As the bell rang, signalling the end of the day, I started to pack up my things. My eyes unconsciously travelling around the room as my hands worked to collect the things on my table. I saw Alex walk out the room with his friends and only realized what I had done once he was out of sight.

Goddamit, Em. Stop.

I sighed to myself, "Get a grip, Em."

I zipped my bag up and slung the strap over my shoulder before walking out of the class.

As I walked towards my locker to store my things, I caught a sight that I wish I hadn't.

Renee and Alex, pressed up against the lockers, close enough to sneak kisses in. Alex's back was facing the rest of the world as he caged Renee's petite form against the lockers. I could hear her giggles from a few feet away as Alex whispered something in her ear.

I felt something tug at my heart as I forcefully peeled my eyes off the couple.

"Come on, Em. Get your shit together." I disciplined myself. "He's nothing to you. Don't let your feelings run wild."

4 years ago, I thought I was able to cage all my feelings for Alex at a cost; which was the inability to love romantically.

Looking back now, I wasn't sure about that theory anymore.

Maybe it wasn't because I had successfully controlled my feelings; maybe I just loved him, period.

Maybe it wasn't that I couldn't love romantically; maybe it was just the inability to love anyone else but him.

Alas, there was no use in analysing what had happened in the past.

For the sake of my sanity, I choose ignorance.

Be it the success of controlling my feelings or not, whatever I did back then had let me watch Alex be with other girls without awakening the green-eyed monster that was rearing its head against my conscience to rip him away from them.

So whatever I did in the past, I will do it again. For the sake of my sanity.

I walked past the couple, head held high and eyes straight ahead, as if I never even saw them in the first place.

I stepped out into the parking lot and looked for Isaac's car, hoping that he's already there to take me away from this nightmare.

When I couldn't find his white fancy car, I unlocked my phone and checked for any messages from him.

Right when I was about to open our chat to see if I had missed his messages, the screen on my phone changed, showing me an incoming call from the devil himself.

I swiped my finger across the screen and held it to my ear, looking around the lot to see if he's there.

"Hey," I greeted.

"Hey," He greeted back. "I'm sorry, I'm just right around the corner. Are you already outside?"

"Oh. No, that's alright. Don't worry, my class had just ended anyways. I'll meet you at the gate then?" I offered, already starting to walk towards the school's gate.

"No, no, it's too hot. Just wait by the building's entrance door, I'll be there in a few minutes." Isaac stopped me.

"Um, alright then." I hesitantly agreed, looking back at the school building, and almost immediately, the image of Renee and Alex against the lockers came to mind.

I knew that Isaac meant well by asking me to stay by the building to keep myself cool, but I wanted nothing more but to go somewhere I wouldn't need to worry about catching sight of the couple.

Once Isaac ended the call, I walked back to the school building and stayed by the door, keeping to the side to let the other students pass.

I kept my head down, knowing that I might accidentally see Alex walking out with Renee any second then since that was the exit everyone usually used to get to their parked cars.

Unsurprisingly, I was right.

As Isaac pulled up in front of the entrance and beeped his horn once to get my attention, I raised my head and saw Alex and Renee's head turn to look at the white car.

I bit my lip, my face heating up from all the attention and rushed down the stairs to get to the car as quickly as I could. I dashed past the couple and towards the car, about to get in when I saw Isaac getting off.

I contemplated pretending that I didn't see him get out and just step into his car but I decided against it, considering that it would be quite rude of me to do so.

So with a conscience that was screaming and silently manifesting for Isaac to hurry up, I shuffled on my feet and watched him jog around the car with a smile to greet me.

It wasn't until he was right in front of me did I finally realize the ridiculously huge bouquet of flowers he was holding.

I stopped shuffling, in fact, my whole body froze at the sight of the beautiful arrangement of flowers.

For a moment there, I couldn't think of anything aside from, "That's a beautiful bouquet of flowers." and "That can't possibly be meant for me, right?"

To answer the latter, it was.

Isaac grinned, offering the flowers to me with an outstretched hand. "Like it?"

Still starstruck, my hands slowly reached out to accept the flowers as I nodded slowly.

"They're beautiful." I smiled at him graciously, finally snapping out of the trance.

"I'm glad you like them." He replied, moving around so that he could open the passenger door for me.

I walked towards the opened space, slipping into the car whilst thinking, "Is this what it feels like to have someone court you?"

For a moment there, I completely forgot about my ex-best friend that was watching just a few feet away, with his new girlfriend.

That was, until Isaac had closed the door. The sound of the door closing brought me back to the present as I looked up from the flowers on my lap and locked eyes with Alex.

He had a guarded look as he broke eye contact with me and watched Isaac get in the driver's seat.

"Seatbelt." Isaac reminded, buckling his own.

I looked at him, taking my eyes off of Alex. "Huh?"

Isaac raised his eyebrows and motioned to the buckle beside my hip.

"Oh, right." I twisted my body and pulled the seatbelt's strap from the car's wall to tuck it into the buckle.

Once I was all buckled up, the car began to move and Isaac drove out of the school compound.

"Sorry about being late, I didn't expect the heavy traffic in the afternoon." Isaac apologized.

His manners, his attentiveness; basically everything about how he was treating me; really was beyond me.

I looked at him with, what I was sure to be, eyes full of wonder and awe. Is this guy even real?

"I- No, I mean, that's alright, really. I really appreciate the ride home." I said, getting a bit tongue-tied from the initial shock of receiving such treatment.

"Thank you, for the flowers as well." I added in an afterthought.

"I'm glad you like them, I was scared you'd find them a bit too much." Isaac confessed, scratching the back of his neck sheepishly with one hand.

I couldn't help the small smile that formed on my lips as I watched how cute he looked.

I stole glances of Isaac the entire car ride home as I admired the flowers he got me.

It was a beautiful arrangement of different pink and white flowers wrapped in a smooth black wrapping paper. I didn't know its names but it was truly eye-catching.

"By the way," Isaac started to say out of the blue as he spared me a fleeting glance.

I looked up at him, waiting for him to continue.

"I hope you don't mind me asking, but you always seem to be alone. Have your friends been hiding away in a bush nearby because they're shy when meeting new people or something?" He asked.

I chewed on the insides of my cheeks as I contemplated my answer.

"Or something," I finally decided to say.

I mean, it wasn't like I was friendless. Beth was back.

That reminded me. Right, Beth.

I haven't caught up with her in a long time.

I opened my phone and started to text her.

E: Yo, you free?

I waited for a response but nothing came. That wasn't odd. Seeing how Beth hasn't really changed since the last time I saw her, I can assume that her texting habits were still the same.

"Guess she'll get back to me when she finally wakes up from her hibernation nap." I mused silently.

When I finally remembered that I hadn't shared my address with Isaac, we were already driving into my neighbourhood, causing me to look at him in surprise.

"What?" He asked, noticing my surprised look.

"You remember where I lived?" I asked him.

"Oh, yeah. I had a look after you had typed it in for the Uber ride last time." He answered.

He looked at me for a brief second before looking back at the road, "Why? Is that creepy?"

That gained a laugh from me as I shook my head. "No, I do find your memory capacity fascinating for it, though." I joked.

He chuckled with me, "Thanks, I guess."

When we reached my house, a familiar feminine figure was standing before the gate, opening it.

Lily turned around to look at the car as we stopped short right in front of the gate.

"Is that your sister?" Isaac asked.

I nodded.

Lily and I hadn't talked since the last fallout we had and although the rage I had felt had long subsided, I still didn't know how to face her.

This was a normal phase we've always had whenever we just had a fight, but years later and we still have no idea how we crack the ice every time we were stuck in this awkward state.

Isaac unbuckled his seatbelt once he had put the car on park. My eyes widened and my hand shot out, stopping his movements.

"What are you doing?" I asked him, slightly panicking.

"Greeting your sister?" Isaac sounded so unsure of himself that it came off more as a question than an answer.

"Um, I-" I bit my lip, trying to pick my words carefully to avoid offending him. "Maybe not now."

Isaac took his hand off the seatbelt buckle, leaving it on.

"Oh, is it not a good time?" He asked.

"Yeah, we kind of had a fight a while back and we haven't had the chance to reconcile." I explained. I wasn't lying, although that wasn't exactly the reason why I don't want him to meet Lily yet. I just wasn't ready yet.

"Ah," Isaac nodded, understanding. "Alright then, maybe next time."

I smiled at him, "Yeah, definitely. Thanks for understanding."

Isaac shook his head, "No problem."

"Thanks for the ride," I picked my bag and flowers up once I unbuckled my seatbelt, "and thanks again, for the flowers."

Isaac smiled. "Again, no problem."

I mirrored his smile before getting off his car.

I walked towards the gate, where Lily was still standing, watching me approach her and looking at Isaac's car in a scrutinizing way.

"Did you get a sugar daddy or something?" She asked, not exactly sounding like she was joking.

I shushed her and pushed her inside, turning back to give Isaac another small wave before he drove off.

Lily and I walked into the empty house, our parents still on another business trip in China.

"What do you want to eat?" I asked her. We weren't on the best of terms but I still had to keep her alive until my parents come back.

Lily shrugged, "Anything. I'm not really craving something specific at the moment."

"Alright, I'll order us some pizza then." I told her as I placed my bag and flowers down on the living room couch.

"No, really though, what's with the flowers? Did you get yourself a new boyfriend or something? If yes, then nice catch. At least he's more loaded than Alex." Lily said, eyeing the flowers.

"Shut up," I muttered, rolling my eyes. This was the ice breaking phase I had referred to. We end up going through this phase to break the awkwardness after every fight without having to go through even more awkwardness apologizing to each other.

Though, it does depends on whether both sides are willing to bury the hatchet. If one of us still holds a grudge then another fight blows up and then the other person would have to apologize explicitly.

Sound complicated?

Why couldn't we just communicate like normal people, you ask?

Because we're sisters.

That's just how we're built.

We were built different.

Once I finished ordering pizza for our dinner, I took my things from the couch and went upstairs to my room.

Once I got to my room, I placed my bag and the flowers on my study desk and took some fresh clothes into the bathroom so I could have a nice refreshing shower.

As I dried my hair with a towel, I sat by my desk and stared at the flowers, sighing.

"What are you doing, Em?" I asked out loud into the empty room.

I knew deep in my heart that I had extremely strong feelings for Alex. The 4 years suppressed affection I had for him had finally resurfaced ever since we had that kiss. It was like unlocking a pandora box.

Deep down, I felt wrong when I had made that deal with Isaac without telling him about Alex.

I was treading on dangerous waters.

I wasn't sure if I could let go of my feelings towards Alex. It's been over 4 years and here I was.

What made me feel worse was the 'what if' possibility that came after that uncertainty.

What if I couldn't let go?

What about Isaac?

Isaac..

It's only been 2 days but he has shown me how low my standards have been all along. He had treated me better than anyone ever had.

Hell, I've only ever read about the things that he had done for me so far.

How he had stopped me in my manic episode during that party.

How he had sent me home using an Uber to make sure that I felt safe and was safe.

How he had opened the car door for me.

How he had waited for me to get in the house or school building before driving away.

The beautiful flowers that were sitting right before me.

How he had kissed me.

How that kiss had made me feel.

The thought of the kiss I had with Isaac caused my mind to jump to the other kiss I had.

With a certain someone that I wasn't willing to remember.

I shook my head as soon as I realized where my train of thought was leading me to.

I placed my head in my hands as I sat there, truly disappointed in myself.

I wasn't sure if I would be able to completely get rid of my feelings for Alex.

But I was certain of one thing.

I wanted to get rid of it.

I wanted to at least try getting rid of my feelings for Alex.

If not for Isaac, then at least for myself.

Just as I had that thought, my phone vibrated.

I picked it up as I saw the screen light up with a notification.

It was Beth. Thank God. I needed to talk about this to someone or I might explode.

I looked up at the ceiling in my room and sent a quick prayer of thanks before looking down at my phone and opening her chat to see what she had texted.

B: I just woke up.

I smiled at the text. Just like I guessed.

B: What's up bitch?

My fingers flew over the phone screen as I typed back a reply feverishly.

E: Up for a catch up sesh? I've got shit to tell you.

Before I could finish typing my next message, my phone screen morphed to show an incoming call from my reliable best friend.

I love this bitch.

I swiped my finger over the screen and brought it to my ear.

"Bitch, thank God!" I said into the phon the three words that marked the start of a very long phone call.