“It is just a stupid crush.” 

Yes. That sentence. I have been telling myself that for the last six months then searching for her from club to club for the last three months after failing to convince my stubborn head. Until now, I had no clue what attracted me to her, what I found special in her. I could not pinpoint what that was and I knew how silly this was. Other people would have no problem explaining their crush on someone, saying it was her smile or her sweet demeanor but not me. Unlike other people, this stuff did not usually happen to me.

I did not have a crush on people. I fucked. I got a hard-on and dealt with it. You could call it devil tango, the dirty, or what other names there were out there. I did not have something as silly as a crush. Not since five years ago. Let's just say I had learned my lesson in a hard, painful way. That was my first and last crush, until this very day six months ago.

Fuck! Oh, how much I hated her yet at the same time craving to see her again. This was the most frustrating thing since Trump got elected.

"Hey, Reed!"

I turned to the left and watched Sebastian “Seb” Jameson and Malcolm Fisher walking towards me. Just like how we used to swipe our iPhone to unlock, I put on my cool mask and cover my silly 'I-just-thought-of-a-girl-I-knew-nothing-about' face. "Heya, mate."

"Where were you last night?" Seb put one hand on my shoulder then noticed the look on my face and subtly removed his hand. Everyone knew I did not like to be touched. It was nothing personal, it was just what it was. Some people liked to be hugged, some did not. In my case, it was any physical touch.

Funny how it came from a guy who fucked a lot. Well, the difference was they were strangers, most of them. Their touch was just like an accidental touch the Starbucks guy made when he was handing you your styrofoam cup. Nothing special. Meaningless. A touch from a friend or family or someone I knew, however, was different.

"Are you alright?" Malcolm eyed me curiously.

I rolled my eyes. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"So where were you?" Seb reiterated. "We waited for you at Dylan's place last night."

I was checking out this club, thought maybe she'd be there.

Yeah, right. No way I was going to say that.

"In bed," I answered curtly, giving nothing away.

A playful, knowing smirk spread across Seb's face. He always was the naughty one, anyway, while Malcolm pretty much stuck his dick in one place and never pull it out

in other words, he was a loyal boyfriend or in a relationship

. “Alone?”

I chuckled. “You know I rarely go to bed alone.” Except that I had been for the last three months thanks to that damn girl. Technically I had not been alone. I had Sam

my golden retriever

accompanied me.

But Seb did not need to know that. He offered me his hand and we did a high five while Malcolm was simply shaking his head. Seriously, people in a relationship would never be able to understand the single fighters.

"Where's JK?" I asked them about our other friend, a Korean guy. His name was too hard to pronounce and none of us ever got it right. Jungkook, Jongkook, Jeongguk, Yongguk. We had settled with JK and the guy was actually okay with it. He had said that it was better than hearing his name being mispronounced.

"No clue." Malcolm shook his head and shoved one hand into his pocket then pulled out his phone. “I have rung him five times today. Maybe he is busy."

Seb laughed. "Yeah, right. Busy doing what? He is probably having a hangover from last night and decided to skip his classes today."

"Speaking of class, we are gonna be late," muttered Malcolm, turning his phone so that we could see the digital clock on the screen.

Seb checked out the girls passing by as he answered, “Dude, we are always late."

This was why the guy was single. Not that he was bad looking that no girls wanted him, it was quite the opposite. Every girl wanted him and he also wanted them but for a shorter period of time. Much, much shorter. He was the kind of guy that would make you feel like a princess for the next seven days, then treated you as if you had never existed after that. Seb always fell too fast and too hard then at lightning speed - just like how it came, the feelings went to poof. We always teased him about it, saying that one day New York would run out of girls for him.

“Fashionably,” I commented on Seb's remark. We always came five minutes after the professor went in. If the professor was late, we were later. It was for no particular reason but we had done it since the first year. Plus, we had never attended this class before and the reason why I was even here was because my program advisor had informed me that I was below required attendance and if I even skipped one session during the remaining months before the end of this semester, I would fail this class. Right now, I really did not need to repeat this class. In a year, I would graduate and could finally invest my time in building my own company.

"Well, it will not be fashionable in two minutes. We should get going, guys."

Seb and I looked at Malcolm with a tired look on our faces. He had always been the killjoy. But I personally could understand him. Unlike JK or myself, Malcolm and Seb did not possess the talent to understand everything quickly and score the highest even without studying. The difference between the two, however, Malcolm actually tried his best to keep his score above average or at least passed the subject while Seb did not give half a fuck.

“He is right. It is macro today." Not that it Sebered if the subject was macroeconomics which was one of the toughest subjects. For me, they were all the same but I did not want Malcolm to have trouble understanding because he did not get the first fifteen minutes of the lecture.

Malcolm shot me a grateful look and I gave him a nod. Soon we headed to our class. None of us carried books, we had David to deal with that.

Seb was filling me up with what had happened last night at Dylan Ferreira's party when a blockhead shoved me away.

"What the fuck?!"

My hand proved to be faster than my mouth as it had already grabbed the hoodie of the dude that had just shoved me. I pulled him back then shoved him to the wall on my left.

The guy, being shoved like asparagus, shouted back, "What the fuck you are doing?"

"I should be one asking you!" I growled as I planted my hand on his shoulder and pinned him on the wall. I was in a bad mood thanks to my failing attempts in finding that girl last night. All I wanted was to punch this guy to let out my frustration.

My fingers curled into a fist and I swung my arm back, ready to give him free teeth removal when someone grabbed my wrist and said, "Let him go."

Oh, I had two fucking idiots to be my punching bag. Awesome!

I flicked my gaze to the newcomer and that was when my whole body froze. It was her.