Dedicated to @whitney_nyema69 for the cover at the top! Thank you❣️

I'm back :) I'm finally done my exams and halsey is releasing new music in june meaning my life is goooood . What about you?

Chapter Thirty-One: "Whip Cream."

"ZACH, PUT THESE in the display at the front, alright?" I handed him the box and he boyishly grinned.

"Got it." He disappeared and I was right behind them with the other box of books, heading over to a different aisle.

The sound of little feet running on the floor stopped me for a moment and my eyes widened when I saw Soccer running towards me. I immediately put the box down and collected him into my arms. "Hi, little guy."

I laughed, looking down at him as he settled into my arms. I ran a finger over the blue collar on his neck and the long leash that was being held by Maddy. She walked over to us, her hands in her pockets. "What are you doing here?"

"I took the day off from work and according to Sam who had practice, he said Soccer wanted to visit you. I didn't even have time to think before Peter was shoving him towards me."

"Peter huh?" hovered my fingers over Soccer's mouth and I pulled back playfully as he tried to nip at my fingers. "He really hates Soccer."

"I think he started hating him even more when his girlfriend broke up with him." Maddy mumbled, petting Soccer on the head.

"Wait, you know?" Peter's girlfriend-ex-girlfriend, Jenna whom he had dated for almost six years, broke up with him a couple days ago. He's been a complete wreck.

"Yeah, he told me everything in a span of five minutes. I realized that he's the type of guy to pour his feelings out to everyone like we're his therapists."

"I'm just happy that he hasn't resorted to alcohol."

"Really? No offence, but that's so unlike him."

"The second it happened, he told Sam to throw out every single bottle in their penthouse because he thought by the end of the week if he didn't, he might end up with alcohol poisoning."

"Wow."

"My exact thoughts," I stated. "I mean, it's Peter. He has a glass of red wine every day because it's good for the heart but he even threw that out."

"Wow." Maddy repeated. "Poor guy."

"They dated for a long time," I started taking the books out of the box, restocking the shelves. "I'm not sure how he's going to overcome this. I feel like everyone around me is breaking up."

"First there was Jasmine and Andrew. Now Peter and his girlfriend-"

"Jacob and Natalie are having problems." I added, thinking back to my conversation with my cousin the other day.

"Really?"

I nodded. "Ever since they weren't together over the break, they've been constantly fighting. They both kind of want to see other people but they haven't exactly broken up. They're still talking about it."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah."

"Well, how are you and Sam?"

"I haven't exactly had time to see him as often as I wish we could see each other I guess. We're both just kind of busy."

"No more Alexis drama, right?"

I rolled my eyes at the thought of Alexis, setting Soccer on the ground. "In a couple of weeks I'm seeing her again, remember? If something happens I'm not even sure how I would react. But she's not even a problem in my life. I know Tanya is definitely-"

"Oh Tanya? Relax. She's nothing to worry about."

I sighed. "I know. She's just really annoying. I mean, she'll do anything to..." I trailed off, not even wanting to finish the sentence as I continued stocking the shelves.

"To get into Sam's pants?" Maddy suggested.

"Yeah. I can deal with her during soccer. You know sometimes there are moments where she doesn't even bother to pass me the ball when she knows I'm open and have a clear shot at the net during practice?"

"You hate being on her team when you have to scrimmage."

"I do. That's why I try to be on the other team. There's nothing better than beating Tanya when I'm against her."

"This is exactly what you said yesterday when you came back to the dorm after practice."

"We had conditioning. It's never pretty."

"You said that sentence and then you decided to leave the room to take an ice bath."

"He made us do intervals, Maddy. As much as I like running my body was hurting. There is a reason why I take ice baths on purpose."

"I know what intervals are. When you run down a certain amount of yards and then run back in a limited time that gets lower every time you do it. I am aware of what that is. And because you can be insanely competitive you just had to prove to Tanya that you can beat her."

"I didn't have to prove anything. I already knew I was faster than her." I told Maddy, glancing down at Soccer who was surprisingly not making a sound as we were talking.

"Sounds like you're bragging, girl."

"I'm not bragging. I'm stating facts." I clarified with a smile.

"Why don't we talk like this when we're in our room anymore?"

"Maybe because you're busy with volleyball. I'm busy with soccer and when we're in our dorm room the only thing we're both doing is school work, writing notes and occasionally talking about celebrity trash when Matteo comes over."

"He really is into celebrities and all that stuff. Why didn't he just become a reporter instead of deciding to be a basketball player. He'd do so well in it."

"True. He almost exploded the lab the other day because he wouldn't stop talking Taylor Swift's new boyfriend." I commented, finishing up.

Maddy looked down at her when it beeped while Soccer moved to sit near my feet, making me smile. "Matteo texted me. I got to go meet him at his place."

"What are you guys doing?"

"We're probably going to search through Youtube."

"Again?" I swear, that is all they do.

"You know it. And we might get those concert tickets we've been talking about. Remember?" I nodded in recollection. "You sure you don't want to come with? Sam can come too."

I shook my head. "Nah, you guys are the ones obsessed with the band anyway. Get the tickets. Besides, Sam and Matteo in the same place again? Let's not risk that."

Just when I said that sentence Soccer started barking frantically. To the point where I was certain that everyone in the store could hear the little guy. Oh God. "I handed Maddy the leash. "No dogs in the store. I'll see you later. Tell Matteo I said hi." I bent down to kiss Soccer on the head. "Bye Soccer."

"No bye for me?"

"Madds, get out before I get fired."

Maddy laughed. "Bye Mace."

Zach moved past Maddy, shooting her a small smile and glancing down at Soccer as she quickly made her way by. "Yours?"

"Yeah." I answered, shoving the box into his hands.

"He's cute." Zach said as we walked back into the backroom. "That's, uh, that's Maddy right?"

"Yeah," I slowly turned to look at him, wondering where this conversation was going. "What about her?"

"Well," He paused when a couple people came by moving through the storage space. "Is she seeing anybody?"

"Nope," I patted him on the shoulder as I grabbed the next box. "I'll put in a good word for you."

"What about that Matteo guy you guys were talking about? She's not interested in him, is she?"

"You were eavesdropping on our conversation?" I shot him a look.

"I didn't mean to," Zach put his hands up. "I was passing through when I was done and I just so happened to pick up on a few words."

"Maddy's not into Matteo that way. In fact she claims he is 'too tall and annoying for her'."

"How tall is he?"

"Apparently 6'4."

"Damn."

"Yeah and compared to Maddy who 5 foot 2, he's way more than a head taller than her. Luckily for her, you're not that tall considering I'm taller than you and you're not as annoying as Matteo can be."

"Is he that annoying?"

I let out a snort, crossing my arms. "He's a good friend but you don't even know the half of it."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Hazel, can you hand me that?" Sam asked from under the sink, most of the top half of his body not visible from my sight.

I handed Sam the wrench he needed, as well as the better flashlight as I balanced my phone between my ear and my shoulder. "Thanks." Sam said, distracted as he tried fixing the pipe at the same time as holding the flashlight between his teeth when he disappeared.

"Andrew, that's not how it works." I said into the phone.

"How do you know?"

"Because I'm not stupid like you to think that it works like that."

"I hate you."

"That's great. How are you?"

"I'm okay-Gianna stop it," I could hear him laugh and the distinct voice of a girl in the background. I froze at that sound when he continued talking. "Go home, would you? I'll see you in a bit." He laughed again and there was a faint pause before he started talking to me again. "Sorry about that."

"Hmm, who was that?" I narrowed my eyes, glancing at Sam who had pulled himself out to look at me, an eyebrow raised in curiosity.

"Gianna? She's just a..." I didn't hear the rest of Andrew's sentence because Peter had walked into the room looking as miserable as ever. There was a blanket wrapped around him and he squinted at the light in the kitchen as if it burned his retina.

"Why don't you just call a real plumber to fix it instead?" He said in a whiny tone towards Sam.

"Because I know how to fix it. With brothers like mine a lot of shit goes down a sink and I picked a few things up from Toby. You need to stop shoving food down here, jackass. You're going to blow it all up one day. The sink is already clogged to the top."

"Excuse me for wanting to pig out for once in my life. It's not my fault that I decided to drown my sorrow in an alternate solution: food."

"Is that the only reason you actually came into the kitchen?" Sam asked.

"Do we still have whip cream?" He asked, kind of answering the question with the question.

"Really?" I asked him.

"And do we have strawberries?" Peter winked at me as he made his way to the fridge. "Just because I'm eating a lot doesn't mean that I'm going to eat unhealthy, babe."

"Stop flirting with my girlfriend," Sam said, sliding back under the sink. "Take the strawberries and put the whip cream back where you found it."

"But you don't even use it! Why is it still in the house then?"

"Because if I have a cheat day, the whip cream is the first thing I'm going to go to."

Peter sighed, looking over at the box of pop tarts and already taking one out. "Ooh, I'm gunna have one of-"

"No!" I exclaimed, reaching to snatch it out of his hands. "You can have anything in this place and you go for my thing?"

"It's in my flat!"

"I don't care!"

"Both of you stop it," Sam groaned, pulling himself out again and sighing. "Peter, just take the damn whip cream and don't touch the Pop-tarts. They are hers."

"They don't say her name on it." Peter said, pulling the blanket around him even tighter.

"Actually," I twisted the box in my hand, showing Peter where a sticky note that said my name on it laid on the side. "It does. Take a hint."

Peter rolled his eyes, taking the whip cream and closing the fridge with his foot before walking out of the kitchen. "Don't finish it all." Sam warned him.

"No promises!" Peter yelled back.

Sam rolled his eyes, putting himself back under and I focused on Andrew again, setting the box on the counter. "Sorry about that Drew."

"It's alright."

"So...the Gianna girl...are you guys like...?"

"What? No. We're just friends. Definitely just friends. We met through my roommate and they dated and stuff but us? Nah, not like that."

"Really?"

He laughed. "Yeah, Mace. Really? If something new is happening then you'll be the first to know. Plus, we only have one thing in common. We wouldn't really work out anyway."

"Oh yeah? What's that?"

"Boxing. She does it at my gym and she's good but that's pretty much it. That's all we have in common."

"Can I be honest with you?"

There was faint shuffling in the background before I heard his voice. "What is it?"

"You didn't have that much in common with Jasmine either now that I think about it."

There was a pause and I almost wanted to facepalm at how stupid I was to bring her up in the conversation. "Um...yeah we kind of didn't have much in common. I mean, the biggest thing we had in common over our years of friendship and almost a year of dating was...you."

"Me?"

"Yeah," Andrew confirmed. "If it wasn't for you I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have met Jasmine."

"I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing."

When Andrew laughed, I was surprised. "It's a good thing. Don't worry about it. I told you I like boxing. When we see each other again, I'm going to show you so many things that you will never be able to take me down again."

I laughed this time. "Don't overestimate yourself."

"Shut up. I'll call you later okay?"

"Yeah, bye."

"Bye." I hung up the phone, sliding it into my pocket as I watched Sam, hearing him mutter under his breath. "You okay?"

"Yeah," He said. "Where's Soccer? It's strangely quiet."

I walked to the living room where I could see Peter on the couch, spraying the whipped cream in his mouth. To my surprise, Soccer was laid up on his stomach, his eyes on the TV as Peter flicked through the channels. Peter pulled his head back even further to spot me. He shook the can and gestured it towards me. "You want some?"

I shook my head. "I'm okay." I sat next to his head on the arm rest. "What's going to happen with you? You're not just going to lie down here for the rest of your life eating away, are you?"

He sighed. "Mace, I know you give advice and stuff but I'm not really asking for it right now."

"I wasn't going to give you advice," I admitted. "I just wanted to know what you were going to do."

"Well...if I'm still lying down on this couch, drowning myself in food next Saturday then you can not only give me advice, you can drag me off this couch yourself, alright?"

"Alright." I said, patting his head.

"Don't pat my hair like that, I'm not a dog. The dog in the house is currently lying on me like I'm it's bed."

I took the can out of his mouth and nudged his chin down to open his mouth. I sprayed the whip cream in his mouth and closed it. "Peter?"

"Yeah?" He said all muffled behind the cream.

"Shut up."

He tried to grin and I laughed, handing it back to him. I walked back to the kitchen where Sam was still under the sink just when his phone dinged. "Can you get my phone and read the text out loud? It's probably from Lexi or something."

I took his phone, reading the message on the screen. "She asked 'is next week the meeting?'"

"Can you tell her 'yeah'?"

I typed it in and before I knew it the bubbles were on the screen, indicating that she was writing. Well that was pretty quick. "She says 'good luck'."

With a red heart emoji.

Cool.

"Can you ask her to send me details about the thing?" Sam asked.

Thing? There's a thing now?

"Um, yeah, sure, okay." I sent her exactly what Sam said and watched Sam come out from under the sink. He put the wrench and flashlight aside and reached into a cabinet to get some gloves.

"What does that mean?" He said, turning his body towards me.

"What does what?"

"You know. The way you said 'um'."

"I say 'um' all the time. It's not a big deal."

"Mace, I'm just asking her details about the fashion show. The one in London a couple weeks from now where she will be walking. That's all I'm asking for."

"Okay. Got it. Like I said, not a big deal." My eyes shifted to the counter and I couldn't handle the gaze in his sharp eyes.

Sam stared at me. "It's sounds like it's becoming a big deal."

"It's not, okay?" I snapped and the second I said it like that I immediately regretted it. "I'm sorry I just-"

"It's okay," Sam moved towards me, putting the gloves down and wrapping his arms around me. "Did Alexis say something to you or am I missing something completely?"

"She's your friend." I stated, my fingers playing with the hem of his sleeveless shirt. I didn't want to burden him with something that didn't bother me anyway. Alexis could say a million things towards me (and she has) about how I shouldn't be with Sam. About how I wasn't fit to be with him. I didn't care so nothing she says will ever bother me.

"That didn't answer my question."

"It's not even that serious. I don't let her get to me. We just had a tiny insignificant conversation at the shoot the other day." And I couldn't help but think about every single conversation she's had with me that basically summed up the idea that I probably wasn't good enough for you.

"What did she say? I'll talk to her."

"Don't, okay? Alexis and I aren't friends. We're both fine with that. We've all accepted that so don't bother thinking that whatever she says to me is actually going to affect me. Can we just forget this conversation?"

"Hazel-"

"No, I don't want to talk about her. By the way, I know how to fix a clogged sink too."

Sam sighed, his eyes searching my face. His gaze went down to his phone before looking back up at me. A tired smile crossed his face. "Really now? You think you can fix this?"

"Just because I'm a girl doesn't mean I can't do things you can do."

"I never questioned that." He kissed me and I pulled back with a smile.

"And you never will. Now, hand me the tools and I'll get started on what you've been inspecting for like twenty minutes."

Sam laughed, handing me the gloves as he sat on table, typing on his phone. I've been trying for so long not to let the idea of Alexis being with Sam get to my head. I slid under the sink, looking at the trap of the drain underneath.

I tried imagining them together. It made sense. They've had some type of history. They would look good together. Being together. They've already been together once or maybe more than that. "Mace, you're starting to sound insecure." I mumbled to myself.

I then cleared my throat to speak loudly. "Sam, we need to get a bucket before we start anything and get a plunger just in case."

"I knew we had to have a bucket." I heard Sam mumble.

I couldn't help but laugh. "Sure, you did."

"I'll be right back." He said and I heard as his footsteps as he walked away.

I got out from under the sink when I heard shuffling and turned to see Peter walking towards me. "Hey, can I give you advice?"

I leaned my hip against the table. "What is it?"

"Alexis? I've met her. She's a bit of a bitch to everyone when she can be. She can be nice to those that she doesn't feel threatened by She's threatened by you because you're with him. But in Sam's eyes, she probably doesn't compare. Sam loves you. You have nothing to be worried about."

I let out a breathless laugh, wiping my hands on my sweats. "Um...thanks Peter."

"I felt like you needed it. Besides Sam is an idiot if he thinks that he'll be able to fix the sink. The guy has this need to prove his manliness. So dumb." Peter shook his head and I chuckled because Sam did have his pride.

Sam came back with a bucket and a plunger. "I don't need to prove anything and- did you finish the whip cream?"

Peter chuckled, shaking the can before spraying the last of it in his mouth. "Now I did."