Prestige

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A/N: This chapter is dedicated to SabiSalavatore for being such a sweetheart and an adorable reader. Thank you for contacting me and I hope we get to be closer.

"Want more sauce to that?" Jae asked as he watched me aggressively dip the hot chicken nugget into the ketchup. He was mocking me, it was clear through the smirk he wore and the chuckle that came out with the words. I looked up and glared at him, making him laugh even more. "Okay, so let's get down to business. How did it go with Luna and your brother?" He asked me, reminding me why I agreed to eat an early and barely heavy dinner with him, at McDonald's.

I thought of my answer thoroughly before talking, "Right, so yeah, I had to explain to her that Zero meant that he was expecting her to kiss him back, kinda like checking if she had feelings for him."

He looked at me with wonder, as if he was trying to solve me like a puzzle. He finally said something, "That's all?"

I nodded, "Wanted me to say more?"

"You took almost an hour and a half to explain that to her?" He questioned, clearly surprised by the super short explanation. I nodded. "That makes no sense."

I chuckled, "She was super angry and almost broke the classroom apart." I recalled; she had ran to the drama room and hid there. "Plus it's hard trying to tell her something and just expecting her to believe it. She thought I was defending my brother. But I had to tell her that I wasn't, alongside listen to what she had to say."

He blinked, surprised, "That's really all?"

I smiled happily, humoured by his reaction, "We might have gone slightly off-track."

He smirked, "Tell me more." I stared at him in shock, his response was unexpected. "This seems more interesting than what your goal was." He smirked as I shook my head in a childish manner before shoving another chicken nugget into my mouth. I was in no denial to the fact that such youthful delicacies held a special place in my heart; it was a combination I could not refuse or even regretfully come to hate.

"How did it go with your brother?" He asked me.

I looked at him and noticed that he had deep brown eyes, a beautiful chocolate shade that also blended in with a hint of reddish maroon. I sighed before talking, answering his questions as my mind was once again reminded of the context we both sat in, "In one word: surprising."

He furrowed his eyebrows at me before standing up, since I had finished my chicken nugget meal. "What do you mean 'surprising'?" He asked, grabbing his jacket and waiting for me to wear my coat and get ready to leave the fast food restaurant.

"Well, there was a lot of screaming at each other before we finally came to a mutual agreement." I briefly explained, not bothering to get rid of the hint of vagueness in my answer.

"Mutual agreement to what?" He questioned, opening the passenger door of his car for me. I looked at him, not moving as I was reluctant to answer his question. It wasn't a case of the topic being too confidential, but a case of it being too personal to me. "Look, sweetheart, you have to tell me. He is my best friend and I need to know. This might make things super awkward between us, if I don't know." He explained, placing his arm on my back, as a way of comforting me.

I sighed, finally giving into him, "We first spoke about how greedy and selfish I was when I hinted at my unwillingness to let my brother and best friend date." I was quoting him and purposely exaggerated his choice of words t describe me, mostly to assure myself that I was not any of those and that he was being dramatic. "He was screaming at me since he knew that I was going to end up hurting myself, whether or not I chose to neglect my feelings... for you." I whispered the last part, hoping he didn't hear it. To my disappointment, he heard my words and smirked, there was a hint of cruel satisfaction in the way that he was looking at me. And to say that it made me feel uncomfortable would be an understatement.

"You have feelings for me?" He chose to focus on that of all the things I had just said.

"That's all you heard?" I rolled my eyes before climbing into his car and shutting the door on him. I loved having all the attention, but I preferred to actually be heard more.

He joined me in the car, sitting on the driver's seat, but did not turn the engine on. "Sorry." He looked at me with caring eyes that felt homely for some reason. "And what was the agreement you came to?"

I looked away from him and started to fidget with my fingers, I was nervous. "That whatever happened, we'd be okay with whoever we ended up with." I felt more like a child than anything, it felt like I was being forced to chant the same words all day long, as if it was a way of making myself eventually believe in what I was saying, to perhaps live by it. But every time I mentioned it, I felt guilty, as if I was lying to myself and that fact was way too obvious, not just to me.

"So does that mean that they are both okay?" He asked me, turning the key in the ignition and switching the engine on.

"I hope so. I guess so." I answered in an almost inaudible tone and volume.

"Right. Good then, I guess." He mimicked my speech, sounding as uncertain as I did before him. "I'll drive you home." He assured me, for no reason because it wasn't like he was going to push me out of his car and leave me by the side of the road and run off.

"Sure." I smiled before looking out and losing myself in my own thoughts. The darkness of the night managed to conquer the skies once more, while allowing a few residential surviving stars shine in a dull manner, almost seeming invisible against the sky line. The pale moon played no role in bringing any light to the people of the city, as it failed to outshine the street lamps to lighting up our paths.

"Did they say anything about liking each other?" He asked me, turning to me, breaking the silence as he spoke. I turned to face him after realising that our short journey home had ended and it was my turn to leave him. His brown pupils shot through mine, grounding me to my seat, while anxiously anticipating my response.