Molded-his first

[12] Rules

Awkward silence is shared between Santino and me the moment he takes his seat.

"What's this I'm hearing about you and Andrés?" He says trying to break the ice.

I looked at him confused, Andrés and I both agreed that we would talk about when we were going expose our "relationship."

"What do you mean?"

"Didn't he hit Derek at the party because you and him are talking?" He says confused.

So much happened that day that I forgot about Kathrine's boyfriend hitting on me and Andrés fighting him. It's not like there's anything that's there to remind me. I mean there isn't a scratch on Andréses body to indicate he got into a fight and he didn't say a word about it on Saturday.

I blink before speaking this is my chance to see if Andrés and I talking will affect him.

I'm about to lie to him and say Andrés asked me out before I stop myself.

This doesn't feel right.

How pathetic am I to be forcing Andrés to date me just for Santino to notice me?

"No not really" I shrug before turning back to my work.

***

"How are we gonna get this out?"

"Zola?"

"Zola!" Andrés calls out to me.

I've been feeling bad about blackmailing him and realized how dumb this sounds.

We are currently sitting on the bleachers after school.

"If you don't want to do it it's cool" I shrug. "I won't tell my brother about what happened."

Andrés looks at me with pity causing me to shift. "I want to." He says blankly.

"You don't have to feel bad for me or whatever. It's cool if y-" Next thing I know Andrés is pinching my nose causing me to squirm for air. 

He lets go letting me take a breath "Usually the boy kisses the girl to make her shut up"

"Zola I don't know your middle name Carter. Do you want me to kiss you?" He says leaning in so his face is inches from mine.

I simply smile at him before pinching his nose. He too squirms causing me to burst giggle.

I let go of his nose and held my stomach to laugh more. "People already think we're dating so that's out of the way. All we need to do is confirm it." I bite my lip.

"Is it not simple? I kiss you, you kiss me we display some pda in public, Maya gets mad, Santino gets jealous and you got yourself a real boyfriend and an angry ex-girlfriend." Andrés shrugs. "No problems there."

"Yeah but Maya's a narcissist shell thinks that we are only dating because she got with Santino" I frown.

"You know what let's leave that and start with the rules," I say taking my purple diary out of my tote.

"Rules?"

"Yeah, so we don't step on each other's boundaries," I say in a duh tone. "For example. One of the things I wouldn't be comfortable with you doing is talking to other girls." I point to one of the rules written in black.

1. No kissing on the lips.
2. No talking to other girls.
3. No PDA.
4. No telling people we "did it."
5. Don't tell anyone it's fake.

"Wait what?" Andrés takes the book out of my hands. "No kissing on the lips? No PDA?" he reads out loud.

"How are people supposed to believe we're dating when they never see us kiss?"

"It's only temporary." I grimace causing him to lift an eyebrow. "Just until I know how to." I lower my head embarrassed. "I'll tell you the rest as we go down the road"

Andrés nods his head understandably before getting a pen out of his Blazer and writing something down.

He gives me back the book and I look at what he wrote. Underneath the words "Don't tell anyone it's fake" he wrote down,  "No falling in love."

I scoffed at what he wrote and closed the book. "No need to worry about that."

Andrés smiles at me before kissing me on the cheek. I blink at him confused.

"Zola?" my head turns to see Ashley calling for me.

I turn back to Andrés. "I'll be back," I mumble before handing him the book and walking down the bleachers to meet Zola.

"Yeah?"

"You haven't been responding to my calls." She looks at me in sorrow before speaking again. "What was that?"

"We're just talking," I say nonchalantly.

"Then why are people saying, he likes you?" She says in utter shock making my heart break.

"Is there a problem?" My eyebrows frown.

"Look, I know I hurt you but forcing Andrés to like you isn't the way to go."

"I think we should have a breack from each other," she gasped at my statement and I simply just looked at her blankly before taking a deep breath. "Have a nice day Ashley." I grit before turning to go back up the stairs.

"It's not like you were dating him! He didn't even want you, I did nothing wrong" Ashley says in defense.

"It's not about that! You knew I liked him and you still got your back blown out by him!"

Ashley gasps "You've changed. The old Zola wo-"

"Zola?" Coach Woods calls for me interrupting Ashley.

I push Ashley aside and go up to Coach Woods "Yes mam?"

She hands me a cheer uniform different from the normal ones that we wear. "Isn't this only for the team captain?" I blink.

"I nominated you." she smiles.

I squeal jumping up and down before hugging her and taking the uniform.

"Thank you so much,"

Ashley whimpers causing coach Woods and I to look at her. She stomps off her face red as a tomato.

Coach Woods looks at me confused once she realizes I'm not going to follow Ashley.

"But this doesn't mean your captain, yet. The team still has to vote."

A week ago I would have followed her and given her my position.

Man was I stupid.