Warning: I strongly recommend you do NOT read any chapters in Ethan's POV until you've read the whole book. It was not designed to be read like that as there will be spoilers throughout. 

I let out a frustrated tut as I weaved past yet another giant hoard of students that were blocking up the corridor.

 I was on my way to lunch, but I couldn't make more than a step without some pompous asshole blocking my way. I swear some of the girls were literally crashing into me on purpose. 

Throughout freshman year, I had lived by the incorrect presumption that if you were both a senior and a school athlete people in the corridor would part like the red fucking sea. But, apparently not, because I was both of those things, yet nobody seemed to give two shits.

"Hey, bestie," a voice randomly called out behind me before a heavy arm wrung itself around my neck.

 I looked to the person beside me, and just as I suspected, Lucas's annoying face was shoved uncomfortably close next to mine.

 I pushed his face away from me with a playful shove. "Woah, there, I didn't ask for your face to be that close," I snickered.

Lucas clutched his chest overdramatically and pretended to look wounded. "Ouch, man, and here I thought you and I might finally become a thing," he said, faking a sniffle.

 I raised an eyebrow. "Really? Because I literally just saw you shamelessly chatting up a girl in class this morning," I said flatly. 

"Hey, I never said we were exclusive," Lucas said holding his hands out in defense. 

"And besides, I'm more than happy for you to venture out as well. Why don't you hey, I don't know, fuck Mia? Just a thought.." he suggested.

 I gave him a flat look. "Do you not remember what I did to her yesterday? She would sooner drive a stake through my heart than fuck me?" I chuckled.

"True, true," Lucas said nodded his head matter of factly. "But that's where the hate fucking idea comes into play," he started. 

"Oh god, not this again," I groaned as I threw my head back dramatically.

"Look just here me our Ethan. The plan would be simple, you just lead her into your bedroom, and you calmly explain how much you'd delight in fucking her brains out. She'd naturally decline of course, but that's when you spring the idea of bondage, and kinky strangling into the picture. This would then make her hesitate, and she'd think, hmm, I do kinda wanna tie him up and strangle him. And then-"

"Lucas!" I yelled out in shock. 

My outburst was so loud that a few people in the corridor turned our way. 

"What?" he asked innocently. 

 "I'm not inviting Mia to have a kinky sex session with me," I hissed lowly under my breath.

"Whatever, man, I don't get you. But anyway, back to my original reason for bothering you. Why do you look so stressed? I literally just saw you make angry constipated faces at like five different people in the corridor," Lucas snorted.

Ignoring his constipation remark, I let out a heavy sigh. "I'm just stressed. I've got a lot of things to do at lunch today."

"Oh, like, what?" Lucas asked curiously.

"Well, firstly have to eat lunch and chat with the boys, then I have to go annoy Chubs for a bit. And then after that, I have to skip up to the library to finish up my AP Chemistry assignment before finally going back to annoy Chubs for a bit," I explained all in one breath.

"Woah, dude, you've worked annoying her into your schedule now; that's quite something," he winced.

"Hey, what can I say? I like to be organized," I shrugged as I pushed through the double doors of the corridor.

As soon as we entered, I did a slow scan of the cafeteria and immediately spotted Mia sat at her usual table with her friends.

I didn't have too good of a view of her as her back was to me, but I could tell she was savagely ranting on about something that was quite clearly pissing her off. I widened my eyes in horror as she squeezed so furiously at an apple that juice started to trickle from it. 

Lucas followed my line of sight, and let out a long whistle." Damn, your girl is strong, Ethan. I don't know many girls that can liquify an apple with their own bare hands. She must be pissed," he mused.

"Hmm, I wonder what about," I drawled curiously. 

"Beats me," Lucas shrugged.

I cleared my throat. "Anyway, I'll meet you at our table in a minute. It shouldn't take too long to rile her up," I said as I pushed myself off in the direction of our table.

"Be careful you don't get liquefied," Lucas called out to me as I left. 

I just snorted and continued my way over.

As I drew closer, I couldn't help but smile like a fool, excited to get my daily dose of Mia for the day.

 I looked over her shoulder and raised an eyebrow in amusement as I saw her pull out a rather hefty looking chocolate chip muffin. She had the biggest sugar tooth of anybody I'd ever met, so this didn't surprise me in the slightest.

May and Chloe had already noticed my presence and were eyeing me with a mixture of amusement and cautionary. Deciding, I better make my appearance known before they give the game away, I leaned down and tapped her on the shoulder.

She froze mid-way through taking a bite, and then slowly swiveled around to face me. Her big beautiful brown eyes looked up at me in confusion for a fraction of a second, but then as soon as she registered it was me, her whole face twisted into a scowl, and she looked me up and down in disgust.

Her eyes narrowed. "What do you want now?" She grumbled.

You, I thought almost immediately.

I didn't say that of course because what I wanted, and what I deserved were two very different things.

Despite how harsh words, I kept my smirk steady on my face, and let out a low chuckle. 

Then, quickly I looked around the table for something I could do to annoy her. Hmm, steal her phone, maybe? Nah, did that last Tuesday. That's when I spotted her muffin. 

Bingo.

Before she had time to process, I reached out over her shoulder and snatched the muffin. 

"Hey," she yelled.

I just smirked at her evilly before taking as big of a bite as I possibly could out of it. But as soon as I looked down at her face, I felt swarmed with guilt. 

She looked like a kicked puppy, eyes all widened and sad with lips that pouted out a little. I instantly felt like the shittiest person alive.

I planned to eat the whole thing, but I couldn't do that to that poor little face. So, instead, I dropped the rest of the muffin down onto the table so at least she had that to eat. 

And besides, as pathetic as it sounds, I quite liked the idea of her sharing food with me. It felt oddly intimate.

Going back to the task at hand, I finished up the show by wiping the stray crumbs away from my face and let out a long moan. 

"Mmm...that was delicious," I groaned over-exaggeratedly.

Mia's mouth hung open in shock as she watched me swallow the last of my mouthful.

Then not being able to resist a cheap shot, I chuckled. "I'd close my mind if I were you Chubs, wouldn't want me to get the wrong idea, would you?" I winked.

Yes, again, I know, there's a special place reserved in hell for me, blah blah blah.

She immediately snapped her mouth shut just as I expected her to, and I watched as the tips of her ears and cheeks turned red. 

Taking that as a sign that I had pissed her off enough for the day, I pushed myself backward with a smile and turned to leave. 

"See you around," I called out with a laugh before making my way back to my table.

As I approached the soccer table, Lucas stood up and shook his head at me in amusement, clearly having watched our little interaction.

"You're truly a piece of shit, aren't you?" he joked. 

"Yup," I snickered. 

Lucas suddenly cleared his throat. "Erm Ethan,..not to alarm you or anything, but you might want to check back on Mia..," he said slowly.

 "Why? What's wrong?" I said, turning back around to see for myself.

I raised my eyebrows in surprise as I saw her standing up, and glaring at me from across the room with a fierce death glare.

 Then ever so suddenly, she swung her arm back and threw something at me, in the undeniable direction of my face.

I watched it fly through the air, but unfortunately for Chubs, it didn't have nearly enough momentum to get to me, and it landed on a pathetic heap on the floor. And even more sadly, several meters away from me.

It was just so funny and cute that I couldn't help myself and bit my lips to contain my laughter. Then soon losing it altogether, I soon started to chuckle before breaking out into a full-on laugh.

I looked over at her in amusement, expecting her to be halfway on her way to slap me or something. 

But she wasn't. 

Instead, her face just dropped in disappointment, and she looked around in embarrassment before turning around and slumping down in defeat.

My smile instantly dampened, not liking how sad she looked. I didn't like it when she didn't fight back; it made me feel like a bully.

  Maybe I was...

A part of me was itching to go over there and apologize for laughing. But I didn't, or more correctly, I couldn't. It was best she went on thinking I was a shitty excuse for a human being. 

Things would be better for her that way.

"You okay, man?" Lucas asked cautiously, his eyes digging into the side of my face. 

I swallowed and pulled my eyes away from Mia's back. 

"Yeah, I'm fine; let's just go have lunch," I sighed.

-------------------------------

I was busily typing on my phone when the passenger side door of my car swung open. I looked up and saw Lucas smile at me before settling himself into his seat with an exaggerated sigh.

"Man, your car seats are comfy," Lucas drawled as he bounced up and down in his seat. 

I cocked my eyebrow up at him in amusement. "You drive in this car every day," I snickered.

He narrowed his eyes." And what? That means I can't appreciate the seats," he scoffed.

 I just rolled my eyes at him and turned the keys to start up the engine.

"Hey, hold on a second, let me just get changed, real quick," Lucas said as he turned around, and stretched out for a bag in the backseat.

Knowing what he was doing, I let out a long groan and threw my head back against the headrest. "Oh, for fuck's sake, do you have to put on that outfit again...," I groaned as I sunk lower down in my seat.

Lucas laughed. "Look, Ethan, I get that you're jealous of my onesie, but there's no need to lash out. I'm more than happy to buy you one," he said with a wink as he started to slip into the legs of his kitty onesie.

"Trust me, Lucas, I don't want one," I snorted as I eyed him up and down in amusement. 

"Your loss," Lucas shrugged as he lifted his bum so he could wiggle the rest of his onesie up over his torso.

My eyebrows raised even higher in amusement as I watched him flip up the hood, so his kitty ears stood proudly upon his head. 

"I'm surprised you even found one your size," I snickered.

"I didn't, this beauty is custom made," Lucas bragged as he brushed off imaginary dust from his shoulder. 

"You paid extra for this, shit?" I snorted.

"Yup," Lucas chirped proudly, not seeming remotely embarrassed.

 I just shook my head at him in amusement before turning the car into drive.

We were about halfway through the parking lot when my eyes caught on to a familiar flash of brown hair. I'd shamefully spent enough time staring at the back of Mia's head to recognize that it was her in mere seconds.

 She was lazily sauntering her way across the road and seemed pretty busy typing away something on her phone.

"Why do you suppose Chloe's not driving her home?" I asked aloud. 

"I don't know, maybe Chloe had other plans," Lucas shrugged.

"But that means she'll have to walk home, all by herself...," I murmured. 

Lucas left out a heavy sigh. "Look, if you want to give your girlfriend a ride home then just man up and do it," he snapped in frustration.

"Do you reckon she'd let me give her a lift if I asked though? I mean, I did piss her off a lot over the last couple of days," I muttered.

Lucas chuckled as though I had just said something funny. "No offense, but your girl's lazy. I'm pretty sure she'd knowingly get into the car with serial killer if it bought her a couple of seconds off her feet," he snorted.

"Hmm, that's true. Worrying but true," I said, nodding my head in agreement. "But, I don't know what if-"

"Just ask her!" Lucas snapped.

"Alright, alright, calm down, I will. Jesus Christ, that kitty suit makes you angry, doesn't it," I muttered as I slowly peeled the car closer to Mia.

I teasingly pulled the car fairly close to her, hoping to scare her a little. It seemed to work, as she suddenly looked up and jumped in surprise.

Once she had recovered from her shock, her eyes narrowed, and she angrily marched her way over to my window.

I lazily wound down my window as she approached and hit her with one of my overly confident smiles.

"Is your final attempt at tutoring me, to kill me once and for all?" she hissed.

I eyed her in amusement, surprised at her ability to somehow still look cute while glaring at somebody furiously.

I rolled my eyes. "You're so dramatic, I wasn't even close to hitting you," I drawled dismissively.

She let out a loud scoff. "Are you thick or something? I was this close to being hit by your car," she snapped as she indicated a small space with her forefinger and thumb.

"It's not my fault you were texting," I retaliated back quickly as I nodded my head down to her phone. 

She glowered at me, and I shamefully felt my heart start to rile up in excitement. As sad as it may seem, I always craved Mia and I's little bickering sessions as they never seemed to fail to make me smile.

Lucas then decided to ruin my wonderful moment by leaned his head over the console, so his face was now visible to Mia. 

"Enough bickering infants, can't you see it's time for my afternoon snap," he grumbled.

I instantly felt a wave of embarrassment wash over me as I took in the sight of Lucas's kitty clad onesie yet again. It was hardly giving off any of the cool vibes that I was desperately trying to convey to Mia.

Realizing it was starting to get to the point where my cheeks were starting to heat up, I quickly pulled myself together and tried my best to go back to looking unbothered. 

I cleared my throat. "Hey, are you walking home, Chubs? I could give you a lift if you'd like?" I asked politely.

As soon as I saw her face cloud with confusion, and her eyes scan me in disbelief, I realized my mistake. My kindness had slipped, and now she was suspicious. 

She couldn't know I liked her. 

Shit. What do I do? Think, Ethan, think.

Then suddenly I thought of it. If I did a little harmless prank before giving her a lift, my act of kindness would be balanced out by my act of dickishness. 

And, then voila, I'd be in the clear.

Mia slowly nodded her head after taking a couple of seconds to think about it. 

"Sure, thanks," she said, giving me a grateful smile. 

The sight of that smile took me aback for a second. She never smiled at me. I mean, yeah, she did smile at me when she kicked me in the shin last week, but I don't think that counted.

Shaking my head free of the distracting way it was starting to make me feel, I focused back on the task at hand. 

"No problem," I said, returning her smile.

From my side-view mirror, I watched as she walked over to the doors of the backseats. Just as she was about to grab the handle, I slammed my foot on the gas, so that the handle slipped straight out of her grasp.

The expression on Mia's face from the rear-view mirror was just so godamn funny that I couldn't help but chuckle.

"Dude, what the fuck?" Lucas said, eyeing me up and down like I was the stupidest person known to man. 

"Relax, I'm going to go back," I laughed as I pulled the car out of school.

 Lucas' shoulders sagged down in relief. "Oh, thank god, I thought you'd lost your mind or something, "he muttered.

As soon as I got to the roundabout right outside of school, I swung the car around and headed back for the school parking lot.

But as I drove back into the lot, she was nowhere in sight. My smile vanished from my face in a second, and I stopped the car and surveyed around in confusion. 

"Where the fuck did she go? We surely would have passed her on the way out, if she started to walk, right?" I questioned in confusion.

"I don't know, maybe she left out the other exit," Lucas suggested. 

"Oh yeah, true. You can get to her house quicker if you go down the little lane by abbey street," I said, nodding my head matter of factly before starting up the engine.

"Er..stalker much?" Lucas snickered. 

"Hey, it's not stalking. I just happened to see her walking down there one time," I argued. 

"Hmm, sure," Lucas hummed unconvincingly.

I just ignored him and put the car back into drive before heading to the different exit out of school.

But strangely, as we drove further and further down the road, she was nowhere in sight. 

Wanting to persist, I kept going and turned down the various roads that took you to her home. It was only when I turned onto her road did I realized she had well and truly vanished. 

"For fuck's sake," I hissed as I slapped the dashboard in annoyance.

I sunk in my seat helplessly and let out a long and frustrated groan. "Great, now she's going to think I'm shitty enough to actually ditch her," I muttered with a bitter laugh.

Lucas's eyes softened, and he looked over at me pityingly. "Just apologize and explain what happened tomorrow," he suggested. 

I considered his idea for a fraction of a second, but then I slowly shook my head. 

"Nah, it's alright; I doubt she gives too much of a shit anyway," I muttered. 

"Let's just go to my house," I sighed. 

----------------------------------

Author's note:

All done! Hope you enjoyed xx 

The next chapter is where we find out what Ethan was really sleeptalking about... 

Spoiler: It's funny af ;)