Chapter 37: Chapter 37

He didn’t speak to me anymore. There was no teasing, no false accusations about how I was lying to myself, nothing but silence from him which I liked by the way. Yes, I prefer that to him trying to make me doubt myself and my feelings. I don’t want any reminders that we have shared more than one kiss behind Siobhan’s back or that I met him first at the beach. It doesn’t matter anyway.

We went for Prep to read. Since I had to stand to maintain order in the hall he had no other choice but to stand with me. We patrolled the hall together and when I had to sit down eventually we did it all together. It was all fine and good until it was time to go to bed.

It started with Aaron and Siobhan coming to say goodnight. Andre and I were in front of my apartment trying to decide where we would sleep.

"You guys better be on your best behavior tonight," Janet teased as she opened her door.

Adeline snorted. "With Bianca ogling him like that I don't see that happening." She's probably still pissed that I spoiled her and Andre's plans for the night.

"At least I am not the one making plans to make out with someone else's boyfriend," I shot back.

"What did you say to me?" She demanded, spoiling for a fight.

Andre put out his hand to stop her from coming any closer. "That's enough." He glanced down at me. "I didn't accept her offer anyway."

I snorted watching as Adeline rolled her eyes at us and left.

“What do I care? For the sake of peace,” I said. “We need to agree on this one thing. Your apartment or mine?”

Andre laughed. I found my lips twitching at the question too. It sounded like an indirect, “Where do you want to fuck?” question.

"I don't know. Why would you like?" He teased.

That caught me off guard. Regardless of all that had happened, I laughed before I could stop myself. “I’m serious, Rios, where do we sleep? I would vote my apartment but if you’re not comfortable with that then we can sleep in your apartment.”

His smile faded, for a second he looked like he wanted to say something. The way he stared made me uncomfortable, it was too intense and any one of our classmates passing would see that there were secrets between us. “You are not so scary when you laugh, Bianca.”

I wiped the smile off my face looking around frantically hoping Aaron wasn’t watching. “I’m serious!” I said firmly.

“Fine. Let’s use my apartment. Aaron’s apartment is close to mine that way we won’t be tempted to do anything indecent.”

“Fine by me. Now I just need to pick a few things.”

I opened my apartment and we entered. I searched my closet for my nightshirt and while I was searching one soft cotton shirt fell out of the neatly arranged piles of clothes. I picked it up and realized it was Andre’s. He had tied it around my waist when I got my period. I thought I was going to feel embarrassed but only a strange, comforting warmth spread through me.

“Is that mine?” he asked, his voice snapping me out of my thoughts.

I turned to look at him briefly and nodded. “Yes, it’s yours. I never got to thank you for it,” I handed it to him. He reached out to collect it and our fingers touched. My eyes flew to his as sparks flew. He was giving me that look of longing again. I can’t understand how he can look at me like that when he is in love with my best friend, it’s not right. It didn’t feel right. It felt like a betrayal.

I snapped my gaze away suddenly realizing that not only were we still tied to each other, but we were also alone in my room reminiscing an intimate moment. I cleared my throat and tried to speak. When I couldn’t make I single sound I coughed again.

“I also never got to thank you for saving me today.” I looked at him and quickly looked away again because he was still staring. “Thank you.” I chuckled. “It seems like we are always at each other’s throats so much that we sometimes forget to enjoy the few less irritating traits in each other.”

He chuckled. “That’s because you only want to see me as the bad guy.” The fingers of his bound hand lifted slowly to caress mine. “I am not a bad guy, Bianca.” He spoke so solemnly, a vast difference from his usual arrogant self.

I opened my mouth to dispute that fact given Eva and Adeline incidents when my door suddenly burst open and Siobhan breezed in.

I groaned. “Ever heard of knocking, Siobhan?”

Aaron was right behind her. “We came to see if you guys have torn each other apart but from the looks of it you’re both holding up well enough.”

“Yes, because that’s what you do when you are tied up with someone, you make peace with them.”

“Good,” Siobhan said. “Hey babe, since we won’t be spending the night together I came to say goodnight and to warn you to keep your hands off my best friend, don’t hurt her!”

“I would never do that,” Andre said, his response sounding a bit too sincere.

“Good boy.” Siobhan rose on her toes to kiss him. I looked away just in time to see Aaron come closer to kiss me. He smiled as he leaned down to whisper.

“I know Andre is hot but please remember I’ll be thinking of you tonight when I go to bed.”

“Is that jealousy?” I joked. He rolled his eyes and kissed the side of my mouth.

“Goodnight.”

“Goodnight,” Siobhan kissed my cheek. “See you guys tomorrow.” She held her hand to Aaron. “Come on, Aaron let’s go.”

They left the room. As soon as they left Andre turned to me with narrowed eyes. “Does something seem off to you?”

I shook my head and chose another one of Dad’s shirts that I had stolen and decided to wear it for the night.

“I think I’m done here.” I noticed Andre was lost in thought. “What?” I asked.

He snapped out of it and shook his head. “Nothing…I just. Nevermind. My apartment.”

I locked my apartment door and we went to his. It was the same as I remembered and thankfully no Eva was there waiting for us hoping to get laid. He turned on the lights and locked the door.

“So uh…how do we get our clothes off with these?” I asked. We were still wearing our uniforms since neither of us had had time after lunch to get changed. It was only then I realized that getting undressed was next to impossible. Actually, it was impossible. There was no way I could take my clothes off.

“Oh my God!” I groaned and laughed. “We have to sleep in our uniforms!”

How did it not occur to me before?! There was no way around it, our only option was to sleep in our uniforms and wake up tomorrow to attend school in our uniforms.

“Well look on the bright side it means you don’t get to see me naked.”

“Yeah because I am dying to see you naked, Rios.”

“Andre.”

I paused and looked at him. “You always call me Rios like you are scared to call my name. You know my name,” he said. “Are you scared?”

I forced a laugh. “Of course not! I call you Andre all the time.”

“Only when you’re mad at me.”

Our conversation was getting intimate again. I didn’t want to carry on our intimate moment that had happened in my room when our fingers touched. “When am I never pissed with you, Andre? But that’s beside the point. We need to figure out what to do! I can’t go to school with rough uniforms tomorrow. Isn’t there something we can do?”

He let the other conversation go and I released a sigh of relief. “Well, we can take off our bottoms. You take off your skirt and I take off my trousers.”