I loitered like a creeper behind the library, back pressed against the brick wall and eyes narrowed as I tried to spot Aubrey amongst the crowd of leaving students. At the end of English class, Aubrey had told me to meet her behind the sheds after school, prompting me to choke as my mind unwittingly reminded me of a very promiscuous passage in 'Say No to Bad Boys' which explicitly detailed how Xander docked his giant cruise ship in Aubrey's harbour while gagging her with his tie to silence her lewd moans. 

This Aubrey was obviously not asking me to accompany her to dance the Devil's tango on school grounds, but there was a small part of me couldn't help but panic at the girl's alternate existence. 

It was while I was adamantly trying not to remember anything about 'Say No to Bad Boys' that I felt something poke my side, making me squeak in shock, whipping around. Aubrey was behind me, slight smile on her face, though she looked a little apprehensive.

"Okay, so I've been listening to Elias give his side of his very tragic love story all day, and boy, if his version is the truth and nothing but the whole truth, you better prepare yourself because I will end you," Aubrey said seriously, dangerous glint in her eye making me swallow nervously.

I mean, Truck-kun already beat you to it, but I guess you can kill me a second time.

"O-Okay?" I stammered, Aubrey grinning with satisfaction, looping her arm through mine and tugging me out of the school. 

"Elias is at soccer training and I promised to be his shoulder to cry on afterwards, so you've only got me for about an hour and a half. I'm also really hungry, so let's go to a cafe and get some cake and coffee while we chat," Aubrey said. The way her smile widened on the last word made me shiver, because I felt that if gave her the wrong 'answers' during her interrogation, I would definitely regret it.

Aubrey and I soon found ourselves at a coffee shop around the corner from school, the protagonist getting a hot chocolate and a very decadent slice of chocolate cake while I just got a vanilla latte. I almost choked on my first sip when Aubrey leaned her elbows on the table, her blue eyes staring as an eerie smile accompanied her gaze. I felt myself breaking out into a cold sweat, swallowing my spit instinctively.

"So, what's your side of the story, Alex? Elias told me that he confessed his feelings to you and you completely shot him down by saying that he was supposed to be in love with me? And that you essentially broke his heart by not even directly telling him that you didn't like him that way, but that his feelings were somehow 'wrong'," Aubrey chirped, stabbing her fork with vigour into her cake, the poor thing collapsing with a silent cry. I gulped, clearing my throat.

Oh, God. What Elias told Aubrey does sound pretty bad... and it's not even all false. It's just that... he's misunderstanding one of the fundamental things... The most important thing, really.

"I like Elias too," I coughed out, Aubrey's fork pausing its murderous attack on the innocent cake. Aubrey just blinked at me with feigned blankness and I groaned, running my fingers through my blonde hair. "Yes, that kind of like. Romantic like. The 'I want to kiss him' kind of like. The 'I'd recite sonnets to him' kind of like. The-"

"Uh, Alex, that's been kind of obvious since day one," Aubrey dead-panned, tilting her head to the side as she stared at me, the cogs in her protagonist's head slowly turning. 

"Huh?"

Aubrey rolled her eyes slightly, letting out a dainty sigh as she flipped her auburn hair over a slender shoulder.

"I mean, we all knew you were in love with him? Only Elias didn't think so because he was too nervous to get his hopes up, but as a third-party observer with zero romantic interest in either of you, I thought it was plain obvious. Which is why I was so pissed when Elias called me saying that you broke his heart," Aubrey said, stabbing the glazed cherry that looked like it was wilting on the side of her cake. 

I could imagine that she was imagining that she was stabbing my beating heart instead, until my brain caught up with her words.

Wait. 

What?

"I'm sorry, but what the fuck?" I blurted out, Aubrey humming as she ate a bite of her chocolate cake, nodding slowly.

"God, that's a good cake. But Alex, seriously? Did you think you were being discreet?" Aubrey asked, snorting and kicking me gently under the table. She then sighed for a moment, before putting down her fork and reaching across the table to pat my hand comfortingly, eyes soft. "Alex, I can see the way you look at Elias. You always brighten up when he enters the room, you always smile more when he's around, when you tell a lame joke you always look to him first to see if he's laughing, and your ears are always so red when you're close to hi-"

"O-Okay, stop right there, my God," I breathed out reaching forward to pluck the glazed cherry off her plate and shove it into her mouth like a dummy. Aubrey puffed her cheeks out, but chewed around the seed of the cherry before fiddling with the sugary stem.

I pulled and twisted Aubrey's words around my head, trying to make sense of them, before feeling my entire face heat up.

"Ah, yep, there we go. See? Your ears get red when you're embarrassed or shy, Elias always swooned over that, you know?" Aubrey said, and I whined, clapping my hands over my traitorous ears.

"Was I really that obvious?" I lamented, sinking into my chair as I pleaded with Aubrey, the girl showing zero pity and nodding. The girl just watched my inner meltdown calmly, spitting out the cherry pit and shovelling another forkful of cake into her mouth. "But I... I thought I... I didn't even realise that I..."

"Uh, yeah, see, I knew you were in love with Elias before you even realised you were in love with Elias. And the fact that you didn't seem to know made Elias really doubt himself, because he somehow persuaded himself that you didn't like him that way, because every hint he gave you deflected right off your armour. Alex, your armour is dense as heck, and you're just so slow," Aubrey groaned, complaining as if I was not the object of her frustration. "Honestly, it was painful watching you two being bumbling messes over each other."

"What? Excuse you," I blubbered, glaring at Aubrey who just stuck her tongue out at me, smile turning a little teasing. 

You're one to talk, Miss Protagonist! I read about all of your dense and dumb shenanigans in the original book! It's like the pot calling the kettle black! I'm the kettle, you're the pot, and we're both dumb as fuck, okay?!

"I think I caught the dumb protagonist disease off you," I grumbled under my breath, Aubrey raising a brow as I waved away her curiosity, the girl just shrugging and continuing to nibble on her cake. 

"Anyway, we need to get to the heart of the matter. Clearly you love Elias, so why did you break his heart like that?" Aubrey asked, her gaze making it seem like I was staring down the barrel of a gun as I returned her look.

"Ugh. I panicked, okay? I didn't expect him to say... that, and I honestly, truly, wrongly thought that you two were a thing!" I whined, throwing up my hands before messing them in my hair with frustration, all of my lovelorn feelings rushing to the surface now. "You two were always whispering when I wasn't there, and when you smile at each other all secretively what was I supposed to think?! And... And! I heard you guys in the hotel room! Elias was clearly confessing his love to you!"

"Huh?!" Aubrey gasped, large blue eyes widening even further, cake immediately forgotten as she was the one now spluttering in her seat, confused. "C-Confessed? To me?! When?!"

"When Ambs and I went to get coffee at the chalet, we came back and... I heard you... through the door..." My heart deflated at the memory, but I gritted my teeth when Aubrey just looked completely lost. "He said... that... 'more than a friend... I really like you'. I know what I heard, Aubrey, so I really thought-"

Aubrey suddenly crumpled like paper in her chair, letting out a long groan and banging her forehead on the table. Her red hair fell around her face in a limp heap, until she tilted her head to peek through her wavy locks glumly.

"Alex... I know we've established this but... are you stupid?" Aubrey asked, making me give the girl a flat look, which she just returned with another exaggerated sigh, sitting back up and picking up her fork, pointing it towards me with gusto.

"Alex, did it ever occur to you that you didn't catch all of our conversation?" Aubrey asked, and I stared at her dumbly, slowly shaking my head as she hummed. "Right. You were obviously eavesdropping, which is a whole thing in itself, but you didn't even eavesdrop properly. You totally missed a key point in our conversation."

"And that was...?"

"That we were practising his confession. Practising for him to confess to you," Aubrey said, and my mouth dropped. Aubrey sighed for the millionth time in the past hour, the girl seeming to have the weight of the world on her shoulders. "And we both know how much good all that practise did. You both botched the job, and now I'm here to sweep up the mess, clearly."

"Aubrey, you said you talked to Elias... Does he... Is there any chance that I could..." I asked tentatively, bracing myself for Aubrey's response. 

Because what if, after all this, Elias's feelings for me disappeared? What if I broke what little we had to the point of disrepair?

Why had I come to this world in the first place, if not to...

Find Elias.

I had often wondered, lying in my bed alone at night, why I was sent here of all places after I died. I was sure that there were many others worlds and stories that I could have been sent to, but I was sent here.

There were definitely plenty of other worlds where I could find copy-and-pasted high schools like this one. There were other worlds where I could find a mundane accounting job and build the career I never got to have. And there were definitely other worlds where I could pass the time taken away from me, day by boring day.

But, there was only one world that had Elias.

There was only one story that gave me the chance to love Elias.

And that story was this one, right here, right now.

My story.

Suddenly, my mind seemed to clear, the clouds parting.

Oh God, I'm the protagonist, aren't I?

I'm the protagonist that is dense as rocks.

I'm the protagonist who gets caught up in a love triangle, a love triangle that was just one big misunderstanding because I was yet another blind protagonist that couldn't read between the lines.

I'm the protagonist that fucks everything up with the main lead because of their stupid actions.

And... I'm the protagonist that has to get their shit together before the final chapter, and right their wrongs to find what they were looking for amongst all of those pages.

"Holy shit, I am so stupid," I whispered, Aubrey nodding in agreement as she licked up the last crumbs of her cake, gently putting down her fork and folding her hands under her chin, newfound gleam in her eyes.

"Yep, good to see that we're finally in agreement. And to answer your question, Elias definitely still loves you, even if you hurt him pretty bad. It's not that easy to just stop loving someone, and let's be honest here. Considering how much of a dumbass you usually are, I think Elias was still partially expecting to be shot down," Aubrey said, making me the protagonist currently banging their head on the table in the middle of the cafe.

"But Elias has been avoiding me ever since then, how am I supposed to fix everything when he can't even look at my face?"

Aubrey and I frowned, mulling together with our rapidly cooling drinks, before our heads snapped up at the same time. Smiles brewed on our faces simultaneously.

"Alex..."

"Aubrey..."

The two of us beamed like maniacs, knowing that we had the exact same thing in mind. 

Because great protagonist minds think alike, as they say.

A/N: Sorry for the wait, but we're getting to the climax soon, I promise... It's not about the destination, it's about the journey ;) Have patience, my friends...

Hope you enjoyed the chapter and see you in the next one x