Chapter Fourteen - Oink Oink

Every few minutes, I'd start to wonder if I'd made a horrible mistake by condemning myself to my enemy's presence for an hour every day but then I would remember my purpose. It's all for Sean. It'll be worth it.

"Oh my God!"

I was snapped out of my thoughts at the shriek as somebody threw the bathroom door open, making my head turn towards it. Meera neared me with concern, asking with wide eyes, "are you okay?"

"Yeah." I twisted my lips as I wiped the last of juice from my face. I didn't even want to get started with my hair until I was home and had access to my bathroom.

"I can't believe he did this. Asshole!" Cheryl was fuming with anger.

"Um, he didn't."

"Oh?" She frowned. "Then who? Who else hates you so much—oh my God! Did Rebecca do this to you?"

"No. It was me," I admitted with a nervous smile and they both exchanged a look before raising their brows at me.

And I told them everything that had happened in the past half an hour. While I dictated every little detail of my plan and how it had turned out, Meera had moved to leaning against the sink, staring into space in disbelief while Cheryl had put her head in her hands.

"Our friend has officially lost it." Meera finally blinked.

The bathroom became silent. And since both my friends were staring at me like I was a psycho on the loose, I dropped my gaze to the floor, accepting their judgement.

"But holy shit! That was one hell of a plan!" Meera burst out laughing. "You're totally crazy."

I saw Cheryl's little smile behind her hand as she shook her head. "Who are you and what have you done to our always-playing-it-safe Becks?"

I finally let out a breath and smiled. "What can I say? My enemy brings out the worst in me."

"And it actually worked." She chuckled in disbelief. "I don't know whether to be proud of you or start keeping my distance from you."

I burst out laughing. "If you choose latter, I'm gonna hug you right now." I opened my arms wide and shook my juicy hair in her direction.

"Oh, hell no!" She laughed. "By the way, that's gonna be even messier by the time you make it home. You're lucky this happened towards the end of school."

"I planned it, remember?"

She rolled her eyes, still a little surprised I could pull it off and started walking out of the bathroom.

We had two more classes for the day and I decided to skip them and hide under the bleachers. There was no way I could risk running into Sean with my hair reeking of orange juice, which was slowly starting to smell more like rotten sweets. Wait, I couldn't risk running into anyone like this.

I had a tissue in my hand and I kept wiping my forehead every few minutes to keep the juice from reaching my eyes. The hot weather and the sweat were only making it worse.

My phone buzzed.

Meera: Whatcha doing?

Rebekah: Nothing much. Just enjoying my exquisite hair mask in the sun.

Meera: Hate you for not letting me join >.<

Rebekah: Just because I'm skipping, doesn't mean you have to skip too. Besides, the bleachers reek of orange juice now :)

Meera: I'll still take that over Math :)

Rebekah: Hahaha see you after school. Now go and take down some notes. I'll need them. Shoo

She replied with a knife emoji and I put my phone down with a chuckle.

I leaned back on my elbows and shut my eyes, careful to not let the bun sitting on top of my head come in contact with the grass. The last thing I wanted was an army of ants marching out of my hair by the time I got home.

I started humming a tune as I basked in the sun rays reaching me from between the bleacher steps. A loud tap sounded right above me but I paid no attention. Someone must be climbing the bleachers.

Another tap.

It sounded like a palm deliberately hitting against the surface as if to catch someone's attention. Another tap and I realized how close it was to me. It wasn't someone on the bleachers, but someone on the field, right next to me.

My eyes snapped open to find a tall frame looming over me. I screamed and crawled back a few inches on my elbows before I realized who it was and glared up at him.

He, on the other hand, watched me with disgust, or my hair, to be specific... or maybe just me. "Of course it's you. Thought I smelled something rotten."

I clenched my jaw, inhaling some patience before clarifying, "it's the juice."

"No. Pretty sure it's just you."

I grinded my teeth together. "Did you want something?"

"What could I possibly want from you?" My enemy scoffed. "I'm just here to let you know your training starts today."

"Oh?" I sat up. "That's odd. I was convinced I'd have to get on your tail to actually get you to start training me and here you are scheduling it. What's the catch, Williams?"

My suspicions were proved right because of the little hint of devil in his eyes.

"No catch. I have a gig tonight and you're coming along."

I blinked. "You even want me to sing at your gig? What is going on?"

He threw me a pointed stare. "Don't be stupid. Of course you're not singing at my gig."

That was a little insulting. I crossed my arms. "Then what am I going for?"

"To watch and learn."

"Ah I get it. There's the catch. You think you can waste my time like this and I'll back out eventually." I chuckled. "I think I'm good with just training."

"Maybe you didn't hear me." He took a step forward and leaned down to look me square in the eyes, tilting his head as he repeated, "I have a gig tonight and you're coming along."

"I heard you good and in case you didn't hear me, I said I'm good with just—"

"This is part of the training. If you don't wanna do it, just go and tell the principal. Actually, you know what? I'll go and do it for you."

I glared at him, crawling out just enough from under the bleachers so I could tilt my head up to let him see the seriousness in my eyes. "Listen, Williams. Your childish antics are not going to get me to give up—"

"Jeez! What is wrong with her hair?" I heard a giggle and snapped my head to the side, where two girls were checking us out, or checking Matt out to be specific and throwing me a dirty look, clearly trying to bash me just because he was talking to me.

"It looks like caramel," the other one said, crinkling her nose. "Isn't that Rebekah? The one who sang with him that day?"

"She's also the lunatic who was fighting him in that video. Did she just crawl out from under the bleachers?" They laughed.

"You guys know I can hear you, right?" I scoffed in disbelief but they pretended to not hear me as their eyes averted to Matt and one of them batted her lashes at him flirtatiously.

I rolled my eyes so hard, I bet they couldn't ignore it despite how well they were ignoring me.

"Hey, Matt. I love watching you play. And not for nothing, 52 is my new favourite number." She winked. "You're the best tackle they could ask for. The way you attack so fiercely and glide across the field. It's..." She sucked in a breath, fanning her face and I almost gagged. "...hot. I can only imagine how good you must be in—"

She was cut off when her friend elbowed her in the side and said something in her ear, to which she groaned and whined, "I know!"

My enemy was sucking up all that praise just like I'd imagined, chin lifted with pride. But he didn't seem too blandished by it, which meant this wasn't new for him at all. No wonder his ego was the size of the Empire State Building.

"I guess all I'm trying to say is—" the girl started again and I cut her off.

"Hey!" I called, making Matt's arrogant eyes shift down to me. With a straight face, I pointed behind me with my thumb for him to get under the bleachers. "Come inside."

He ran his eyes across me as his lips curled with distaste. Folding his arms over his chest in all his snobbish glory, he scoffed, "normally I wouldn't pass up on that invitation but in your case, I'm good."

The girls chuckled as my enemy took a conceited step back. "Besides, I guess I need to pay the principal a visit so..." He turned to his fans to flash them a dashing smirk. "...later, girls."

Wait, dashing to those girls. I meant they must have found it dashing. Not me. Duh.

They giggled while walking away once my nemesis was a little far away from us.

"Fuck it!" I jumped to my feet and sprinted after him, cutting past him to block his way. "Fine. Just give me the address."

The flash of arrogance in his eyes told me he had been expecting just that and it really pissed me off. I was sick of him getting his way all the time.

"Good. I'll write it down for you, Becks."

Gritting my teeth, I unzipped my bag, pulled out my notebook and tore a page out of it. Then I held it out for him.

"Ever heard of the notes app on your phone?" He raised a brow.

"Nice try." I shoved a pen in his hand.

He rolled his eyes. "Turn around."

"What?" I snapped.

Without repeating himself, he grabbed my shoulder and spun me around, then used my back as support for the paper to write on it. I felt the tip of the pen making small movements on my back as he jotted down the address on the paper and I held back an involuntary chuckle. I was really ticklish.

But I couldn't help when one of my shoulders jerked up impulsively and I quickly turned around to him before I could break into a laugh. Luckily, he was done writing as he handed the paper and the pen back to me, saying nonchalantly, "and there's a dress code."

I threw him a suspicious look. "Which is?"

"You'll find out."

"Just tell me so I can be prepared with the clothes. If I don't have it, I'll have to borrow. I can't shop last minute."

"Oh, don't bother. You won't be needing any." He smirked, eyes set on my face as if to gauge my reaction.

I held up my index finger. "Come again?"

With that, he took a step back and I just blinked at his retreating figure.

"Get back here, you asshole. If you think you can take me to some kind of strip club or orgy to fulfil your disgusting fantasies in the name of training, it is not happening. I repeat, it is not..." I trailed off when he was far enough to not listen to me.

There was no way in hell I was doing it.

*****

I couldn't believe this was happening.

I couldn't believe I'd let Matt Williams do this to me.

I was in a club full of people, extremely conscious of myself because I was not in clothes of my choice. I was not comfortable at all. And I absolutely hated the way the guys were looking at me.

I felt someone walk up behind me. Somehow, I knew who it was because there was only one person whose mere presence could make me scowl without even looking at him.

"Climb on the stage," I heard my tormentor say very close to my ear.

"I thought you didn't play cheap," I spat.

"If you think this is cheap, you might not wanna know what else I had in mind."

I shot him a look over my shoulder. His eyes were sparkling at my misery as he pointed ahead with his chin.

"Go on now. The stage."

"No," I snapped, crossing my arms over my chest.

"Do you want me to tell the principal you're not taking this training seriously?"

"This is not training. This is public humiliation." I looked around the room hesitantly and shifted from one foot to another.

"Does it look like I care? Get on that stage and help set up the instruments. The performance starts in less than five minutes."

"Performance starts in less than five minutes," I mimicked him and turned to the stage. Taking in a deep breath, I finally climbed the steps, feeling half the room watching me as I set up the instruments. A pair of hands joined in and I looked sideways at the person.

"You look cute." Will flashed me a smile.

"Oh my God, Will. Please don't." I groaned.

He chuckled. "It is a cute onesie."

"No, this sucks." I spun around to show him how ridiculous I looked in the pig onesie my enemy had left at my doorstep this afternoon. It was a shade of light pink with elaborate pig ears on my head and it made me look like an idiot. I even had a curly little tail at the back for crying out loud. "I hate him so much."

"Hey! I'm the one who came up with the onesie concept for our gigs. It helps people remember us." He pouted.

This was basically a promotion idea of the band. While they performed, one of the volunteers walked around wearing a onesie with their YouTube channel's name on it: MVP.

"Yes, but he's the one who put me in it." I pointed a hand straight at him. He was busy talking to Parker and scanning the room and when his eyes fell on me, he motioned his chin towards the instruments smugly, asking me to get back to work.

I flipped him off but all he saw was the pig's hand. But when a little smirk curled across his lips while saying something to Parker, I knew he'd received the message.

"Asshole," I said under my breath.

"Wait. He put you in it?"

"No! Not literally, Will. Ew!" My whole body shuddered as I cringed at the thought and went back to my work.

Once it was all done, I placed my hands on my hips and took a few moments to admire it. Maybe setting up instruments wasn't so bad after all. Nodding at it, I started to walk off the stage but someone was standing on the bottom step to block my way.

"Now what else are you going to do?" my enemy asked, looking me up and down with a look of satisfaction.

"Kick you if you don't get out of my way."

He raised a brow. I sighed, cursing under my breath.

"Fine! MVP all the way. Woo hoo!" I fake cheered with a fake smile.

"And?"

I licked my lips. He was really testing me. I spoke after a long exhale, looking as cheerful as possible despite my frustration, "oink oink! Find us on YouTube and hit that subscribe button."

A spark lit up in his eyes and I just wanted to scream at him for doing this to me and having the audacity to be amused right in my face. He nodded. "Good."

"Now get out of my way."

"Ask me nicely."

"Oh, fuck off!" I pushed against him and thankfully, he stepped aside to let me stomp my way to a stool next to the bar. I sat down with a huff and looked ahead at the guys taking the stage.

I mouthed good luck to Parker and Will. They both mouthed back a thank you while at Matt, I just threw a scowl, which he completely ignored as he slung his guitar across his shoulder before taking the mic right in the middle of the stage.

The background slowly picked up along with Will's light guitar strokes. Then my enemy started singing.

And as much as I hated admitting it, I was in awe. Come on, what? Just because I hated him, it didn't mean I couldn't enjoy his voice either. I decided that his voice was a whole other person to me. Innocent and extremely likeable. I considered it the one good thing trapped in the entirety of bad of him.

Will started to hum in the background and I smiled at how good it all sounded when Parker blended in the drum beats. I looked around me and everyone was having a good time. I had goosebumps just thinking that I was once a part of their performance and people must have liked me just as much as they were liking them in that moment.

As the pace of their songs picked up, the audience became more involved as they sang along and a few people started to wave their arms up in the air and dance in the little space in front of the stage.

And when the performance was over, everyone, including me, broke into a huge round of applause for them. The applaud and cheers were so deafening, they completely tuned out the closing background.

"MVP! Woo hoo!" I hooted and that's all it took for everyone to break into an MVP chant across the room and I smiled up at the stage with a shrug.

Will threw me a wink and I chuckled, turning to the people around me and saying to random strangers, "make sure you subscribe to the YouTube channel for more." "Follow us for more updates. Oink." I winked at a guy and he let out a laugh before walking away, saying, "you're funny."

I shook my head to myself. This damn onesie.

"Hey. Can you tell my daughter to eat her veggies or the pig monster will come and get her?" A woman walked up to me, holding her phone in my face. On the screen, was her daughter who couldn't be more than three as she giggled at the camera.

"Um of course." I blinked, then smiled at the screen. "You better eat your veggies or I'm gonna come and get you. Oink!" I flashed my teeth scarily and she stared at the screen with wide eyes for five seconds, then she burst out laughing.

"Aw!" I chuckled. "She's cute."

"Thank you." The mother grinned, smiling at her phone as she walked away.

"Oink oink," I said to another person walking by, giving him the finger guns. At this point, it was safe to say that my self-respect was sleeping somewhere deep within me. "Make sure you subscribe to MVP."

"Sure," he said awkwardly while walking past me. He even cut me a glance back as if to make sure I wasn't following him. I scoffed.

"I'm happy you're taking the part so seriously." Will walked up to me, eyes gleaming as if he were on the verge of laughing. "But oink oink? That's new. But hey! I appreciate the commitment."

"New?" I deadpanned.

"And creative. Good job, Becks."

"So, this isn't part of the usual onesie package?"

"Of course not." He chuckled. "Who told you that?"

With a low grunt, I scanned the room until my eyes settled on a particular musician who was currently soaking up all the praise from a girl at the bar who was leaning over him with interest.

"That bastard," I said under my breath. "I'll be right back, Will."

As I marched up to them, the only sound that reached my ears was the girl's seductive laugh as she placed her hand on his torso and slowly traced it up to his chest.

Obviously, they didn't notice me when I walked closer. My enemy was busy undressing her with his eyes.

I propped myself up on the bar next to them and folded an arm on Matt's shoulder, his back to me. "Oink oink."

The girl was startled as she blinked up at me while Matt just stayed in his spot. He didn't need to turn around to know who it was as I felt his shoulders heave up with a sigh.

"Hey, Matty. Who's this?" I asked.

He ran a hand through his hair.

"Hey!" I smiled at the girl. "How are you?"

"I'm good," she stated awkwardly. "Who are you?"

"Me? Oh! He didn't tell you about me?" I gasped. "Come on! Did he at least mention how he asked me out at one of his gigs just like this one? That was one hell of an evening."

Her brows pulled together as she looked me up and down with a bit of distaste, as unintentional as it was. "He asked you out?"

"Let you in on a little secret." I whispered the rest of the part, "he's crazy about me. And so am I. Why else would I agree to put on this stupid onesie when he asked me? His ex-girlfriend did the same. Anything for the channel, right?"

Her lips twisted into a grimace as she looked between us and shot Matt a look which was a mix of disgust and realization as she started to step away. Maybe there was a little sympathy too, I just wasn't sure if it was for him or me.

"Uh I think my friends are looking for me." She pointed back in a random direction.

"Oink oink." I waved at her.

With that, she was gone and I smirked at my enemy's back.

"How could you not tell her that?" I asked animatedly.

He brushed my arm off his shoulder as if it burned him and turned around to scowl at me.

"What the hell was that?"

"Did you really think I would let you hit it off with a girl after you put me in this stupid onesie that's making all the guys avoid me like the plague?"

"Oh, you think it's the onesie?"

My eyes narrowed. "You need to find a better hobby than getting on my nerves."

"And you need to find a better hobby than getting in my face and messing things up for me."

Another stare down. Both of us shooting glares at each other.

"Hey, Becks?" Will called and our heads snapped sideways to find him waving at us as he made his way past the people.

"Hey, Will. What's up?" I asked.

"Parker and I are about to do shots. You guys wanna come with us?"

"I'm good," Matt declined.

I hopped off the bar. "I would love—"

"She can't, either," my enemy cut in.

"Excuse me?" I stared at him. "Who do you think you are to decide that for me?"

"She's going to help pack up the instruments," he said to Will while pointing his thumb at the stage, completely ignoring me.

"She is going to do that after shots." I smiled sweetly while making my way towards Will. "Let's do it."

He seemed a little amused as he looked between us and finally started guiding me to the other side of the room where Parker was waiting with six shots.

"There you are!" he said, putting two shots in front of each of us.

"Actually..." I pushed mine back. "I don't really wanna drink on a school night. I just said that because I didn't wanna do what he said."

Will chuckled. "You guys certainly live up to your reputation, don't you?"

"I didn't know we had a reputation."

"Not until recently. Your infamous power struggle outside the boy's changing room has got more people talking than you know."

"Oh, believe me." I scoffed. "I know."

"What the hell was that about anyway?" Parker asked curiously.

"It's a long story but to sum it up, we got into an argument. I splashed water on him, he spilled ink on me and I pounced on him out of anger. We ended up outside the room and into the busy corridor and ta-da, some idiot recorded it and sent it to the whole school."

Will and Parker exchanged amused glances as I dictated it. They looked low-key impressed.

Soon we began talking about school and before we knew it, the three of us were bitching about Rebecca.

"Did I tell you she once asked me to pick up her dry cleaning?" Parker told me while raising a hand to the waitress and asking for more shots.

"No way." My jaw dropped. "Please tell me you told her to fuck off."

He chuckled, eyes almost rolling to the back of his head. He was definitely drunk. "I told her I didn't have the time and even if I did, I wasn't her fucking servant."

"Good." I nodded fiercely as Will patted his shoulder proudly. He'd had just two shots so he was much more sober than Parker.

"You should've seen her face." Parker chuckled as the second round of shots arrived and he pushed one to me. "Just one. Come on."

"Fine. You don't have to tell me twice when it comes to shots." I chuckled, clinking my glass with his as we both downed the burning liquid.

"She once handed me a fifty and told me to run down the street and get her a drink and keep the change," Parker started with another incident.

"Bitch!" I shook my head in disbelief. "What did you do? Please tell me you threw that money in her face."

"No. I got her an iced water and kept the change." He burst out laughing and when he started banging his palm on the table, I knew he wasn't in his senses anymore, which made me burst out laughing too. Either that, or it was the shot kicking in already.

"That was brilliant. Good job, Parker."

He took a dramatic bow in gratitude.

"Another shot?" he asked, almost calling for the waitress again.

"No, I'm good."

"Fine." He pouted. "Will? You've had just two."

"Yeah, because I'm driving, man."

Parker's eyes narrowed. "No, you're not. Just because I'm drunk, it doesn't mean you'll say...anything and I'll believe...anything. We're still in the bar. You're not driving."

Will scratched his head for a moment and turned to me. "You can probably imagine what my next hour is going to be like as I drop him home."

"Good luck. I mean it." I chuckled.

"Thank you."

"And as much as I would love to stay and hear more stories about how you bullied the bully, Parker, I gotta go pack up the instruments." I got up.

He pouted in response. "You're cool, Becks. I can call you Becks, right?"

"Of course you can." I smiled. "And you're way cooler, Parker."

He offered me a fist bump and I returned it. "See you at school, Becks."

"Yep. Bye."

"Bye."

"I'll help you," Will said, motioning towards the instruments.

"Should you be leaving him alone?"

"He should be fine."

"I really don't think so." We both eyed Parker flicking the vodka glasses and Will quickly motioned for the waitress to come and get them before Parker could break them.

"Will you be able to manage packing up the instruments alone?"

"I'm not alone. There's that other volunteer too. I keep forgetting her name." I scratched my forehead. "She's already told me twice. I'm not asking again."

"Just greet her with your amazing smile. It'll work for you." He winked.

I smiled, blushing a little at his words. Will was definitely a sweet talker.

"Aw!" Parker looked between us with his face in his hands, his eyes barely open.

"Okay, let's go." Will pulled him up and turned to me again. "Wait. I forgot to ask you if you needed a ride home."

"Oh, thanks but I'm good."

"Okay. Bye, Becks."

"Bye, Will. Bye, Parker."

Once they walked away, I started walking up to the stage with a huff.

The crowd was slowly starting to clear out and didn't have half as many people as it did during the performance. The girl whose name I'd forgotten helped me pack up and get the stuff loaded in a van. It took us about fifty minutes.

"It was really nice to work with you, Rebekah," she said to me while swinging her sling bag across her shoulder, ready to leave.

"It was great working with you too," I said with a nervous smile, not being able to recall her name for the life of me. "See you soon."

"Great! Bye."

"Bye."

What was her name, I think I'll never know. I thought as she disappeared in the crowd and I looked around with a sigh, realizing that I knew nobody here now. My enemy had probably left long ago and I realized I was in a place full of strangers.

With the night falling, I noticed a significant change in the crowd at the bar. What was majorly full of smiling and dancing teens a while ago, now homed middle aged people, mostly men. Some of them appeared to be bikers, as judged by their cryptic tattoos, worn-out leather jackets and rugged appearances. With their big beards, even bigger smiles and rich laughs, they seemed nice, except a few giving off a creepy vibe who probably just wanted to get wasted and check out women. And that made me want to get out of there as quickly as I could.

I grabbed my bag off the stool and made my way out, stepping into the cool air. I'd just taken one step towards the parking lot when I bumped into a hard chest and fell back a step in surprise.

"You're still here?" His brows pulled together.

And probably for the first time, I wasn't as repelled at the sight of my enemy as I always was. I wasn't relieved either, just to be clear. I was just surprised.

"Yeah. I just finished packing up and loading the instruments." I blinked. "But what are you still doing here?"

"I can be here as long as I want without having to tell you my reasons."

My eyes narrowed. For a moment, I'd forgotten about our equation but I was glad he'd caught me up so effectively.

"So can I." I sneered at him. "And you asked first."

"Well then..." He motioned beside him with his thumb, politely telling me to get the fuck out of his way.

"Gladly." I smiled sardonically, stepping to the side without missing the opportunity to smack his chest with my shoulder while walking past him.

I did not stop until I was at least ten feet away from him, even though he must've probably headed back inside the bar by now. I turned around to check and yes, he had disappeared.

I walked a little further towards the road and pulled out my phone to call myself a cab but my traitor for a phone had run out of battery. "Shit!"

I looked around for a taxi but there was none in sight. With a defeated sigh, I scanned the parking lot to look for someone I could ask to borrow their phone when my eyes fell on a very familiar black car. It was my enemy's and he was just getting into it. Better him than a creepy stranger.

"Fuck it!" I cursed out loud and made my way over before he could drive off. I knocked on his window and he looked at me with a scowl before rolling it down.

"What do you want?"

"I just need your phone for a minute."

"Why?"

"I need to call myself a cab. My phone's out of charge."

He watched me dubiously for a moment, then to my surprise, pulled his phone out and unlocked it, but instead of giving it to me, he started using it. I hoped and prayed to God, for his own sake, that he was booking me a cab and not doing something random at this moment.

"Fifteen minutes," he said, tossing his phone on the dashboard.

"What?" I blinked. "It can't be any sooner?"

"No."

I looked around the parking lot and up at the dark sky. I did not want to wait there alone a second longer, let alone fifteen minutes. Then I looked at the empty passenger seat in his car and then at Matt, who was looking at me impatiently. He wanted me to step away so he could drive off.

"Um..." I bit down on my lip and he raised a brow. "Could you...could I hitch a ride? I'll pay you back...with money or a favour."

He scoffed and my jaw dropped when he rolled the window up. As the car started moving, I stepped back in surprise and he drove right off.

"Asshole." I stomped my foot and looked around, eyes falling on the barbed fence. There was an empty area of land stretching far behind it. Talk about creepy!

I debated between going back inside the club but thought better of it. "Okay, Becks. You can do it. Just fifteen minutes, assuming he has actually booked you a cab," I muttered to myself.

Just as I began to head over to the pole holding the bar's name with shiny letters to lean against it, the sharp sound of screeching tires made me jump and my head turned sideways to find a car entering the parking lot and heading towards me.

It stopped right next to me and I recognized the matte black car just in time as the passenger window rolled down.

"Get in," my enemy said with a straight face and I blinked at him in disbelief.

"Way to pull over like a creep," I remarked, still not being able to believe he'd come back for me and not just to gloat and leave me stranded again.

"Before I change my mind." He tapped his fingers on the steering wheel impatiently. He was the last person my pride would let me take a favour from especially after he'd drove off like that but it wasn't like I had many options. I could call Mrs. Brooke but I'd have to wait there alone again. So, I swallowed my pride, got in and buckled my seatbelt just as he said, "and don't get used to it."

The car zoomed forward and I scoffed. "Good you mentioned. I'd just started dreaming about you driving me around every day."

He remained silent and I took a moment to take in my surroundings.

His car was neat and smelled really nice. Not like most guys' which only reeked of beer and deodorant, that is, Mack's. There did exist a faint scent of some cologne and I realized a bit too quickly than I was supposed to that it was Matt's.

It was not a big deal that I was familiar with his cologne at this point. We'd been in enough hand-to-hand combats to last me a lifetime.

My eyes fell on a little Lego-like figure sitting on his dashboard with red hair. I instantly thought of Rebecca and chuckled, wondering if it ever reminded him of her. Or if she was the one who'd fixed it in his car so she would always be on his mind.

"Something funny?" Matt demanded.

"No. Do you always drive around in silence like a psycho?" I eyed the stereo.

"Don't touch anything."

I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms over my chest. I really had to resist the temptation to reach forward and touch the stereo if I didn't wanna get kicked out of his car in the middle of nowhere.

After a moment, he turned the radio on and I narrowed my eyes at him, which he ignored obviously.

"Can you also lower the temperature a bit? I'm melting." The onesie was too thick to be suited for the warm weather. I kept picking at its neckline because I couldn't breathe in it.

"I'm perfectly comfortable."

I shot him a glare. "I'm not."

"It's not my problem."

"Yes, it is. I'm wearing this stupid onesie because of you."

"Then take it off."

"I can't. I'm not wearing anything underneath it, obviously. It's hot enough."

About five seconds passed before he opened his mouth.

"You know it's rented, right? You're going commando in rented clothes."

"I never said I was going commando." I smiled sarcastically. "I'm wearing just enough things under it to not catch some nasty infection, but they're not enough to be in around you."

He remained silent this time. Of course. It's not like there was an argument there.

"And wait a minute." I frowned. "Rented? This has your channel name on it."

His arm reached towards my chest and I was seconds away from smacking it until he pulled at the MVP, which I earlier thought was printed on the onesie but it just turned out to be a thin, transparent plastic sheet. Apparently, it was just pasted.

He shoved it into the glove compartment.

"Oh." I looked down at the onesie again. It was rented. Of course, he got it for me from the store's winter stock. There was no way anyone was renting this one in this weather unless they wanted a personal hell experience.

I rolled my eyes and fell back in my seat. I couldn't wait to get home and take it off. I dropped its hood and freed my hair from my bun since it had become loose and was touching my neck. Then I redid the bun on top of my head and exhaled.

After a few seconds, I noticed him reach forward out of the corner of my eye but paid no attention to what he was doing until I felt the blast of cool air in my face.

He'd lowered the temperature.

I threw him a suspicious glance as he kept his eyes on the road. What did he do that for? What was he planning? Because there was no way he'd done it for me.

He's probably feeling hot, too.

I relaxed in my seat with that conclusion and started enjoying the song, mouthing the lyrics along until it was over and a song that I truly hated came on next.

I realized Matt had started to reach forward to change it as well.

"This song sucks. I hate it," I said and watched as his hand stopped mid-air, and after a second of inner debate, it went back to the steering wheel without changing it.

What a douche!

At the next song, an idea struck me and I started to sing along to test my theory. "Ooh I love this one. Love me love me say that you love..."

Skip

I smirked.

"I love this song too."

Skip

"Ugh, I hate this."

He let the whole song play.

Then 'Baby' by Justin Bieber started to play. "Ugh, this is like the worst song ever." I smirked in a challenge.

I'd put him in a dilemma. Skip and let me win this one or let the whole song play, but at what cost?

His fingers twitched to reach the skip button, and I found myself rooting for it. Come on, Williams.

"Baby baby baby, ohhh..." The loud music filled the car and he finally skipped.

A full-fledged grin appeared on my lips, and I was willing to bet everything on the fact that he could feel my victory when his lips moved and he cursed something silently.

I looked out of the window to hide my smile before he could see it and decide to kick me out or increase the temperature.

After a few more minutes of ride, he parked the car in front of our houses and I unbuckled my seatbelt, preparing myself to thank him. But how could I possibly do that?

So, when I stepped out, I opened my mouth to say thank you, but all that came out was 'I owe you.'

With that, I shut the door and walked up to my house.