"But it worked!" Sasha shrugged while I sat staring at her with crossed arms.
"He's my brother, who else would help him?"

"I can't believe I fell for that thing."

"Did you just call him a thing?" Sophie's voice came through the phone and I saw Sasha narrowing her eyes.

"No! The Rosaline crush thing."

"Oh, okay. But I had to know something."

"What thing?" I frowned, stuffing food into my mouth.

"If you saw him like a brother." She sighed.

Nope. Not going there.

"Believe me, she never did." Sophie giggled and I closed my eyes, sighing.

Now I know how Zack felt yesterday.

"The moment I said Rosaline, I knew he wasn't a brother for her." She smirked. "But she could still not like him that way, that's why it took so long."

"How long did you know?" Sophie asked and she grinned in response.

"Before sleepover."

Oh god.

"You say your version of this story and I'll say mine. How's that?"

"No. That's not good. Shut up Sophie." I hissed and they both laughed, the sound of pure evil ringing in my ears.

"No way, come on Sasha."

"Yeah. One day, he came back from a party, pretty drunk and just casually talked about anything and everything." She chuckled, probably thinking about it. "And then, he was like 'it's not a crush anymore! I like her!' Oh boy, it was so fun. I even thought about recording it."

"Crush anymore?"

"Yeah, he had a crush on our little Eve, even before that. But he knew you were caught up with your mom and stuff. So..." She trailed off.

"Now, listen." She took a sip of her drink before continuing, "So, I took advantage of that perfect situation and asked him who that 'her' was. And he said her name, of course. Literally he said of course with it. 'Evelyn, of course. Who else?'"

"We're not continuing this." I shook my head, trying to snatch the phone but Sasha took it with a smirk.

"Oh, we are. And now, where were we Sophie? Ah yes, when the boys came, they all knew about this. You ever thought why they were so close with you even though they just met you that day, Eve? Yeah, that's it. They knew all about you, heard almost every good thing about you and liked you even before they met you."

I mean, I remember Sasha saying Zack's friends were very likable and friendly, once the ice is broken.

Who knew the ice was already broken into pieces? I just thought they were extreme extroverts who loved to talk and meet new people.

She smiled with a shrug. "So, speaking clearly, everybody knew except you."

The word embarrassed wasn't enough to describe the feeling I had.

"But I was a bit confused about Tyler, like, maybe you wanted to give him a chance or something. So, I thought we'll keep it to ourselves until I'm sure about it." Sasha sighed. "But thanks to Tyler, everything ended up nicely."

"Now it's my turn." Sophie said and a volcano erupted in my mind.

"No!" I whisper-shouted.

"Yes! Say Sophie, I wanna hear what's it." Sasha said, all interested.

"Well... This girl sitting right next to you, or opposite to you... I don't know because I can't see. So, I always used to tease her about Zack. And the first clue I ever got was that she never asked me to shut up. So, it was a possibility right from the start."

Someone please make her stop talking.

"The night Tyler said he likes her, she called me, said it, and then said she has a crush on Zack."

"Yeah, about that... good that you told me." Sasha said, smirking as she eyed Zack, who was sitting with his friends as usual. "I didn't knew she had a crush on him." she said, air quotes around the word 'crush'.

"Nuh-uh. Not had darling, has."

"You told her?" I asked Sophie, fully dumbstruck.

"So, what?" Sasha raised her eyebrows challengingly. "You didn't tell me. And thank god you told me, Soph. I'd probably ask him to wait a few more days if you didn't tell me that."

"I'll get back at you, Sophie." I growled and just got a laugh in return.

"Enough of this, now tell me about your date." I said, hoping they'd change the topic.

"This is never going to be enough, but yeah, I've to talk a lot about mine so I'm giving it a break now." She said before starting her story.

It was a miracle how I got out of the college without dying due to severe embarrassment. Stupid Sophie spat everything I blabbered.

"I was surprised when he said your name, but was happy too because I love you so much." Sasha said, on the way to café and I couldn't resist smiling.

"Don't hurt him, cheat on him and Do NOT bunk classes leaving me alone in that stupid class. Okay?" She said, her face almost serious. I nodded quickly and she sighed. "I've said these same things to him too, so don't worry, he won't hurt you. If you both fight, act like you didn't, in front of me."

I couldn't help but chuckle.

A day ago, I was wondering how I'll say it to him without wrecking our friendship and here we are.

"Hey Marissa," I smiled, grabbing the apron and heard Jake sniffing.

"Marissa do you smell something? I think I can. Looks like love is in the air." He sang, smirking and I threw the apron roll at him.

"Shut up, you idiot!"

"Ahem, don't think he can save you from me. I'll rip your head open, lovesick puppy." He teased again and this time, I threw my whole bag at his face.

"We know who's lovesick, right Marissa?" I asked, hoping she'd support me.

"True. You can't argue that, Jakey." She chuckled, pulling me in. "But, but, but. Who knows you won't follow his path?"

I shot a 'Et tu, Brute?' look at her as she smiled.

"My little girl has grown up now!" Jake said as if he's my grandfather and I shoved him.

"I have dated before, stupid."

"I know you've dated someone stupid before. But look at you, it's been five years since we've met and this is your first date!" He sat next to me, draping an arm over my shoulder.

"I think he's a good guy." He smiled. "Like me."

"Ew, I don't want him then." I scrunched my nose and got a smack on my head in return.

"But, if he's quite the opposite of what I thought, just tell me and we'll kick his ass. How about that?" He wiggled his eyebrows at me and I smiled.

"Sounds good." It felt good to hear that, even though I know Zack would never hurt me intentionally.

Being his friend for almost a year, I'm sure about that.

"Great. But call me when you're kicking Tyler's bloody ass." He said, stretching his arms. "I'm lazy today."

"Why am I not surprised, Eve?" Marissa sighed shaking her head as we started working.
.
.
.
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I glanced at my watch. It's almost eight and Zack will be here anytime.

Technically speaking, it was our first date. But actually, we've spent way more time before. From a fancy restaurant to park, we've covered almost every spots.

My phone beeped, notifying a text as it pulled me back from my thoughts.

Sophie : what's the colour of your dress?

Which dress?

Sophie : the one you're wearing today. For your date!

That's actually when I thought about the 'date'. I looked down at my clothes- a faded blue Jean and a plain white top. Well, that completely slipped my mind.

I just hope he isn't thinking about something formal.

Oh, speak of the devil.

There he was. Zack Donovan Smith, getting out of his car and walking towards me.

He raised his eyebrow, smiling at me as my eyes took him in those white t-shirt and denim jacket, which made him look good as usual. I noticed that his deep brown hair was still damp, a few strands mischievously falling onto his forehead.

That didn't quite help me to decode the type of place we're going.

"Hey," he smiled, as I walked towards him.

"Hey, what's up?"

"Ah, not bad actually. Dating a working woman is quite hard." I heard him say as I got in his car.

"Oh?" I couldn't hide my smirk, no matter how much I tried.

"But it's okay. I love working women." He winked as we drove off, making me smile.

"I'm sorry if you were expecting me to wear a dress. I mean,like, if you were planning a formal date." I blurted out. After all, saying sorry was my forte.

"Nah, I prefer this over dress anyway. Not that I won't like you wearing a dress, I'd like that too. But I like it when we're ourselves."

I could kiss him right now.

"And here we are," he mumbled, stopping at a restaurant and gave me his hand. With a smile, I slid mine into his.

"So, who's with our boys?" He asked as our food arrived.

"Maria, who else?"

He chuckled, nodding. "Next time I'm taking you on a date, I'm gonna ask their permission."

Great idea! Especially when they had already planned a wedding for us.

I'm not gonna say it to him, though.

"No way, that's gonna motivate Theo and the next moment, he'll be thinking about taking Mira out. No thanks."

"Who's Mira?"

"Well, actually speaking, it's Theo's friend. But that's not what's in his mind, I guess." He laughed at that. "And she once said she likes him too, I think that gave him the idea."

"I'm telling you, he's gonna be a total player. I think he's Justin's follower." He said, making me chuckle.

"That's a possibility." I said as my eyes caught someone on our left.

"I got a great lecture on how not to hurt you  by Sasha today." He sighed.

"That's great, she warned me too. Don't cheat on you, don't hurt you."

"Ah, that's the same shit she told me. Anyway, I don't think I'll do either of that. You know, I really am afraid of your strong brothers."

"Yeah, that makes sense." I said, making him smirk. "Did Rosaline ever told you about her crush?" I asked, now that I didn't have to care about it.

"Huh? Oh, that." He sighed. "No, she didn't say it, but it was pretty evident."

"And you said what?"I asked as my gaze shifted to the same person, whose eyes were on Zack.

That person was a girl. And she kept glancing at Zack, ignoring the little girl who was talking to her.

"Pretended like I didn't have any clue?"

"That's mean." I mumbled as he smirked and I told him all about Sasha's weird way of finding out things.

"So we can't blame her alone. You assumed." He said, shaking his head with a smile.

"Yeah, but she made me assume it. She's cunning."

"See? I've been saying that to mom and dad for years! They still think she's naive and I'm the villain." He sighed and I saw the girl again, this time, craning her neck to get a better view.

"I think you should tilt your head a bit, so that she can get a better look at your face." I blurted out and he frowned.

"She? Who?" He looked around and then at me.

"That girl on your left." He did a full turn in his chair, finally finding her and she gave him a bright smile.

"Oh, you mean she was checking me out?" He smirked.

Oh, hell no.

"No, maybe you look like her brother." I said biting my cheek to prevent a smile.

"Ouch. FYI, she was. You want proof? I'll go say hi to her and maybe chat a bit. Let's see if she'll give me her number."

"No. Why would I want that? Just sit where you are. I don't have any doubts." I said and his smirk grew wider.

"Anyway it's good she's checking me out. Because, you know, that makes us even. She saved my ego from getting hurt." He smiled, looking at me.

"Huh?" I frowned, making his smile drop for a second and then he snickered.

"Oh, you didn't even glance at the waiter, did you?"

I looked around, just like he did, but couldn't see any waiter.

"Which waiter?"

"The one who served us. Poor guy, he was trying to get your attention." He chuckled, shaking his head. "I won't blame you though, maybe I'm charming enough that you couldn't take your eyes off me, even for a second."

"You think?" I raised an eyebrow with a smirk at his overconfidence, which sort of was correct. I mean, for me.

"I know you're going to hurt my ego, so I won't answer that." He sighed, placing his hands on table. "Shall we leave?"

"Hmm, yeah." I nodded, smiling.

Zack paid for our dinner. When I opened my mouth as he opened his wallet, he shushed me, saying it was his turn.

Now where? I wanted to ask. But I didn't. I took in the cool wind, coming through the window and closed my eyes.

"Asleep?" His voice made me them and I realised that the car wasn't moving anymore.

"No, I was just... Why did you stop? Are we going back?"

"Oh, you wish." He mumbled, getting out and I did the same to find out that we were in a strangely familiar place.

A smile was etched across my face as his hand took mine and we walked into that beautiful place I liked the most.

Oh, I'm in love with this lake.