“So your variable a is going to be below the x, because in the hyperbola, the positive variable always goes with a. Get it?”

            I stared down at my math paper; attempting to retain the information Anthony was feeding me. “I—”

            “I get it! I get it!”

            Scowling, I narrowed my eyes at my blonde friend, Caroline. “That’s because you’re in calculus!”

            She batted her eyelashes at me innocently. “I know, but there’s still a lot I can’t remember.”

            “Or you just want Anthony’s attention,” I muttered.

            “That too,” she admitted with a laugh.

            “Sorry, sorry, I’m Ellie’s only,” Anthony told her with a grin, wrapping a strong arm around my shoulder.

            The corners of Caroline’s lips tugged up into a smirk. “Oh really? I figured you’d have to share her with Julius. He loves her a lot, you know.”

            I felt my cheeks tingling. “Carol….”

            “They used to chase each other around and tackle each other to the ground and make out—”

            “We did not!”

            “I wouldn’t doubt it,” Anthony said solemnly.

            I glared at him. “Anthony!”

            “Kidding!” he responded quickly, swiftly placing a peck on my lips. “I know you’re over Julius.”

            “And he’s over me,” I stated firmly.

            Caroline and Anthony exchanged amused glances. “Is that what you think?” Caroline asked.

            Ignoring her, I returned my attention to my math homework. “What are the equations for asymptotes?”

            Anthony let out a throaty groan, falling back onto my floor. “Can’t we stop studying?”

            “No! I have a final tomorrow! You two are the smartest people I know!”

            “Actually, Julius and your brother are pretty smart—” Caroline started, but I cut her off.

            “You know if I ask Julius he’ll say I owe him something, and you know my brother would probably teach me the wrong thing.”

            Smiling, Caroline shrugged. “It’s just a fact.”

            “When I said I wanted to meet your friends, I didn’t mean during a study session,” Anthony complained. “I thought we could go to a club.”

            “Most of my friends are still seventeen,” I pointed out.

            Furrowing his eyebrow, he glanced around the room. “Out of all the people here, how many are seventeen?”

            Caroline raised her hand.

            “So one out of one. That’s a big percent.”

            Rolling my eyes, I shoved him in the shoulder. “Anthony, Carol isn’t my only friend. The rest just apparently don’t like me and didn’t want to come over.”

            “It’s okay to admit you only have me as a friend,” Caroline told me, placing a hand on my calf pityingly.

            “You guys are bullies,” I accused moodily, pressing my pencil into my notebook paper too hard and causing the tip to break. “Ugh!”

            Anthony chuckled, lowly and attractively. “Frustrated, Ellie?”

            “I’m so bad at math,” I complained, dropping my head. “I give up. I’ll never pass this test—”

            The blaring, obnoxious noise of Anthony’s ringtone filled my room, causing all of us to jump. Grinning sheepishly, he retrieved it from his pocket, flipping it open without checking the caller I.D. “Hello?”

            I watched as all the color flooded from his face. Immediately he stood up, signaling for Caroline and myself to stay quiet. Confused, I cocked my head to the side.

            “Ah, hold on, I’m with my girlfriend at the moment.” He covered the mouthpiece of his phone. “I’ll be right back. My… boss is calling. Apparently I was supposed to work, or something.”

            Nodding, I shooed him away with my hand before frowning at my notebook again. “I really don’t know this stuff…”

            “That’s it?”

            “What do you mean that’s it?”

            Caroline folded her arms across her chest. “Wasn’t that the least bit suspicious to you?”

            I shook my head. “No, why?”

            “His expression…”

            “Well, it was his boss. I would get nervous if my boss called me saying I was supposed to work.”

            “Has he ever missed a day of work before?”

            “No, but…”

            Caroline pursed her lips at me. “Could he be cheating?”

            “Absolutely not,” I told her. “There’s no way. I’m sure it’s his boss.”

            “Okay, maybe not another girlfriend, but that’s definitely not his boss.”

            I rolled my eyes, flipping through a few pages of my math book. “What makes you so sure?”

            “The hesitation before he said it was his boss?”

            “That’s…” I trailed off, trying to think of an excuse. None came to mind. “Okay, even if it wasn’t his boss, I’m positive it wasn’t another girlfriend.”

            She tapped her finger on her shoe. “I wonder who then…”

            “Something he obviously wants to keep to himself.”

            “You don’t care at all?”

            “No,” I replied confidently. “I trust Anthony.” How could I not trust him? He’d never given me a reason not to. In fact, he’d given me more than enough reason to never have doubts about him. There was no way I’d believe for a split-second any of his personality wasn’t real. Especially the side of him I saw in Walmart. Not to mention his words. I believed them completely. “You’ve only known him for about two hours. You’ll see.”

            A smile played around Caroline’s lips. “That’s really sweet.”

            “I-It’s not… I don’t…”

            “And now you’re getting embarrassed! Aww,” she cooed teasingly.

            Feeling blood rush to my cheeks, I chucked my pencil sharpener at her. “Shut up!”

            Laughing, he easily caught the small piece of plastic. “Okay, okay. Even though I’ve only known him for two hours, I’ll believe you. He seems like a good guy. So that phone call is something he’s ashamed about then.”

            “Oh, give it up. I take my phone calls privately too, you know.”

            “But your face doesn’t pale when you answer.”

            I hesitated. She had a point. “Well, maybe it’s like… his mom and is too embarrassed to talk to her in front of me.”

            “Doubt it.”

            “Well, what do you think then?” I demanded.

            “I bet he was an ex-gangster who turned teacher and now his gang is after him and—”

            “You’re crazy. Just stop talking.”

            “Fine. You have problem three wrong, by the way.”

            I gaped at her. “What? But you said it was right when we were doing it!”

            Her returned expression was one of feigned regret. “My bad. I didn’t want to discourage you…”

            “Well it’s not helping me learn! Carol! My final is tomorrow! I have to pass. There’s no way I’m going to go back to school again next year for one credit.”

            “Maybe you’ll have to ask Mason or Julius.”

            Grumbling under my breath, I slammed my book shut. From the beginning I figured it would be impossible to study with Anthony and Caroline, but after they’d both promised to do their best, I’d given them the benefit of the doubt. Somewhere inside me though, I knew I’d have to ask my brother or Julius at some point. Which meant owing them something. “Never mind. Let’s just go grab lunch or something.”

            “Anthony too?”

            “Yes, I’m hungry too,” Anthony responded, slipping back into the room, his phone gripped tightly in his hand. The look on his face made me wonder if he’d ran a five mile marathon before coming back.

            Caroline shot me a smug look while I kept my eyes trained on his face, watching for any reactions. His gaze met mine and immediately the corners of his lips curved up into a smile. Which I couldn’t help returning. “Where do you want to go?”

            “Why does he get to choose?” Caroline said, pouting.

            “Because I am the boyfriend, and therefore have more priority over the girl friend,” Anthony explained seriously. “If our importance was compared to a food chain, I’d be a human and you’d be a plant.”

            She gazed at him, unblinking. “Are you freaking kidding me?”

            “No, I’m regular kidding you.”

            Caroline opened her mouth to retort, but I spoke quickly. “How about Panera? I haven’t been there in a while.”

            “Me either,” Anthony added. “I vote there.”

            “You’re only agreeing because you’re her boyfriend,” Caroline accused.

            I rubbed my forehead tiredly. “You don’t have to go, Carol.”

            “No, I want to.”

            “Then it’s settled. We take Anthony’s car.”

            Anthony raised an eyebrow. “Why my car?”

            I smiled at him innocently. “I don’t want to waste my gas.”

            He rolled his eyes, grinning. “Very well. I guess I’ll drive then… But don’t complain to me if I crash and we all die.”

            “If we’re all dead, no one will be doing any complaining,” Caroline pointed out. “And since you’re driving, why don’t you treat too?”

            “I’ll treat Ellie, but not you.”

            “Geez. I didn’t realize how much of a jerk you are.”

            He did a double take at her. “A jerk? What? Ellie’s my girlfriend, you’re not!”

            “So?”

            “So… so…”

             I nudged him in the side. “Why don’t you just treat her too?”

            He gave me a defeated look. “Fine. You know, taking money from college students is worse than taking money from old people.”

            “No it’s not,” I laughed, putting out my hand so he could pull me to my feet. “Old people don’t have jobs.”

            “And you work at Walmart,” Caroline added, holding out her hand as well.

            Anthony ignored it, so I offered her my own, struggling to pull her to her feet. “I just want a nice chicken noodle soup bread bowl,” I sighed, nearly imagining the taste of the delicious soup.

            “I’m going to go to the bathroom before we leave, so I’ll meet you two outside,” Caroline said before disappearing out into the hallway.

            Taking my hand, Anthony led me downstairs and into the kitchen. Julius was sitting at my table, a bowl of Cheerios in front of him. His eyes shifted to me when I walked in and he smiled. “Hey, Ellie.”

            “Hey,” I responded quietly, lowering my gaze. It was still kind of awkward between us.

            “Guess what came in the mail today?”

            My gaze went back to his handsome face. “Why did you get our mail?”

            Grinning, he picked up a letter next to the box of Cheerios. “Mason asked me to. Come take a look.”

            “Have you been waiting for something?” Anthony inquired as I took a few steps toward Julius.

            “Not that I know of,” I responded slowly, reaching out my hand to snatch the paper away from the blonde.

            Julius moved it back easily. “Not so fast.”

            “What?”

            “En español.”

            I raised an eyebrow. “What in Spanish?”

            “Ask for it.”

            “Really?”

            He smirked. “Really.”

            “Puedo tener, mi, uh, papel?”

            A light sigh left his lips and he tossed my letter at me. “You don’t know the word for letter? What Spanish are you in again?”

            “None,” I snapped at him before taking in the post in my hand. It was addressed to me, coming from Springfield… “Oh my god! It’s my college acceptance letter!”

            “College acceptance?” Anthony repeated, surprised. “Isn’t this a little late? You should’ve gotten them last year or at the beginning of this year, right?”

            Excited, my shaky hands tore open the letter. “Yeah, but I handed in this one late. I hope they accepted it!”

            “Where’s it to?” Anthony asked.

            “It’s from—”

            “Julius, shut up,” I interjected quickly. “I have to see if I was accepted first…” In my hurry, I managed to slice myself on my pointer finger, obtaining a nice paper cut. Holding back a swear, I slid the paper inside out and raked my eyes over the first sentence. As I did so, everything fell from my hands.

            Anthony was the first to speak. “Did you get accepted?”

            “I…”

            “Tell me you did,” Julius ordered. “If you didn’t, I’ll personally go kick some asses. Why did you drop it?”

            “Where did you apply?” Anthony demanded. “I want to know. This suspense is killing me!”

            My mouth was dry and I had to swallow multiple times in order to find my voice. “I… I’m accepted.”

            “Yes!” Julius cheered loudly, jumping up from his seat. Within three seconds his strong arms were around me and he was twirling me in a circle. “That’s great news, Ellie!”

            Now I was laughing, slapping on his back, ordering him to put me down. “Julius! I’m dizzy!”

            By this time, Anthony was getting impatient. He swiped the letter off the floor and swept his eyes over it. A grin was forming on his face. “Ellie…”

            Julius finally set me down and I turned to him, a grin of my own on my face. “Yes?”

            “You got accepted to my college…”

            “Our college,” Julius corrected.

            “Don’t tell me it was for me.”

            I shook my head immediately. “No! Well, kind of. I really did want to go there, but the thought of going to college with Mason and Julius scared me. So after I found out you went there, I decided I wanted to go. So I applied. But I didn’t say anything in case I didn’t get accepted. But now I am accepted, and I can go to the same college as you—”

            Anthony nearly lunged at me, his arms bringing my body against his, his lips landing roughly on mine. Surprised, it took me a few seconds to respond to it. Then I totally forgot that Julius was in the room.

            He cleared his throat the moment Caroline barged in. Anthony and I pulled apart swiftly, a fine blush settling on my face. “Sorry,” I apologized.

            “What happened in here? Hi, Julius,” Caroline added upon seeing the blonde. “How are you?”

            “Fine,” he responded happily. “Ellie just got accepted to WNEC.”

            Caroline seemed impressed. “Really?”

            “What’s with that look? I’m smart!”

            “Smart enough to almost fail math this year…”

            I grimaced. “Well…”

            “Who cares? The fact is she got accepted,” Anthony interjected, wrapping his arm around my shoulder. “Now I get to see her even more.”

            Julius rolled his eyes. “Just what you need.”

            “That means Julius gets to see her more too,” Caroline said thoughtfully. “Guess it works for both of you.”

            I shot her a warning look. She was the only one aside from Anthony that I told about Julius’s feelings. As she noticed my gaze, an embarrassed expression crossed her face. Julius also must’ve felt awkward, because he turned back to his cereal.

            “Okay. So this lunch has now become a celebration lunch,” Anthony declared.

            Julius’s ears perked up. “You’re going out to lunch?”

            “Yes, and you can’t come.”

            “Aww, why not?”

            “You’re eating cereal.”

            “I still want to go! Let me go! Ellie? Please?” Julius gave me his best puppy dog look. “Please, please, please?”

            I hesitated. If it was just Anthony and me going, I would’ve said no. But since Caroline was also going… “Okay. But you’re treating Caroline.”

            “Deal!” Julius agreed. “Let me throw this in the sink!”

            Anthony pouted at me. “Ellie.”

            “Don’t worry. It’ll be more like a double date now.” Smirking, I glanced at Caroline, who was blushing. “She’s always had a crush on him,” I continued, now lowering my voice.

            “I guess that’s fine then,” he sighed. “I’ll take you out for a celebratory dinner after you finish all your finals, okay?”

            “Okay,” I accepted easily. “I have my last one on Friday.”

            He thought about it for a moment. “That’s my last day of classes. Is that yours too?”

            “Well, technically my last day of classes was last week. Now I just have to take finals. And graduation is June 1st.”

            “Then after that we go to Florida. When does your graduation start? I have my last final on that day. And I want to go.”

            “Five.”

            Relief crossed his face. “Okay, good. I have a morning final. I’ll definitely be there.”

            “I’ll get you a ticket,” I said excitedly.

            Julius waved his hand in front of our faces. “Are you two ready to go? Who’s driving?”

            “I am,” Anthony told him, taking my hand again and leading us out to his car. “You two sit in back. Ellie gets shotgun.”

            “Claro,” Julius responded, opening the back seat for Caroline. “In you go, missy.”

             Frowning, Anthony glanced over at my side of the car, looking as if he wanted to open my door for me too. I rolled my eyes, lifting the handle and pulling it open myself. “I can do it myself, Anthony. Julius is just trying to show you up.”

            “Actually, I’m showing that chivalry isn’t dead,” Julius announced proudly, sauntering around the car to the other side and sliding in.

            Anthony shook his head. “Right.”

            “Anthony?”

            “Hmm?”

            “Thanks.”

            He raised an eyebrow. “For what?”

            “Not getting mad that I applied to the same college as you.”

            “Why did you think I’d be mad?” he asked, sounding surprised.

            “Because I didn’t say anything… I wasn’t sure if you wanted me to go or not.”

            “Why wouldn’t I want you to go?”

            “Invasion of privacy?”

            This caused him to let out a sharp bark of laughter. “Ellie! Of course I want you to go to the same college as me. You’re my girlfriend. I want to spend as much time as I can with you. You’re fun. Plus, you have the right to invade any privacy you want!”

            I pressed my lips together. “Really?”

            “Really,” he insisted. “Except maybe when I use the bathroom. You can shower with me though.”

            Smiling, I waved him off. “I don’t want to do that.”

            “Yet.”

            “Yet,” I agreed.

            He smirked.

            “But, since I’m allowed to ask… Who called you earlier?”

            All expression was wiped off his face. “Ah, my boss, remember?”

            “I don’t believe you.”

            “Don’t worry about it,” he said evasively.

            I narrowed my eyes. “It wasn’t your boss.”

            “Just forget it, Ellie.”

            “Anthony!”

            “Get in, I’m starting the car,” he ordered, opening his door and sliding into the seat.

            Scowling, I climbed in my side. “I’m not letting this drop.”

            “You should.”

            “Letting what drop?” Julius questioned.

            “Nothing,” Anthony and I responded simultaneously.

            “That’s no fair,” he complained. “I want to know.”

            Anthony shifted his car into reverse, easily pulling out of my driveway. “That’s too bad. Change of topic. Julius, how’s helping teach Spanish 101?”

            My eyes lingered on Anthony’s face. The color was just returning. I wanted to know who called him. Who could have such an effect like that on him? Definitely not his boss or mother. There was no way it was another girl. So who was it? I was determined to find out what secret he was keeping from me.

___________________________________

IMPORTANT:

The Watty Awards are up! Here's what you can vote for me from!

Most Popular: A Surreptitious Relationship (Ignore IMS, please haha. I'd rather you vote for ASR)

Romance: A Surreptitious Relationship!

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So go votee!! :D :D Please! I'll love you foreeeeverr!!

Waist-Deep in Walmart is for catchiest title, but DON'T vote that. It's not finished. I'm not sure why Wattpad put it up there. There's quite a few more chapters for this, so don't worry xD

ANYWAY. I hoped you enjoyed this chapter :) I have to go back and start putting up the story recommendations. I never have time. But I want to. So yeah! No one's reminded me, and I'm really sorry about that :/