Shortly after I got back to my dorms, I headed to the kitchen to make lunch. It wasn't empty though: Nabila was texting on her phone as her food boiled on the stove.

I smiled. "Hey, Bila."

She briefly looked at me. "Oh, hi..."

I dumped the plate of leftovers I had brought with me into the microwave. "What have you been up to?"

"Nothing much, just been gaming. You?"

"Nothing much as well."

"Nice."

The sound of the microwave whirring dominated the space between us.

Nabila cleared her throat after a bit. "So umm...have you been in your room all day?"

"Why, did you come looking for me?"

My breath caught. Oh fuck, my story!

She replied, "No, just wondering."

I sighed. "No need to pretend Bila, I know what you want to-"

"You went to see Dylan!"

The microwave stopped then so I took my food out, sat on the counter and grabbed a spoon. "Yup."

"But...weren't you pissed at him yesterday?"

Yes, but I was more pissed at a certain someone else.

I shrugged. "Yeah, but I decided that it would be healthier for me to put the past behind me: what better way to do that but to meet up with him for closure?"

Nabila narrowed her eyes. "Hmm, are you sure that's why you went?"

I forced out a laugh, even though my heart rate sped up. "Uh, yeah. What other reason would I have for going?"

"I don't know...you haven't been missing him or anything, have you?"

Oh, so that's what she thinks.

My lip curled. "Eww, no!"

Her shoulders sagged. "Oh thank god, I thought you were thinking of getting back together with him!"

"As if, I have self-respect. Bila, don't ever insult me like that again!"

. . .

Shortly after I got back to my room, I checked my snap story's viewers. My breath caught when I saw Angelo among them. Finally!

I checked the viewers of the next story I had posted: he wasn't among them.

I smirked. Oh, he's mad.

I quickly checked my chats, but he wasn't among them. Nevertheless, the smirk remained on my face; I was certain it would only be a matter of time before he messaged me.

. . .

By the time evening had rolled around, I still hadn't received a message from him. I'd checked my messages several times over the past few hours, even going as far as restarting my phone's connection to the internet to see if his message was being held up by a faulty connection.

Still nothing.

I bit my lip as resentment filled my chest, restricting the airflow from my lungs as if to punish me for my expectations. Red fog tinted my vision. Before my brain registered it, my fingers had opened my chat with Angelo, and was typing:

'Fuck you.'

I sent the message, tossing my phone onto my bed, then screaming into my pillow.

It took a few minutes before I let out the last of the fog, clearing up my vision and settling down in the process.

I thought back to the message I sent Angelo. Fuck, maybe I shouldn't have sent that: I don't want that dickhead to know how his behavior is affecting me. Holy shit, I hope he hasn't read it!

I jerked up, grabbing my phone and hastily opening up my Snapchat. My shoulders sagged when I saw that the message was unopened, then I muttered, "Of course it would be, did I really expect him to reply to me quickly?"

I quickly deleted the message I sent. After a bit of thought, I typed out a new one in its stead: 'Hey. Do you wanna come over tomorrow?'

Before sending it, I paused. Should I be the one making the first move at contact? I don't want to seem like I'm obsessed with him...

I frowned for a moment, then shook my head. "I'm not obsessed with him: I'm only sending this because I want to see what he'd say about my hangout with Dylan. I wouldn't be messaging him otherwise."

Taking a deep breath, I sent the message.

. . .

Angelo replied the next morning with a simple 'sure'. He showed up later in the afternoon, which was great because it had given me time to tidy up my room.

When I opened my door, I smiled at him. "Hi."

He repeated the greeting flatly.

Good, he's still mad.

I struggled to hide my smirk as I walked over to my bed and lay on it. Angelo settled on the edge, as far from me as he could.

Although I was internally gloating, I furrowed my brow. "Why are you so far away? I want cuddles."

"I'm not really in the mood for cuddling."

"Oh, is something wrong?"

He was silent for a few moments. "No."

"Then scooch over here." I patted the space beside me.

He did as I asked. I put my head on his lap, which was tense.

Good, stay mad!

I waited for Angelo to voice his displeasure, but silence reigned in the room. So after a few minutes, I took the initiative.

I looked up at his face. "Can I ask you something?"

Without looking away from his phone, he said, "Go ahead."

"Have you ever missed something?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, maybe not something...someone."

His eyes flashed to mine. "Where is this coming from?"

Although my skin was tingling with joy, I looked away from his eyes and bit my lip. "Um...well recently I met up with Dylan-"

"I know."

I looked up at him with wide eyes. "You do?"

His jaw clenched. "Yes."

Oh how I wish I can capture this on video!

"Oh. Anyways, honestly...spending time with him was kinda nice."

"Oh, it was?"

"Yeah." I sighed, sitting up. "I forgot how well we vibe with each other."

"Interesting."

"It um...it kinda made me miss what we had."

Angelo scoffed, raising an eyebrow. "You miss what you had with him?"

I sighed once again. "I mean, I know he cheated but...I don't know, we had a good thing going beforehand. Does that make sense?"

"No," he snapped. "You deserve much better than someone that cheated on you. You and he were a thing of the past, forget about it."

"I guess..."

"Besides, you shouldn't be thinking about him when you're with me."

My heart soared. I furrowed my brow, smirking. "Hmm, funny you say that: didn't you tell me something along the lines of 'we can both see whoever we want' a while ago?"

He adjusted his position so his face was close to mine, placing a hand at each of my sides. His scent rushed into my nose, locking me in place.

Glaring into my eyes, he growled, "Not him."

He cupped my face and kissed me, but he was far from sweet: he aggressively moved his lips, as if to push me to surrender and bend to his will.

Unfortunately for him, I had no intention of backing down.

I matched his energy, running my hands over him as I did so, feeling the muscles beneath his shirt. We soared through heights of increasing intensity as the seconds passed, and soon clothes started flying off and our breaths became shallower as we fully closed whatever distance that was between us.

. . .

"Do you ever worry that Nabila might walk in on me?"

I looked at Angelo. "What?"

We'd showered after the sex, but not together: I didn't trust us to keep our hands to ourselves and I didn't want to traumatize Nabila if she happened to be listening. I showered first, then lounged on my bed in just a t-shirt and pair of shorts as I waited for Angelo to finish.

"When I'm showering, I mean," Angelo replied. He was still in a towel, admiring his reflection in the mirror as he adjusted his hair.

"Oh, no I don't. She doesn't walk in on me, so I highly doubt she ever will with you. Plus, she knocks."

"What if she does walk in though? That would make a nice build-up to something you'd find on the hub." Looking at me, he smirked and wagged his eyebrows.

I furrowed my brow. "Hmm, I disagree; I don't know of any porn in which the guy gets castrated."

He scoffed. "We both know Nabila would never do such."

I smiled sweetly. "Who said anything about Nabila?"

Grinning, he laughed. "Touché."

He turned back to the mirror, so I turned back to my phone.

A moment later, he said, "Oh, so you still have it."

I looked at him again. "Hmm?"

He picked up a box from my table and pulled out what it held: the necklace he had given me for my last birthday.

I said, "Oh, that. Yeah I do."

He frowned. "I haven't seen you wear it lately, so I thought you lost it or something."

"Ah. No, I just decided to keep it in the box for...safekeeping."

That was a lie: I'd stopped wearing it out of spite after he'd left for Japan without saying goodbye.

"Well fuck that, I want it on you." He walked over to me, then reached around my neck and latched the necklace on me. Smiling, he traced a finger against the diamond-encrusted 'J' set in the emerald that made up the necklace's center. "There, now you're my Juliet again."

Blushing, I beamed. "I always have been."

He hummed, planting a peck on my lips before heading back to the mirror.

Emboldened by the gesture and the emotion it had brought up within me, I said, "We should do more things together."

He chuckled. "What do you mean? We already do things together."

"I mean things other than just fucking and watching movies."

"Alright then." He sat on my table, focusing on me. "What do you have in mind?"

"Well...there's an art center I've been meaning to visit. We can go together if you like."

He furrowed his brow. "I've never been to an art center before so it would be a new experience...that works."

I grinned. "Great! When do you want to go?"

"How about next weekend?"

"Sounds good, it's a date!"

He narrowed his eyes. "A date?"

"Yeah. I mean, we've never gone on an official one...why not start?"

He didn't reply for a while. I held my breath as I watched the cogs of his mind turn.

Finally, he smiled. "A date then; sounds good."

. ..

If you could say something to a character in this book, who would you speak to and what would you say? Let me know in the comments!

Also, please support me by voting on the chapter if you enjoyed it, and follow me if you wanna keep up to date with any important announcements.

Till next time!