Chapter Forty-One: Tell Her“You have some explaining to do, young lady,” Brooke says in a chiding tone the moment Steph opens the door.“Well, hello to you too, mum. Come on in,” Steph says with a simper.Brooke glares at her as she walks in because of the silly smile on her face. Steph rolls her eyes as she shuts the door and then proceeds to follow her to the living room.“Anybody home?” Brooke asks as settles on a couch.“Just my dad. He's busy in his study. Mum’s out,” Steph replies.Brooke narrows her eyes at her with a serious -- very serious look on her face.“Can you tell me where the hell you were last night?”“Straight to the point, huh?”“If you don’t start talking --”Steph cuts her off. “Chill, B. You’re such a drama queen sometimes. I saw all your voicemails and text messages.”“And you didn’t deem it fit to freaking call me back?” Brooke bellows.“I’m sorry. I’m sorry, okay? We went to the movies and my phone was on silent. I only saw your messages when I got home and I

Chapter Forty-Three: We're Dating The beginning of the ride home is silent. Steph busies herself by looking out the window, thinking about what transpired between her and Chris. How on Earth does Chris like her? She keeps asking herself. Brooke, the designated driver does her job but occasionally glances at Steph. She knows that Steph thinks she likes Luke and it must be a dream come true for him to ask her out on a date. But Brooke believes Steph likes Chris but hasn't realized it yet. She believes they're meant to be together. The car comes to a halt when they reach a stop light. Since Brooke can't stand the silence anymore so she decides to break it. "So....." She trails off, tapping her fingers on the steering wheel. Steph turns away from the window to look at her, waiting for her to complete her sentence. "So... What's going to happen now?" "Uhm... What do you mean?" Steph says. "What are you gonna do next? What's going to happen next? What will you say to Chris when y

Chapter Forty-Five: I Miss Him "Thanks for tonight. I had fun," Steph says softly to Luke, avoiding eye contact. After she told him -- more like lied to him, they left the restaurant and he drove her home. "I'm glad you did," Luke replies. "I had fun too. Hopefully, we can do this again some other time." I doubt that, Steph thinks but she doesn't voice the thought. "Yeah," she lies yet again. "Feel better, Steph." She finally faces him and makes eye contact, smiling a little. "Thanks." Luke returns the smile as he stares at her. She stares right back. He begins to lean closer to her and she begins to panic. He wants to kiss me! He wants to kiss me! Aaahhhhh! 'Isn't that what you've always wanted?' Her subconscious asks her. Her answer to that question is yes but right now that it's about to happen, she doesn't want it to. But before she can do anything to stop what she thinks is about to happen, Luke's lips meet her left cheek lightly before he leans back to his original

Chapter Forty-Seven: Anxious A MONTH LATER... Things have happened and things have changed in the last month. Steph can vividly remember how two weeks into senior year, Brooke had said it was boring and she had agreed. Well, these past two or three months have been anything but boring. And Senior year isn't even over. They're on winter break now and Steph can only imagine how crazy things would be when school's back on in the new year. They had winter formal after their finals and it was quite something. The thing is that both Luke and Chris asked her to go with them as 'friends.' Chris had asked first and she agreed. Then about two days later, Luke did. He kept emphasizing that they'll be going as friends and the look on his face was so pleading that she found herself saying yes, against her reasoning. It was only when Luke exhaled in relief that she realized she had already said yes to Chris; hence, finding herself in a sticky situation. She wished she could have gone with bot

Chapter Forty-Nine: Boyfriend? "Where are we going?" Chris asks for the umpteenth time from the passenger's seat; it hasn't even been five minutes since they left. "I told you. You'll find out when we get there. Stop asking already." "Ugh... This is annoying," Chris grumbles. "You acting like a child is annoying," Steph retorts. They've only been driving for a few minutes and Chris seems to be running out of patience. Though Chris is acting like he doesn't like the situation one bit, he's very happy. Getting to see Hazel alone has made his day but getting to spend time with her on his birthday is on a whole new level. He doesn't think he has ever been this happy on his birthday. Albeit she doesn't seem to know it's his birthday, he doesn't mind. He can't expect her to remember it since it's been a while he told her. She probably even forgot it right after they spoke about it. So it's all good. "Can you give me a hint?" "No!" Chris sighs. " Can I at least turn on the radio?" "I