Alice zigzagged between the crowd of students, paying attention only to her phone. Carolina kept texting her about joining them for dinner later, yet she was ignoring most of the texts to talk to Giovanni.

Since she gave him her phone number, they started texting each other. It wasn't a regular thing, but whenever Alice was bored, she talked to him. She would ramble about this and that, and he would pay attention. Even now, she complained about her sister and her boyfriend always making out on her sofa and he told her about his roommate and boyfriend.

The classroom was empty when she arrived. Even the teacher wasn't there, which was odd of him. She walked the staircase to the back row and sat on her usual seat, next to Nicole. Andrew was supposed to sit on the other side of Nicole; Alice learned not to mind it. Why would she? He didn't mind it either.

Her phone started ringing and Carolina's name flashed on the screen, hiding her conversation with the boy. She pressed the red button and quickly typed an apology about the class beginning. That wasn't an excuse for the girl, true or not, but it was for Alice. The day hadn't started well because of Isabel's antics. Carolina did not need to make it worse.

The teacher walked in, chatting with Andrew. He was probably annoying him about joining a more advanced class, as usual. This time, he would probably take it. Alice wouldn't care if he did so.

Andrew walked up the stairs and greeted her with a restrained smile, sitting one chair away from her. Both of them couldn't wait for Nicole to arrive and create a barrier between them.

She concentrated on her phone, yet Giovanni excused himself to go to class and she no longer had a reason to avoid him. Tapping on the table impatiently, she stole glances at him once in a while. Andrew was typing on his screen, probably texting someone as she was before.

Jace was with the rest of his friends in some clandestine club. They liked to go undercover so their parents wouldn't find out. Even if they were legal adults, they still relied all on their parents' money.

Alice knew none of his American friends. She never asked about them and he never told her. Those small things, she realised once in a while, helped her understand how ridiculous she was being. She felt embarrassed, but it was good that she was learning to let go, and realise what really happened between them. At least that's what Dr Vera said.

"Can I ask you something?" She turned to him, head in her hands.

Waiting for Nicole was becoming impracticable, as the silence was driving her nuts.

"Sure." He looked back at her, putting his phone away.

Alice licked her lips, choosing her words carefully. If she messed up again, maybe he would stop talking to her for good. Yet, Dr Vera always encouraged her to express her feelings.

Her fingers fidgeted in her lap, twisting and pulling the tips. There was something she was dying to know, but she didn't want to ask. Afraid that would only pull them even more apart, she still wanted to revive their friendship.

"Are you interested in Nicole?"

As soon as the words left her mouth, she regretted them. His head turned to her instantly, a light frown starting on his brow.

"Look, I'm sorry I slept with her, but it's not what you think," he explained. "I wasn't using you and I have no interest in her. She's a friend."

It was weird to call her that. Sure, they had spent weeks together at The Bookmark, but that wasn't friendship. He would like it if it were, but it wasn't. No matter if he enjoyed spending time with her and laughing over warm drinks, she still had a tough skin and it was impossible to know what she thought of him.

"Friends don't sleep with each other..."

Before another argument could start, a shadow lurked behind them and Nicole fell on the middle chair. She hid her head in her arms, forehead against the table, and her golden locks spilt all around.

"Nicole?" Alice poked her.

The girl waved a dismissive hand and asked her to whisper. The night before was spent at the local club dancing with a thousand different strangers and drinking too much. Her head felt too heavy and her eyelids refused to stay open for long. The noise people were making was too much for her restless self.

"What happened to you?" Andrew asked.

"Nothing," she yawned. "Just got little sleep last night."

Alice guessed she found some random guy to entertain herself. She was wrong, of course. Nicole only partied until late hours and then crashed at Miguel's after. The only remotely interesting thing one could say happened was when Diana came downstairs to bring drinks to the club's singers and Nicole almost started a fight with her ex-roommate.

Almost all the students had arrived, and the teacher began the class. Nicole didn't bother to look up, likely to spend the rest of the class asleep if she had five seconds of peace. Blocking out the surrounding sound had always been something easy, yet she rarely did it since she finished high school.

Andrew was paying attention to the lecture, knowing Nicole could take care of herself. However, Alice couldn't take her eyes off the girl's head. If Andrew and Giovanni really had any interest in her as she believed, then they had no chances because Nicole did things like that. She had no respect for herself in her eyes, going from man to man without a care in the world.

Alice could still recall when they first met. Back then, she wasn't so careless, so rude. She had always been sceptical about the world and the people in it, but she didn't look at men as disposable and horrifying as she did now. There was even a boy she loved, one she was blinded by.

The first time Alice saw Nicole, sitting in the back row of French class the year before with her boots on the table, she thought she was some sort of delinquent. Nicole always looked unapproachable, never paying attention to class and never talking to anyone around her.

One day, Nicole drew Alice in her sketchbook. She had found the girl cute with her peach coloured hair and whimsical clothes. The drawing was all in graphite grey; still she captured the whacky vibe she saw on the girl.

"You dress like Phoebe," she once told her, though Alice didn't know who was she talking about.

It was that very first picture that made Alice talk to the girl. A very nice girl, she remembered. One with an amiable smile and full of jokes. Something had shattered with time, piece by piece, until she finally broke up with the beloved boyfriend she talked less and less about with the passing days. Alice didn't blame him for her change. It was something so slow no one could have noticed. Yet, she knew Miguel had heard detailed versions of what she had never learned and he hated Tomás more than anyone in the world. More than Jenny.

As the class ended, Alice got up without waiting for any of them. Her next class had been cancelled, so she was going to research for a project she had to do in the school's library. Andrew had stayed behind to wake Nicole up, which was a troublesome job.

"What?" she heard Nicole exclaim. "Ali! Carol- Dinner!"

A loud thud was enough to tell her the girl was back to dreamland and her headache had just got bigger.

The university's library was next to the law building, a large, worn-out limestone pavement where students walked back and forth separating them. The school by itself was a monument, but the library was famous for the oldest and rarest books, needing special permissions to be consulted. It was huge, designed in the baroque style, with high ceilings and books on the gold-lined shelves.

Bag over her shoulder, she walked inside to the most hidden rooms, and threw her bag over a table. To find anything, it was always needed the help of a worker, since in such a big place it was hard to find anything. Alice was about to ask for help when she saw a blond-haired boy alone at a table.

"Hello, there," she whispered, startling Giovanni.

He jumped in his seat, pushing his glasses up his nose, and shot her a meek smile. The library was his favourite place, since it was so quiet and so beautiful. He would spend hours and hours there just studying or reading in peace.

"Why are you here?"

She shrugged. "Research. What are you doing here?"

"I'm reading," he said, ashamed because everyone thought it was lame.

"Cool. Do you want to go grab a milkshake? There's a diner close with the best shakes ever."

She still needed to work on her project, yet now that she had someone to distract her, it could wait. Eventually, she would sit down and work on it, even if it took the entire night.

"The Bookmark?" he questioned. It was the only he actually knew.

She shook her head. "That's on the other side of town. Let's go to Emerald Market. It's a whole other world."

He stared at the book in his hands and put it in his bag.

"Let's go."

🖤🤍🖤

Heavy drops hit the window and slid down slowly, the fastest hitting the slowest and becoming one. Men and women ran under the thick rain with black, boring umbrellas to their cars. The clock had hit six o'clock, and many were leaving their jobs and picking up their kids. Only the sound of rain hitting the floor could be heard in the middle of the commotion of people stepping into puddles without noticing. Their umbrellas were so useless they wouldn't know if someone threw a bucket of water on them.

"Do you think it's funny?" Nicole asked, sitting on the counter.

Andrew looked away from the window, still wearing a faint smile, when his eyes locked with hers.

"The kid sticking his tongue out into the rain? Definitely."

They were alone that night. When it rained, people rushed home and didn't bother coming to grab a cup of coffee or something to eat. The good thing about The Bookmark was its location. It was close enough to campus but also right next to some big companies and hugely staffed corporations. Yet the rain made the clientele run away.

"I hate to make you work, but can you get me another cup of coffee?" he asked, closing his laptop.

She jumped off the counter and took his mug to refill it. It was a mystery to her how he slept with so much caffeine in his veins.

"What about orange juice? Or a milkshake? Or anything that will not keep you awake at night."

"The only thing that keeps me awake at night is your scowl," he joked. "Get me whatever you want. Just make it warm."

"Are you allergic to anything?"

He shook his head, so she went inside the kitchen and started preparing his drink. Although he had let the choice up to her, she already knew what she wanted to do. The first time she made him hot chocolate, his reaction had pleased her and now she wanted to impress him just the same way. If he didn't like it, his free drinks were over. Not that she gave him any.

She started boiling the tea and mixing everything else on the side the same way Oliver had taught her and she had taught Jenny. It was a simple process for her. She had done it a thousand times.

When she was done, he was walking through the shop, looking at the books on the shelves. It was almost a rule to see him sitting down on his chair or on the floor with Eliza that it felt strange to see him walking. He was much taller than she remembered, not as tall as Lucas, but almost a whole head above her. If she wasn't wearing heels, the top of her head would probably not reach his chin.

"Your drink," she said.

He turned around and took it slowly from her hands, holding where her fingers were so he didn't burn his skin. The drink was white with brownish dots all over. It was fuming and smelled faintly of vanilla.

"Oh, you drew a flower. So cute," he mock pouted.

She rolled her eyes and walked away, leaning against the wall. Her eyes were glued to him, waiting for him to sit down again and stop making her feel so short. He didn't seem interested in doing so.

"Don't look at me like that, Stalker," he complained. "Just because I'm your last client doesn't mean you can make me uncomfortable."

"I don't think you get uncomfortable that easy."

She had seen and heard Eliza do and say a thousand inappropriate things to him, and he never flinched. Even when she painted a pink butterfly on his face, he only smiled. Nicole suspected he would've actually gone home like that if she didn't clean him in the bathroom.

Now that he enjoyed walking to places instead of taking his car, there would be many people staring at his poorly drawn butterfly. Still, he would've walked twenty minutes to his house with people whispering. He had told her to stay away from him, afraid she'd scrape the skin off his face, but he was surprised to have his face so gently cleaned.

"And you don't look like you care about anything," he noted, completely unaware of how false his words were. "What is it I'm drinking?"

He took his very first sip. It tasted, as expected, of vanilla, but not coffee. Although he had heard her complain about the coffee, he thought that was what she brought him. It had a flavour unfamiliar to him.

"Vanilla Chai Latte."

"Is that tea or something?"

She nodded, picking on her nails. Andrew leaned against a column in front of her, warming his slender fingers against the teacup.

"I'm seriously considering kidnapping you to make me drinks."

She laughed, and he was mesmerised. It was a rare occasion, yet that melodic sound made his own lips twist upwards. He wasn't sure if he liked it because it was so unusual or for an entirely different reason.

Nicole didn't like how the conversation ended, so she changed the subject. She loved and hated silence. Being alone with her thoughts was nice, but there were times she couldn't be alone with them. The nights were the worst. When everything was dark and some fluttering memory haunted her. Those nights she hid between hazy colours and blurred places by the lights of alcohol and the loud music.

"Can I get your opinion on something?"

He gasped dramatically. "You care about my opinion? I am shocked!"

"I don't. I just want a male opinion."

She disappeared into the backroom to come back with two bags from different stores. From the first one, she took a short, baby pink dress, and from the second, a grey one, longer than the other but still above the knee.

"So, for my sister, which one?"

He stared at both, taken aback because she was asking him that. He didn't think she was going to ask something so... trivial.

"The one on the left seems pretty, but I don't know what your sister looks like," he admitted, pointing at the one with the golden chain as the left shoulder strap. It was the pink one, but he didn't know that.

"Just like me," Nicole said, "So the question is which one looks better on me?"

He almost rolled his eyes. That was what everyone said about their family, but in the end the only thing similar was the hair colour. His mum, for example, always said he and Abby were like twins, which was impossible, but nobody bothered telling her that.

"I'm going to keep my answer for safety."

"I mean, the pink one is prettier, but grey looks better, don't you think?"

Andrew just nodded. He was used to playing pretend, but he didn't feel like doing so at that moment. For a split second, he thought about just telling her, but why would he tell her of all people when not even his friends knew?

"I don't know."

"You're not helping."

He shrugged and laid on the sofa, crossing his arms behind his head to look at her after leaving the empty cup on the table. Nicole was still waving the dresses in front of his face, quickly annoyed at his dismissal.

"Is it your sister's birthday? What's her name?"

"Rita. And no, it isn't. She's coming soon and I won't be seeing her until Christmas, so I'm just sending presents through her while I can."

Christmas was still weeks away, but that made him think about his own. He wasn't coming back home to be skinned alive and locked inside the basement of some remote island, that was for sure. Maybe being alone wasn't such a terrible idea.

"Aren't you going to spend the holidays with her?"

She shook her head and put the dresses inside the bags again, giving up on Andrew. Maybe he could've been helpful if she hadn't picked those colours.

"She'll be home with my dad and his family. I'm not going there no matter what," she said, sitting on the sofa across from him. "Carol won't be here, nor Ali and Isabel. Maybe I'll spend it with Miguel or Jenny. One of them, for sure."

One of them, never both.

"If your sister is coming from America for Christmas, why don't you go with her?" He wasn't criticising, simply inquiring.

"She's not," Nicole frowned. "I have two sisters."

He hadn't realised that. They never talked about family business. Even if he was curious about her, he was also thankful the conversation never touched those subjects. It was enough having a thousand missed calls and messages from his sister and parents, well, his sister and mother, at least.

"Rita is the one here. Laura is staying with her roommates over there," she explained. "What about you? Are you going home?"

He shook his head. Nicole felt bad for him, even if she didn't know his reasons. There was a certain curiosity towards the mysterious man who never talked about himself, yet she respected his boundaries. She knew about Abby, the sister Alice freaked out about, but that was it and it hadn't been Andrew to tell her about it.

"Don't you miss your family?" she asked.

"Don't you miss yours?" he shot back.

Nicole rolled her eyes and laid on the pillows, holding her head with her hand and staring at him. She would give him something, hoping he'd give her more in return.

"I miss my sisters. They're my family. My father is just an asshole."

Talking about him wasn't something easy for her. They hadn't spoken in months, but she was thankful he paid for university.

"I could say the same, but I don't think I'll miss anyone, honestly," Andrew said. "Maybe my mom or Emmy, the maid."

He always loved Emmy. She was more a mother to him than his actual mother. Since he was a kid, she was the one to sneak him turkey sandwiches when he was forbidden to eat between meals; the one to take him to the park with his friends and to push him on the swing. Even when he moved out, she still called him every day to make sure he was okay.

"Not Abby?" Nicole asked.

Andrew wasn't surprised she knew his sister. He realised Alice had told her every single thing about their relationship while it lasted.

"Abigail is a self-centred prick. If there is one thing I do not miss, is her constant complaining."

Every text he deleted from her was the same whiny protest about how their father was being hard on her because he left. Andrew knew once he was gone, his father's harsh words would fall on her and he didn't mind it. It was time she knew what it was like to be in his shoes. Being daddy's favourite wasn't an assured spot.

"You can always spend Christmas with us," Nicole invited. "I'm not sure who us is, but you can."

"Thank you."

His smile was faint. The whole family conversation had made him dread his return home.

The clock kept ticking. The pointer was closer and closer to the end of the shift. In that annoying noise, he found comfort, but also a certain tension. He didn't want Nicole to leave, and he didn't want to go home. He didn't want to be alone in that house again.

"Your shift is ending," he said.

"Are you staying or going?"

He shrugged. "Maybe I'll go to one of those clubs you enjoy."

She shook her head slow, hugging a pillow tight to her body. Enjoy. She thought bitterly. I don't know what I enjoy anymore.

"Why do you spend so much time here? Why not go home?"

He didn't bother coming up with an excuse. Sometimes he wanted to be vulnerable, no matter the cost.

"The silence is too loud. I don't enjoy being alone there."

Nicole could relate to that, but her way of coping was much more self-destructive than his. Her way of coping was not coping at all, yet nobody could see how she was hurting, how she was blocking everything out. She was screaming from the bottom of a well; the water rising higher and higher every day, and nobody above could hear her. She was drowning with no one to help.

She reached for his hand, their fingertips touching lightly. It could've been a bonding moment, yet she was still Nicole, twisted in all wrong places, looking at the world through a hole.

"Let's not be alone tonight."

She sat by his side and cupped his face in her hands. It wasn't affection, and he saw through it in a second. A gleam of disappointment flashed across his eyes and he pushed her away, holding her wrists between his fingers.

"I told you I'm not your sex toy."

She pouted slightly. Men liked when she acted innocent, and they loved when she begged.

"Didn't the first time cause you enough problems with Alice?"

That hadn't even crossed her mind. Alice had forgiven her already. She didn't need more reasons to never talk to her again. Yet, there he was, with his pretty lips and shiny eyes, looking at her through thick lashes. Nicole wanted to run her fingers through his hair, kiss his jaw, feel the warmth of his body against hers-

"Your coworker is here."

She turned around, staring at the girl who had just walked into the shop. The waitress went to the backroom to change and Nicole got up, dusting her apron and walking behind the counter.

"Sorry," she said. "I'm not doing it again."

Why is Nicole like that? *hits head against the wall in fury*

This chapter took 2 weeks to write and I had to delete it completely once, I hope it is decent now.

Hope you guys are enjoying the story so far. If you're not, don't blame me, blame the plot.

Any predictions so far?

Thank you for reading ;)