According to Google, a kiss is a caress with the lips as a sign of sexual desire, love, or greeting. It was probably a usual greeting to Dre, the thought of the awkwardness between them left Jade in a pickle. She was thankful he couldn't tutor her for the meantime, she had succeeded in avoiding him throughout the week without raising any suspicions. She also got closer to Tristan, it was like the more time she spent with him the more she couldn't stay away from him.

When Tristan was not with her, the thoughts of how Dre felt about the kiss bothered her, was the kiss bothering him as much as it was disturbing her? Or was she another one of the numerous girls he had toyed with their emotions.

"I feel stupid enough, stop whining." Her legs were crossed as she sat on her bed face-timing her best friend, Josephine.

"I just think it was crazy of you to kiss him back after what happened here."

"This one is single, I'm sure of that but it was still a mistake that will never happen again."

"You also thought Toby was single, you're lucky your parents believed the I fell when I was running story," Josephine rolled her eyes, "I can't believe Steph beat you up for messing with her secret boyfriend." She finally said falling from her bed as she rolled on the floor laughing.

~•~

☯Seven nights before the competition:

He stared at her as she laughed at Ray's ridiculous questions, a tear fell from her eye when she rolled on the floor with her hands on her stomach.

He couldn't help but smile as he pretended to focus on the Math textbook in front of him. Max had his headphones on, his legs were crossed as he sat away from them in front of the study table with his own math textbook.

"It's almost six," Rachel stated as she checked her wristwatch before sitting on the bed with Alex.

"How are you always so hyper?" Ray asked as he finally unpacked his bag.

"I'm a superwoman!" She laughed, moving close to his face.

"I'm done," Max announced moving his headphone to his neck.

"Finally!" The trio grumbled.

"Let's start?" Rachel said as they formed a circle on the bed.

"I'll take history." Rachel raised her hand enthusiastically.

"English." Ray offered.

"Maths, so we'll start with maths." Max and Alex said.

"We'll start by revising differential calculus..." Max started as the group brought their various textbooks out.

With Max and Alex exchanging topics to revise for the calculations, they studied and trued the previous questions and topics they didn't understand all night long, stopping for snacks and meaningless talks sometimes.

"Can we go to bed now?" Ray asked making Rachel nod as she yawned.

"I guess it's late," Alex looked at the digital clock saying 4:58 am on the wall.

"We're leaving to our room. Good morning." Max said supporting a half-sleeping Ray to the opposite room.

"Good morning," Alex and Rachel mumbled to their retreating backs.

"We never talked about this," Rachel said packing the books on the bed.

"I'll sleep on the floor." He shrugged laying the bed.

"Just sleep on the right side of the bed. We'll create a forte." She scoffed resting on the wall.

"With two pillows?" He raised his brows as his lips curved.

"It's enough!" She chuckled tossing a pillow at him.

"Let's just sleep like we usually do but with a safe distance," she signed with a small smile, "you know pretend like we never dated?"

"It's really that easy." He gave her strained smile as he laid down on the right side of the bed turning his back at her.

"Alex..."

"Good morning Rachel, you need to get a little rest. We have to get up before seven." He ended the conversation in a cold tone.

~•~

"Are you avoiding me?" Dre raised his head from the table as Jade contemplated sitting beside him in the physics class.

"What makes you think I'm avoiding you?"

"Just sit, that's the only spare seat." He rolled his eyes facing the board.

"So how--"

"The teacher is talking." He cut her off without glancing at her.

"Class is over." Jade tapped Alex slightly, he slept through the class. The dot of sweats on his face indicated that he was having a nightmare.

"He's a heavy sleeper." Rachel said yawning as she kicked the table startling Dre before walking away.

"Rachel?" He turned as Jade nodded at his question.

"She looked tired too..." Her right brow was raised, lips were folded as her eyes did nothing but question him.

"Yeah, we were together the entire night." He shrugged packing his bag and leaving the class.

"I am such an idiot." She mumbled as she raised her head as she pinched the bridge of her nose to stop unnecessary tears.

⚛Six nights before the competition:

"Wake up lazy bean!" Max said pushing Rachel off her bed.

"Ouch!" She groaned with her face flat on the floor.

"Don't be too tired we're working on history today." Ray sat on the bed with a lollipop in his hand.

"I'm prepared." She rubbed her face, walking to her study table cupboards to pick some textbooks.

"I'll start with some easy questions..." She flipped the pages of a book, "here's a good one, the colony of Virginia was colonized by?"

Silence enveloped them for seconds before Max said, "I don't know, the female's --"

"I really dare you to complete that sentence." She squeezed her eyes waiting patiently for his reply. Ray and Dre stared at them, struggling to hold their laughter in. Max played with his textbook shrugging as he tried hard not to laugh.

"We have a long way to go." Rachel sighed shaking her head, "Open to page one-thirty-six..."

A long night filled with the boys' rants about how history shouldn't be a subject and Rachel telling them that they deserved to be banned from America due to their little knowledge about the country.

"I'm so freaking tired!" She groaned closing her eyes as she dusted the bed after Max and Ray left the room.

"Hmm hmm," his eyes were shut as he rested on the wall waiting for her to finish laying the bed.

"Please don't tell me you're still mad..."

"There's really nothing to be mad about, can you hurry with that?" He asked, with no reply, she laid the bed and slept on it with her back facing him.

~•~

"Are you really still avoiding me?"

"Me? Avoid you? W-when? What..." Jade chuckled nervously backing away from him slowly.

"Okay, let's have lunch then, I know you've not eaten."

"Sure." She said in a sing-song voice.

"Stop it." He glared at her.

"Let's bounce!" She feigned her laughter as she skipped towards the cafeteria.

"Jade, you're awfully quiet," Tori stated with her brows raised.

"There's just nothing to say." She shrugged eating her rice.

"How are you preparing for the competition?" Carter asked this time.

"Ok, I guess." Her reply made them decide to eat in an uncomfortable silence.

⚛Five mornings to the competition:

"Before we sleep, I was thinking maybe we should talk?" She asked when they got to Ray's guest room.

"About what?" He laid down on the bed waiting for her reply.

"Like you know, old times?" She suggested sitting in front of him.

"Like the time I walked into a room filled with shocking events?"

"You know we can talk about it if you want." She shrugged unfazed by the topic he chose.

"I'll pass. Thanks for the offer." He said stretching on the bed making her move to the other side.

"Remember when we, well, I first met Ray and Max, " she laughed faintly as she faced a wall, " I swear I thought he was going to hit me." She unknowingly earned a smile from Alex.

"Reminds me when we first met, " she continued, "You looked like you were about to cry, oh my God, I'm so sorry." She said shaking mimicking his actions.

"Hey, I'm a hundred percent sure that I didn't shake," his laugh boomed in the room, "and I didn't say oh my God, you sure know how to exaggerate." He sat upright still laughing.

"It's no exaggeration if it happened."

"Since we're talking about embarrassing things, remember when..." Alex started saying and just like that, for the first time in five months, they slept with a smile on their faces.

~•~

"You look miserable, bad morning?" Tristan sat beside her in the library with his pink sweater attracting various glances.

"Wow, that's really what every girl wants to hear early in the morning."

"Did you spend all night reading too? I mean ninety-five percent of the students did the same thing and they don't look like you know..." He said using his eyes to scan her.

"I wish, I have a lot of my mind." Jade groaned stretching her upper body on the table.

"Asides the test? You're smart and new, I know, but you might want to focus on this test."

"Why is everyone hung up on this test, it's not even going to affect our grades!" She said loudly earning a few gasps from the people sitting close to their table.

"Dramatic much?" She whispered to a stunned Tristan.

"Your integrity, your life, your entire existence depends on this test!" Tristan whisper-yelled at her.

"Dude calm down, the award is just a car."

"It's not about the car, the car is just a bonus. They might look like they're not serious or joke around a lot but the only people in this library are those who find it hard to study at night. This is a cold-blooded war like you know survival of the fittest." He explained with wide eyes.

"You're exaggerating," She rolled her eyes and yawned at his dramatic explanation, "I have bigger things going on in my head."

"If you say so," he shrugged leaning down comfortably on the chair, "do you want to tell me what's going on?"

"I'd rather not," she rested her head on his shoulder, "aren't you supposed to studying?"

"No, I study comfortably at night, " he chuckled quietly and placed his head on hers, "if anything, I should be resting." He said as they both closed their eyes. One thinking about her feelings for two of her friends, the other just resting, bothered about the upcoming test.

♡︎Four mornings to the competition:

We heard you guys laughing yesterday morning." Ray stated suddenly wide awake immediately the books were closed.

"How are you..." Rachel paused looking for the right words, "... Not so sleepy again?"

"Yeah, hold on, " he had his palm facing Ray before turning to Rachel, "What? That's the best you could come up with? Not so sleepy? There goes the English Ray taught us yesterday." He shook his head and rolled his eyes jokingly earning a glare and some silent threats from her.

"So you guys are now friends or you're just tolerating each other?"

"I'll just say we're working on it."

"Cool, can we play our games?" Max asked with a raised brow.

"Sure, why not?" Alex shrugged with a smile.

"I'll get the games," Ray said dashing out of the room.

"And I'll make sure he's not wrecking my room, hopefully, we'll beat you guys this time." Max strolled out of the room.

"Do you still know how to cheat?" He whispered.

"Like my life depends on it." She mouthed laughing along with Alex.

~•~

"Good morning, you look chipper," Jade smiled standing beside him in the library.

"What?" She asked as Dre stared at her instead of replying.

He shrugged saying, "You're talking to me and I'm not even forcing you..." He rested slightly on the shelf squinting his eyes, "...Are you sick?"

"No, I'm not, I just everything to go back to normal..." She started talking as Dre leaned towards her, "What are you doing?" She asked moving away from him slightly.

"Just this." He connected his lips with hers as they repeated the past event that put a strain on their friendship, once again, she kissed him back. She couldn't deny the fact that she enjoyed it, enjoyed it was honestly an understatement but it was wrong, it didn't matter if he still loved his ex or not, as long as he was sleeping with her it was wrong.

"You can't just kiss me anytime you want," She broke the kiss off and glanced at the thankfully, empty shelf row before eyeing him.

"It's not like you didn't reciprocate," He rolled his eyes and folded his arms.

"Look, you can't be sleeping with your ex or any other person, then you come around kissing me like- like- like something I can't say."

"I'm not sleeping with Rachel, what gave you that idea?"

"You! You said you guys were together all night on Monday."

"Yes, but I never said I slept with her,"

"So you didn't sleep on the same bed with her?"

"I never said that too,"

"Dre, I really can't do this," She tried walking away but his firm grip on her wrist prevented it.

"We were studying, I mean we can't sleep on cold floors."

"Studying?"

"Yes for the competition, she really--" he stopped himself, "this is not about Rachel, it's about you, us."

"I don't know." She puffed her cheeks up.

"You," he pulled her closer to his body, "can take," he leaned in, "all the time," he pecked her lips, "you need." He gave a cheeky grin as he leaned into another kiss.

❦︎Three mornings to the competition:

"Did she finish it?" Max asked Alex as he checked Rachel's practice note.

"Yes," he nodded yawning at the same time Ray and Max did.

"We'll cross-check it tomorrow then, it's Friday after all," Max said as he tapped Ray encouraging to stand up, so they could leave to their room.

"Can you guys help with Rachel?"

"Nope, she's your roommate," Ray waved him off as he stumbled to their room.

"Idiot," he said loud enough for Ray's to hear, "Come on, let's try to get up." He tapped her gently.

"It's no use, you love sleep too much." He said to her sleeping body. He got up from the bed to pack the books on the bed, he dusted the bed as much as he could moving her body to the other side to dust it.

He used the duvet to cover her body, not without touching her cold hand, "Why is your hand so cold?" He asked her sleeping body again using his fingers to brush the hair on her face. He shook his head with a small smile and tried to let go of her hand but she held it tightly.

"Stay." He heard her mumble.

"I'm not going anywhere." He knew she was sleep talking it was not the first time, he tried snatching his hand again but to no avail.

He sighed knowing it was pointless, he slept close to her their hands holding each other as he slept his heart pounding and a smile couldn't rid of.

~•~

"Hey, do you want to visit the janitor's closet?" He rested beside her open locker with a smile and a wink.

"I don't know, to do what?" She smiled slyly.

"How about we get there and then you find out?"

"Hold on," she chuckled emptying the books in her bag inside her locker.

The janitor's closet was the emptiest room in the school, mostly because the janitor's job starts before and after school, it was also the only Tori place felt she could read without any disturbance.

"Yeah, I'll call you later." Her phone was placed between her shoulder and neck as she opened the lock with her bobby pin.

"What in the utmost fuck?!" She yelled as she watched her friends detach, "This cannot be happening!" Her fist slammed the nearest object close to her.

Oh my gosh, Tori finally found out. How long is it going to take the rest of them Rachel not excluded?

What do you think of the chapter? Was it good, bad, you can do better or average?

I really want to know.

♡︎Do vote, comment, and share if you like the story so far.

Thanks for reading, I really appreciate it. We're getting closer to the ending!🤧

Who do you ship?
Rachel and Alexandre or Jade and Alexandre?