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CHAPTER TWELVE

"So what's up with you and Raymond?" Stacey asked me as she entered my room and plopped down on the bed next to me.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, you guys look like something's going on between you two." She said in an as-a-matter-of-fact tone.

"Don't you know he's with Abigail?" This was unbelievable.

"I do. But..." She sighed.

"But what Stace?" I urged her to speak. It wasn't as if I cared what people thought of me. But Stacey mattered to me as much as I did to her. So I needed to know what she was thinking.

"Ashie, everyone thinks Raymond is cheating her with you. I know it can't be but look at both of you. You're always together! And when you're not, you're busy texting each other."

Just then my phone vibrated.

Ray : Snooooowwww!!!!

I smiled as I read his text.

"See? That smile on your face? It's him, isn't it?" She said and snatched my phone to read the text.

"Stace! Give .. it .. back .. to .. me .." I said as I tried to get it back from her.

"Pfft." She handed me my phone. "So?"

"What?" I said nonchalantly.

"Ashie! Tell me!" She pouted.

"It's nothing Stace! He's with Abigail and we're just friends." I shrugged.

"You lie to me as much as you want Ashley Summers. But mark my words, one day you'll come running to me and tell me the truth."

And there came a huge pillow and it face-palmed me.

I was so going to kill her!

Thus we ended up in a pillow fight. Pillow fights were our thing. Stacey and I usually had a pillow fight every week. And when we missed it sometime, it meant that something was seriously wrong between us.

I then pushed her out of my room --- literally --- since I had loads of homework to do apart from texting Raymond, since I couldn't reply him when Stacey was around.

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It was a Friday afternoon and I was in the swimming pool of our back garden as I needed a bit of relaxing. I had been doing my assignment from morning and I had to do Raymond's assignment too since he was feeling too lazy to do anything. As I entered the pool wearing my black bikini -- yeah I had a thing for black lingerie -- Jim was being a prick. He saw me and thus undressed himself leaving his boxers on and dived into the pool. As much as I wanted him to get lost, I didn't tell him that directly. I gave him my ignorance but he didn't budge. So instead we talked and played and swam and made fun of each other.

Raymond. I didn't know how spending time with him had made me calmer. I would talk to everyone now instead of running away or avoiding them like I did before. Same was for Jim. I used to talk with him nicely now and well, he loved the fact -- obviously.

"Go out on a date with me, Cupcake." Jim said.

So he had been trying to ask me out for the past half hour now with me repeatedly turning him down.

I was in a really nice mood today. He swam towards me and I dodged him by swimming away from him. But he caught me. Damn.

He wrapped his one arm around my waist sending chills down my spine and pulled me closer to himself. He then swam towards one of the corners with me on his side. When we were there he stood and pinned me against the concrete of the pool. He wrapped his arms around my waist and I wrapped mine around his neck.