Sunday, I spend the entire day shopping and doing girl stuff with Sara and some of our other girlfriends. Half of Monday flies by with lectures, working on essays, and a workout. The same goes for Tuesday.

On Wednesday, Sara, Alex, and I decide to eat at a French restaurant, and Luca is joining us. It's not anything fancy, so I don't put much thought into my outfit—a cute little yellow sundress with a few accessories to elevate the look.

Sara and her boyfriend are already there when I arrive at the restaurant. They both stand up to give me hugs and kisses.

I always kiss my friends on the cheek and give them hugs whenever I see them and when we part ways. Some people find me too touchy and affectionate, but it's how my mom raised me and how I am with people I'm close with.

"Luca isn't here yet?" I ask when I sit down, glancing at the empty seat next to me.

"He'll be here in— " Alex suddenly cuts off and looks behind my shoulder. "There he is." He gestures to the entrance. I turn a little in my seat and see him walking toward us.

In black jeans and a maroon dress shirt with the top three buttons undone, he looks like he just came from a business meeting. I can't help but admire his physique. His shirt is loose around his biceps, his curly dark hair is messy in an I-just-woke-up way, and his jawline is so chiselled I can see it from here. His strides are confident, radiating an aura of assurance.

He gives Alex a handshake and leans to give Sara a quick kiss on the cheek. I'm surprised to see him giving Sara a peck, but since she spends a lot of time in Alex's room, they must have become good friends in a short amount of time.

When he sits down next to me, he gives me a boyish smile. "Hi." I note that he doesn't have dimples. Not that he's any less hot without them.

"Hi," I greet back. His eyes appear darker, almost black, against the deep shade of red of his dress shirt. Who knew dark eyes could be so fascinating?

We order food and wine, and the server doesn't bother asking for our IDs because he knows us from college, even if we aren't legal to drink yet. I'm surprised he hasn't been fired since a lot of college students eat here and most of them aren't twenty-one yet, but they still get served wine with their food. It's probably good business to serve them, though, so they let it slide.

We make small talk to get to know Luca better while waiting for our food. We learn he has a younger brother named Leo. Luca used to go to NYU but didn't like being away from his family, so he transferred colleges. He also prefers the sun to the snow.

We continue conversing while eating, getting him acquainted with us. After we finish our food, we order another round of wine and sit back with our stomachs full. I'm pretty full, but do I still have a place for dessert? Then again, they say dessert goes to the heart and not the stomach.

I get pulled out of my dessert dilemma when I sense Luca draping his arm on the back of my chair, his skin almost touching the back of my neck. My nerves prickle with awareness, but I continue listening to Alex, who is telling us stories about basketball as if nothing happened.

Sensing Sara's gaze on me, I glance in her direction. She looks at Luca with slightly widened eyes, then back at me. I roll my eyes playfully.

Something tugs softly at my hair. When I look down at the curls on my shoulder, I see a hand twirling a strand around its fingers. I face Luca's profile, who is still in deep conversation with Alex. As if sensing my gaze, he quickly glances at me. I cock one eyebrow up in question. His own eyebrows furrow in confusion before his eyes widen. He quickly removes his hand from behind my chair.

He wasn't aware he was toying with my hair. I chuckle softly. My hair is nice, so I don't blame him.

After Luca pays for our meals, saying it's a thank you token for being so welcoming, we exit the restaurant around eight pm. Walking together to the parking lot, I grab my car keys from my purse. When I'm about to open my door, the car next to me lights up. It's an old classic black Mustang, but it still looks brand new.

Luca opens the driver's side door and before he gets in, I say, "Nice car."

"Thank you, it used to be my grandpa's," he says as if it's no big deal his grandpa passed down this timeless car.

''If my grandpa had a car like this, he would take it with him to the grave,'' I say. Hell, even I would take it with me to the afterlife. I'm not much of a car fanatic, but I prefer old, classic cars to modern ones. They have more character.

''Mine too. But he lost it to a bet.'' He chuckles, smoothing a palm over the roof of it. His forearm muscles bulge with the movement and now I understand why there's a thing called 'forearm porn'.

I nod, impressed, and quench my curiosity about what bet his grandpa lost. I can ask him another time.

We tell each other goodbye, and I hop in my car. As I'm twisting my key in the ignition, the passenger's side door opens and Sara gets inside.

"I thought you were gonna ride with Alex."

"I changed my mind." She smiles at me.

The restaurant is around thirty minutes from the dorms. When I get on the highway, Sara shifts so she is facing me. I glance at her for a second, then back at the road.

"Luca is totally into you," she says.

"He's not. But why do you sound so sure?"

"Did you see him back at the restaurant? He played with your hair for God's sake!" she hisses excitedly.

He did, but I didn't think much of it. He did it unconsciously. Besides, I'm used to boys being touchy-feely with me even if we've just met. They see the way I act with my close friends—hugging, always touching them—and they think they can behave the same with me.

"He didn't do that on purpose," I reason.

She huffs. "Come on! He is super hot, and don't tell Alex, but if I was single, I would totally bang him." She giggles, and I laugh.

"Well, you know I'm not sleeping around with whoever anymore," I say.

She hums in understanding and leaves the topic at that. For now, at least.

☀ ☀ ☀

It's Thursday morning, which means Ben has a game today. I couldn't watch it live on TV since I had a lecture, but I sneaked a peek at my phone every ten minutes to see the score. Our team won, of course.

The morning flew by and now I'm sitting in the park next to Sara and Ella, her classmate. The field is full of students, some just lying on their backs and soaking in the hot Miami sun while others have books or laptops in their laps.

I'm sitting with my back resting on the tree and my legs spread in front of me, while Sara is on her stomach using her phone.

After a while, Alex, Luca, and another guy I don't know come to where we are sitting. We talk and laugh for a while until the sun starts to set, turning the sky into a pretty collage of pink and orange.

I wish I had my sketchbook with me, I think to myself.

Something tickles my leg. I glance up to see Sara pointing in the direction of the parking lot. When I follow her gaze, I see Ben and a few more football players walking toward us.

I squeal softly and take off running to Ben to congratulate him.

He takes a couple of long strides to meet me in the middle. He hugs me and lifts my feet off the ground, shaking me from side to side.

"Congrats on the win! And I missed you," I tell him. Ben and I are really close. Some people thought we were twins growing up because we always stayed together. Of course, in our teenage years, that lessened, but we remained tight. He is my first best friend.

He kisses my head and tells me he missed me more. I feel him walking to Sara and the others, swaying me extra hard just to be annoying. He puts me down after I pinch his ear but keeps his arm over my shoulder.

The group high-fives him and congratulates him on the win.

"Hey, I'm Luca. Nice game!" Luca shakes Ben's hand.

"Thank you. I've never seen you around. You new?" Ben asks. I know almost all of Ben's friends and vice versa, so it's not weird that he knows Luca is new here.

"Yeah, I transferred a few months ago."

Ben nods, then kisses my temple. "I'm gonna go rest before the party tonight. I'll see you there, yeah?" He starts walking backward.

"Of course. I love you," I call to him.

"Love you, too." He jogs back to his group of friends, and together they walk back to their house.

Everyone sits back down, but I see Luca is still looking at the fading figure of Ben. He shakes his head as if to get rid of a thought, then throws out an excuse that he forgot to submit something. He is gone before I even get the chance to say goodbye.

☀ ☀ ☀

Sara and I are getting ready in my room with loud music blasting to get us in the mood for the party we're attending tonight. Sara is wearing a top that looks like lingerie with low-rise, baggy jeans. She has this 90s thing going on tonight. I approve.

I still haven't decided on what to wear, and Sara says I should just come in my pajamas because boys won't care if I was wearing a potato sack. I laugh at that. I don't know about boys, but I would definitely care what I'm wearing.

She finally picks a black mini dress for me. It's a silk black dress with a slit on my left leg. It's a little too risky for a frat party–even for me–but Sara gassed me up and told me how hot I looked so I didn't change. I curl my hair loosely and opt for a soft, bronzy makeup look. At ten pm, we are finally done and head to Ben's house.

When we arrive at the house, the party is already in full swing. The music is so loud, I can feel the base in my ribcage. The house is packed, and every step I take, I bump into someone.

We reach the garden, Ben and half the footballers are sitting on the couches they placed there with a girl or two glued to each one. Some players only play a sport for the girls. They said that girls preferred athletes because of their stamina—in bed. Their words, not mine. And while that may be true nine times out of ten, their arrogance and cockiness is not worth it sometimes.

Sara tugs at my arm and leans in close to my ear to say, "I'm gonna look for Alex. When I find him, I'll come back here." I nod and continue walking toward Ben.

He is sitting on a three-seat couch. He puts his arm around my shoulder when I sit next to him and leans closer to me as he teases, "That's quite a risky dress. Are you trying to impress someone?"

I scoff, "I don't need to wear short dresses to impress anyone."

"Well, you look great, as always."

"Thanks, bro." I chuckle, and he rolls his eyes at me. "What are you drinking?" I peer into his cup.

"Brandy." He takes a long sip, and his facial expression doesn't change. That's what happens when you've been drinking whiskey since you were eighteen.

He shakes his cup at the person sitting next to him, and they refill his cup wordlessly. He hands it to me, and I take a sip, loving the burning sensation it gives my throat. But unlike him, my nose crinkles a little. I feel the vibration of Ben laughing softly at me.

I give him his cup back just as Sara and Alex near us. They give all the players high-fives and praise them for our win this morning.

"Dude! You were awesome this game," Alex tells Ben.

"Just this game?"

"Nah, every game, but you went extra hard this time." He amends.

I catch movement on my left; Luca is taking a seat next to Jace across from where I'm sitting. We make eye contact, but he looks away instantly. But I don't. Instead, I notice what he's wearing. Being so obsessed with fashion, I can't help but notice that so far he's been wearing dress shirts that are not tight on him at all, and the top three buttons are also undone tonight. Now, he wears a dark green shirt with light wash jeans. Around his neck, he has a thin chain, gold from what I can tell this far away.

Sara's giggle pulls my gaze away from Luca. She and Alex are sitting on the chair adjacent to me, whispering and laughing together.

Jace and Luca are still conversing together. When Jace lifts his eyes to me, he lifts his drink in a cheer and throws me a sexy wink. I smile and glance to his left to see Luca looking at me with an expression I've never seen on his face and can't decipher it. His eyes dip down to where Ben is resting his hand around my shoulder. I feel that hand pulling me even closer. I face Ben and lift my brows, my silent way of asking 'what?'.

He leans in so he can speak in my ear over the loud chatter and music. "I think your boyfriend is jealous. Does he know I'm your brother?"

I back away to look at his face. He is totally serious.

Boyfriend?

"Who are you talking about? You know I don't have a boyfriend."

"New guy, next to Jace." I don't have to look to know he is talking about Luca. "Want to use his lack of knowledge about us being blood-related and make him jealous?" He laughs a soft laugh that can be compared to an evil one. He's onto something.

I shake my head. But all he does is smile wickedly at me. He pulls me to my feet, takes hold of my palm so I can't escape him, and drags me with him to where Jace and Luca are sitting—still conversing about a topic I'd pay big money to find out what it is.

I'm very confused about what he's about to do.

Before we reach them, he tells me, "Play along."

To what?

I don't have time to protest because we're standing in front of them. Oh no.

Is he going to talk to Luca? Or worse, Jace? Please no!

He is not jealous; he probably is just nervous about our beer pong competition! That I just remembered this very moment, to be honest.

I want to tell Ben all this, but they're already looking up at us.

"Me and Izzy are going up to my room for a bit. Don't let anyone sit on my chair." Ben says while looking at Jace.

Jace just looks confusedly at Ben because it's not like he was sitting on a throne that needs guarding. So him saying this to Jace is deliberate.

I, too, look back at Ben in time to see him wink at Luca.

I'm going to kill him!

But after I snitch to my mom. Maybe she'll help me with murdering him.

He tugs at my arm, and I have no choice but to follow him. People make way for the infamous Davis siblings.

He keeps holding my hand even when I'm not trying to run away anymore. It's useless at this point because what he said is already said.

We walk up to the third level, and at the end of the hall, we finally reach the master bedroom that belongs to my brother that I want to disown right about now.

The master bedroom—and the rest of the house actually—is pretty big considering it's a fraternity house. The ground level is where the kitchen and living room are. The first level has the playroom, laundry room, one bedroom, and the bathroom and toilet. The second level has the remaining three bedrooms.

Ben's room is spacious, with a king-sized bed, a closet, a desk, and a smaller closet with all his trophies. He even has his own bathroom. Captain privilege and all.

I free my hand from him when he closes the door to his bedroom, and I give him my meanest glare.

"What the fuck was that about? Now he thinks we are having sex!" Just the thought of that makes me want to gag.

"That was the point." He laughs and goes to lay on his bed.

I groan. "Well, thanks for the effort, but it wasn't necessary." I tell him.

He just chuckles and puts his arm behind his back and closes his eyes. "Are you gonna sleep or something?" I walk over to him and hit him with a pillow on his chest.

"Well, since he was made to believe we are having sex, we might as well settle here for a while. We have to make it seem believable to him."

"Believable?" I repeat, slowly. He's taking this prank a little too seriously.

"Yeah. I don't finish in two minutes."

Ew, I don't want to think about my brother and how long he takes to finish.

"Gross." I flick his stupid nose. "This is stupid. I'm going back down."

"Ah come on! This is funny, but you don't want to admit it." He sits up now.

I mean ...he's right, it is quite funny if I think about it.

When I first came to college, everyone who didn't know we're siblings thought we were dating. Freshman year, I was by his side most of the time. Getting introduced to new people, showing me all the secret spots on campus. And during parties—especially the first semester—he didn't want me out of his sight in case I got kidnapped or something.

But I was more than capable of handling my own, and after I started gaining more friends, he didn't make me stick to his side during parties.

Some of his teammates were kind enough to tell me he was 'cheating' on me. Saying that when I wasn't with him, he'd be kissing and hooking up with other girls. They thought we were dating since we were spending so much time together in the beginning of the school year.

He finally cleared the air when he posted a picture of the two of us on his Instagram with the caption: Best little sister ever!

I decide that teasing Luca a little wouldn't hurt.