told them to make my life chaotic.

"Well, what do you want? I'm pretty sure Ms. Ham will kick you out." She was mean like that.

"Are you kidding? She loves me." Winter said and I do remember how he was her favorite. Only because he actually participated while everyone else just stood around. It kind of came in handy because Ms. Ham didn't fully hate me since I was related to him.

"Here she comes," I hummed.

"Hey, Ms. Ham! Nice to see you again," Winter smiled, and Owen and Finn followed his lead.

"We're just visiting the school where we grew up," Owen explained and Finn coughed since he'd never actually set foot in the high school before, "Excuse me, Winter and I, grew up,"

"How nice." Ms. Ham actually smiled.

"We won't disturb you or your class, we promise. We just want to watch."

"You can stay but you have to sit in the bleachers."

"That's fine, thanks, Ms. Ham." Winter thanked and all three of them sat down on the side.

I stuck my tongue out at them and turned around to go change. Unfortunately, Grace was absent so I didn't have my locker room buddy to talk to.

Roan walked over to me when I came out. I met Asher's eyes across the gym but looked away.

"Alright, class, we're going to play kickball."

"Woo, kickball!" Owen called from the sidelines. The rest of the class turned around and I sighed.

"Are those your brothers?" Roan asked and I shielded my face from them. God, they were so embarrassing.

"Almost."

"How can they almost be your brothers?"

"You can't choose family." Sometimes I loved them and sometimes I hated them. But when push came to shove, we stood up for each other, we fought for each other.

"Who's the one with the sunburn?"

"Owen. The one in the white shirt is Winter and the one next to him is Finn." That's actually how we met, Roan was making fun of Finn and I had to stick up for him. Funny how coincidences happened like that.

"I'm going to pick teams. Ones on the left and twos on the right." Ms. Ham started counting people and I moved so Roan and I would be on the same team.

Unfortunately, she put me on a team with Asher and Laurel, with Roan on the other side. Just fantastic.

Asher, the guy who hurt Roan. And Laurel, the hunter. You can see how scared I'd be.

My team was kicking first so I lined up against the wall, third to last.

"I see Roan's better." Asher started off and I gave him an incredulous look.

"No thanks to you."

"Look, I never got to apologize."

"You still haven't."

"I'm sorry, I was just really stressed and needed someone to talk to. My parents wanted me to be perfect and I was being an asshole."

Needed someone to talk to.

"Apologize to Roan and I'll think about it." Asher didn't get a chance to say anything because he was next.

He stepped up to the plate and kicked, the ball flying to the other side of the basketball court.

Great, now it was my turn. I was hoping he'd get tagged out but no such luck.

"Go, Lia!" Finn cheered and Owen joined in.

"Knock 'em dead!"

I gave them a death glare and when the ball rolled over the plate, I did my signature kick. I gave it a slight touch and ran.

I made it to third, which happened to be the same base Asher was on and Roan was playing.

I elbowed Asher, "Don't you have something to say?"

"Sorry. I didn't mean for things to get so out of control at the festival." Asher actually complied.

"Just don't let it happen again."

"Got it."

John, surprisingly, actually kicked the ball so we had to run home.

When we got back in line, I saw my brothers smiling at one another. What the hell were they staring at?

.•*•.

I drove Roan home after gym. It was kind of our regular thing now after I saw him walking home.

We talked about our bio project and what we were going to do and then somehow we got on the topic of my brothers.

"Your brothers thought we were dating."

I laughed, "Like that would ever happen." They were hopeless.

"That's what I said. You're not even my type."

"What, you like someone?"

Silence confirmed my suspicions.

"I'm gonna find out who you like!" I exclaimed excitedly.

"What are we, in middle school?" Roan sounded sort of bitter.

"Come on, humor me." This was going to be fun. Roan never showed any interest in crushing on someone and I kind of wanted to match him up with someone so he wouldn't be so lonely.

"No." He sounded dead serious.

"Stella? She's single now. Or maybe Taylor or Nicole? You know, Grace is pretty nice, you'd make a cute couple. Or Laurel, she's a good friend." I listed off, tapping my hands on the steering wheel. I actually couldn't see any of them dating, except maybe Grace.

I thought of Stella and Roan and winced.

"You're way off. They're not even my type."

I finally drove up to his house but was dying to continue this conversation.

"So, what's your type?" I glanced at him and I heard him take a deep breath.

He seemed to be looking anywhere but me.

"Well, they need to have brown hair and hazel eyes. They need to be funny and a little clumsy but cute nonetheless. Someone who loves food more than air. Preferably who's good at dodgeball and carnival games. They have to work at Starbucks and give me free coffee when their boss isn't looking. And they have to be sitting right next to me."

I was about to laugh at how specific he was being until I realized something.

I had brown hair and hazel eyes. I was funny, well, according to me, and messy and I loved food more than air. I was good at dodgeball and carnival games and I gave him free coffee when my boss wasn't looking.

And I was the only one sitting next to him.

I stared at Roan, trying to see the truth. Was this really happening? Did Roan actually like me that way?

"Forget it," He muttered, reaching for the door handle.

I wanted a love like my parents. I wanted to find my mate and have everything the way it was supposed to be. I wanted Asher, I didn't want Roan.

But I did.

"Wait, you didn't hear what my type is." He looked totally uninterested but I continued quickly before he could leave, "He needs to be smart but also kind of stupid at times. He needs to have brown hair and brown eyes and has to be able to play a musical instrument, preferably the guitar. He needs to have no social skills whatsoever. Oh, and he has to be human, I'm not really into werewolves."

Not anymore.

"Really?" He looked into my eyes and I smiled.

"Really really." I nodded. It was true the moment I said it. I didn't usually think of Roan as someone I liked but that's probably why we'd been friends for so long. I just never realized that he was special to me.

His heart was beating fast, but not faster than mine.

"Then I guess. . . I'll see you later." He swallowed and I kind of just nodded. He slung his bag over his shoulder and opened the passenger door, stepping outside.

I rolled down the window and called, "Hey, Roan," He stopped and turned around, not even walking two steps.

"What?"

"I thought you were going to say Stella was your type for a moment there." I let out a sigh of relief.

"Of course you'd think that." He said playfully before pivoting on his heel.

"Roan!"

"What?" He turned around again.

"I'm not clumsy!"

"Haha, see you later, Lia," The last thing I saw was his smile, a genuine one that made my once dead heart flutter.