It was always you

Chapter 7

The week passed quickly and yet too slowly.

Interspersed with the stresses of classes, tests, assignments as it was, it seemed like everyone seemed to pick on the new notes of my relationship with Allen.

People we didn't even know personally were commenting on it.

Apparently finding out that one of the hottest college basketball players on the brink of committing to his closest friend made for too juicy gossip fodder to skip on.

Though it was all made worse by the added whispers of Nessie's name.

They weren't loud, unsure of her existence as most college was.  But she had a few friends on the campus, alumni of the same school as Allen and hers that had seen the two's relationship bloom, who made sure her name was not forgotten.

My distaste for it all might have had been overwhelming but for the one saving grace to the rumours-they finally made Jasper back off.

No innuendos, no weird tests, no attempts at staking a claim at her. Just distant professionalism.

He still allowed me as much say as before, had maybe increased my work load, but he kept our chats outside of the meetings minimal.

So much so that about two weeks after Allen's return from Nessie's college, Jasper and I led a meeting for Celebron with barely any words exchanged and I left without him holding her back or begging for any personal audiences. A true milestone, truth be told.

My excitement at that was enough to have me jumping on Allen, who true to his word had taken to waiting outside my meetings for me. 

Like always, his arms were quick to wrap around me pulling me close to him, my feet lifted from the ground.

"You smell like sweat."

"Coach started our workouts today and had us begging him for mercy."

I leaned back and he let me drop to his feet, reaching for my hand before I had taken a step back.

We fell into step easily, walking off as we exchanged notes about our day.

I hadn't seen him since the evening before and realised just then that I had missed him. Catching up through texts just wasn't enough.

"I have to shower the gym off, come back to mine? We can study there instead of the library."

"You know we always end up binging on Netflix at your place. Why don't you head up, shower and then join me in the library?"

"What kind of a fake boyfriend goes back to his apartment alone on a Friday evening?"

I giggled back, "You said it yourself, the fake kind"

Sighing back exaggeratedly, he came to a halt, making me stop too. "Come back with me. You can Netflix while I shower and then we can head to the library."

"Tempting," I stepped closer, lowering my voice to a whisper, "But this fake girl friend will pass."

"You are too mean to me."

I laughed, falling back from where I had risen to me toes, "Part of my duties as your best friend. Which also includes a reminder. You have to call Nessie today, you forgot last night."

"I didn't forget," he replied but Nessie's name had him pulling back, "I got late retuning from the library."

I raised a brow at that, we both knew he wouldn't have gotten late if he hadn't been adamant to drop me back at my apartment.

With a soft groan he let go of my hand, "Alright, alright. I will go, shower and call her. But do not study too much without me."

"Wouldn't dream of it!"