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S/O to one of my fav people @kathleencahill happy birthday girl!💓

Chapter Thirty-Two: "You Were Moaning."

"OH YEAH? CATCH." I whipped the tennis ball at Matteo from the other side of the room and he grunted when he caught it right when it hit his stomach.

"At least give me a warning first." He groaned.

"Okay, stop playing catch. If you break my lamp you are buying me a new one." Maddy told us, holding her laptop in her hands as she sat down between our two beds.

"Where do I have the money to buy you a new lamp?" Matteo said, getting up from my bed so he could sit next to me and hand me back the tennis ball.

"You'll find the money if you break it." Maddy mumbled.

"Something tells me that she actually wants us to break the lamp." Matteo said to me.

I looked at the lamp. "It's pretty ugly actually. Let me just get at the right angle and I'll break it my-"

"Stop yourself Macy Anderson." Maddy warned me and I laughed.

"I wasn't actually going to do it."

"Sure." Matteo said.

"Macy." Maddy suddenly said, her eyes wide at the screen of his laptop.

"Yeah?" Matteo and I turned our attention towards her but she wasn't even looking at us. Her gaze was on the screen of her laptop, eyes wide.

"You might want to see this." She fixed her glasses that almost fell off her face, settling between Matteo and I.

I looked down at the screen and froze.

I'm not even sure if I reacted or if my facial expression changed. I just stared at the screen, looking at the pictures and scanning over words on the webpage.

Unbelievable.

"I'm sure it's not what it looks like." Maddy laughed nervously.

"That sounds exactly like a line of every cliché novel I've bored myself to death when reading." I muttered, staring at the girl on the screen.

All these girls just don't get a hint, do they? Especially this one.

Matteo leaned forward towards the screen, looking down at the girl with confusion. "Wait, isn't that-"

A loud quick knock on the door stopped Matteo from talking and I already got the idea of who was on the other side. Maddy handed her laptop to me and opened the door to reveal Sam.

With wide eyes, he looked at me, starting off his sentence with. "I don-" He glanced at Matteo over my shoulder and his features hardened. "What is he doing here?"

"We're studying so I told him to come by here since I didn't want to go outside and face the cold and rain out there." I said to Sam easily, practically waiting for him to react. He had no reason to.

He stared at Matteo, glaring at him for too long before he looked at me. "You have to believe-"

"I know it wasn't in that context," I shoved my hands into my sweater. "But if you want to explain go ahead. Explain why it looked like your arm was around Tanya Nesmith and I hope that'll clear things up with the headline called 'Son of Billionaire Tycoon Cheating Scandal' on Matteo's favorite gossip website. You're as famous as your dad right now. I think you're trending on twitter."

"I wasn't even-" Sam huffed in frustration, his eyes glancing at the laptop. He took a deep breath, grabbing my hand and pulling me out into the small hallway.

I leaned against a wall, my arms crossed and myself ready. Although Sam and I have been having small conflicts it's not like I didn't believe him. I did.

"I was walking over to her dad's building. You know how he has connection to the fashion world and stuff and how the girl herself got me a meeting with him? Yeah, so, my mum told me to go over there this afternoon. I was walking and she-only God knows how- ended up walking beside me. She came out of nowhere."

"And?"

"And she didn't leave me alone when I went into a store to grab some water and sit on a bench in front of the building, right? Because I had some time before my appointment with him and she sat down with me. Then, all of a sudden, she had my water in my hand, put it on the other side of her and I was literally just reaching over her shoulder to get it and-"

"They made it seem like you had an arm around her."

"Yes. Then the other picture is of her basically holding onto my arm which I so desperately wanted her to let go of but she didn't when I thought she would so I yanked my arm out of her arm and..." He trailed off, running his fingers through the curls on top of his head.

"What did you do?" I asked slowly.

"Nothing bad. I told her to leave me alone."

I almost laughed in disbelief. I know he didn't just tell her to leave him alone. "Okay, now give me the exact words you said to her."

"I said 'fuck off Mandy, I've been trying to be nice and give you the hint but I'm not in the mood for your bullshit today'."

I let my hands rest on his chest before fisting his leather jacket and pulling him against me. He tensed up but relaxed when I pressed a kiss to his lips. "You know, you could've been a little bit nicer?"

"If I was nicer then I wouldn't be Sam Cahill sweetheart." He winked and I laughed, feeling a sense of ease between us. "Now give me a kiss, I've had a long day."

I dissolved into laughter, wrapping my arms around his neck and kissing him. Yet, he kisses me back with so much passion, my laughter was surely forgotten. Before he could even manage to coax my lips open, I moved my fingers up to his curly hair, tilting his head back far enough to separate us by a fraction. Sam groaned and playfully smiled. "That wasn't long enough. Again."

"You're making this funnier than it should be." I said, not helping myself by laughing again.

"You laugh at everything that's why." Sam said, leaning me against the wall and pressing his lips against mine.

I didn't know how into it we got but it came to a point where Maddy opened the door and poked her head out, making us pull away. "Okay lovebirds, I get that you like shoving your tongues down each other's throats but I think everyone on the floor can hear you moaning."

"Maddy, you're very exaggerative you know that?" Sam mentioned.

"Nice to see you too Cahill. Now would you guys like to come inside before everyone think you're making a sex tape right here?" She went back inside before we could answer and I sighed, trying to smoothen down my hair.

"Your friend is very interesting." Sam mumbled.

"She's your friend too. Come inside." I grabbed his hand, pulling him past the door and closing it behind us.

Maddy and Matteo were both still staring at the screen. Maddy tied her hair into a bun, laughing at something. "Twitter is going crazy over you Sam. It's like a love hate relationship. Some girl said 'I don't care if he's a cheater he can...I'm not saying that out loud. That's so vulgar. This girl looks like she's thirteen in her icon. Why the hell is she saying shit like that?"

"Are you really surprised with the kids of today?" Matteo asked her.

"Nah, not really. Sam, I didn't think you were that popular. No offence."

"None taken." Sam took off his leather jacket, putting it on the chair.

"Yeah man," Matteo started. "I mean I saw your Instagram the other day and you have so many followers."

"Don't expect a follow back." I heard Sam mumble.

I held back a snort, a quiet laugh coming out of my mouth when I patted his chest. "Stop it."

Sam bit back a smile before looking at Maddy. "According to my mum with all the publicity I've been getting since the summer it makes people pay attention to me."

"Yes, which is why they think you're cheating on Macy with Montana."

"Montana?" Matteo asked, looking really confused.

"Sam never gets Tanya's name right so he calls her Montana." Maddy informed him.

"Correction. Today, he called her Mandy." Maddy and I cracked up.

"Wait, so they think you're cheating on Macy? Has the...paparazzi, uh, media even seen you with Macy?"

"Yeah, a lot of times actually."

"What?" I stared at Sam. "Are you serious?"

"Yup. They're just in the background. It's not like I only mentioned you once before that interview, Hazel. They see me with you a lot. They've seen you whenever my mum used to drag you to go shopping with her over the summer. That's probably where they know you from the most."

"Well damn." I mumbled, taking the band off my wrist to tie my hair into a ponytail.

Matteo got up, putting his jacket on when he looked at his phone. "It's almost seven and I got to go. See you guys tomorrow. Bye mate." He directed that last part to Sam and hit him lightly on the back as he left the room.

Sam stilled before he looked at me and Maddy, pointing his thumb towards the closed door. "Did he just call me mate?"

"Here we go." Maddy started.

Sam looked at me. "He knows I don't like him, right?"

"We both know you don't like him bud." Maddy said to Sam, lying down on her bed.

"But he specifically needs to know that I don't like him."

"How about you don't wait for him to figure it out and you could actually tell him," I suggested. "I'm surprised he didn't notice when he beat you at pool that one time."

"One time, Hazel. One out of the multiple rounds of pool that I-for some stupid reason- decided to play with him. I allowed him to win."

Maddy laughed. "Sure, then explain why you looked so pissed when he finally beat you."

"I wasn't pissed. I wasn't mad." Sam tried to say but I cut him off, grabbing my camera.

"I have proof that you weren't just mad, you were seething. I can play it right now."

Sam's eyes flickered between Maddy and I. "Where's Anmol? I think she's the only girl in this city that doesn't annoy me now."

"You're such a..." I shoved him and he laugh, pulling me down on my bed with him.

"No, but seriously where is she?" He asked and I laid my head on his chest, wrapping my arms around him like he was a teddy bear.

"With Derek. Derek, who you consider a friend? Derek who you were with yesterday? He doesn't tell you these things?" I asked him.

"It's not like we're you people where we tell each other what we're doing at every second. Like, for instance, what are Anmol and Derek doing right now?"

"Movies." Maddy answered, typing away on her laptop.

"See? I didn't even care enough to ask Derek yesterday if he was even going to see Anmol today."

"That's because you're you." Maddy declared.

"What does that mean?"

"You have this 'I don't care' attitude around you."

"That's true." I agreed.

"Is that a bad thing?"

"No. It can be annoying, but definitely not a bad thing."

"Don't boost his ego, Maddy."

"With the way you were moaning outside of the room, I don't think I'm the one boosting his ego," I took the pillow and threw it at her from across the room. "I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I didn't hear a thing."

She handed the pillow back to me as she made her way to the bathroom but not before she exaggeratively made the nastiest sound I have ever heard since the boys back home. "Maddy!" I hit her with the pillow again while she and Sam laughed loudly.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"This is exactly what I told exactly where I want to be in my life, watching uni boys play soccer." Maddy said sarcastically. We were sitting on the bleachers of the indoor field where the A soccer team was about to go up against another rival school.

"I thought you would be more into basketball boys-sorry basketball men." Anmol joked, hinting about Matteo while she kept her eyes on the field, waiting for Derek to show up,

"For the last time, Matteo is forever going to be just my friend and he's too tall for me."

"Yeah, because height is a reasonable excuse." I muttered over the people walking to take their seats for the game.

"It is a reasonable excuse since I can barely hug the guy. He lifts me up sometimes like I'm a child. Plus, isn't he seeing that girl who does badminton right now?"

"Nah, he's at practice right now." I mentioned, putting my hands in my pockets.

"Don't you have that runway show in London tomorrow?" Anmol asked, giving me her attention.

"Yup."

"So, you're definitely going?"

"I am definitely going." I told her, leaning back a bit and then nudging Maddy to hand me the water she was holding. "And Maddy is coming with me."

"How come I didn't get invited?" Anmol asked when I took a sip.

"Because you specifically told us weeks ago that this weekend you had a wedding to go to and that because your cousin is going to be helping you put on 'bombass makeup'."

Anmol flipped her hair over her shoulder and fixed the Nike hat on her head. "Okay, but an invite would have been nice anyway. A fashion show would be amazing to go to then a wedding."

I lifted my leg up to re-tie my shoe. "Nah. Your wedding will probably be more fun."

"What makes you say that?"

"I mean, I get to see Liz again and she's one of my favorite people but-"

"Alexis," Maddy cut in. "She has to see Alexis again. She's walking actually."

"Wait, like walking down a runway?" Anmol asked in surprise. "I thought she only did like shoots."

"She got this opportunity to be one of 24 models to walk for different brands in major cities in the world. London is this weekend. The next show is in two weeks in Milan."

"That's still absolutely insane." Maddy commented.

"I got to admit that girl sure knows what she is doing. Modelling at eighteen? No need to go to university with all the money you're about to make." Anmol said.

"You said the same thing about becoming a stripper." I acknowledged, remembering when she was complaining about school and the stress of everything itself.

"They can make up to $2000 a day. A day! Imagine how much you can make in five days guys!" Anmol exclaimed. "I'd be a millionaire before we knew it."

"Anmol?"

"Yeah?"

"Stay in school."

"I am. Don't worry about that." She playfully winked and I laughed. "Is Maddy basically going this weekend because she's going to be like the barrier between you and Alexis?"

"Barrier?" I asked.

"I'm being used? Excuse me?" Maddy asked.

"You know what I mean."

"Well, I'm just trying to keep low the entire weekend and hopefully not have a conversation with her ever again." I insisted. I had enough on my mind as it is, I didn't exactly want Alexis to add onto everything else on top of school and soccer.

"Hmm, I wish it was that easy." Anmol told me, linking her arm with mine. "Don't let her get to you."

"I don't." I assured her and Maddy but the looks on bother of their faces proved that neither believed me.

"Mace, she clearly bothers you even if you pretend she's insignificant." Maddy told me.

"It's not like I can't just see her again. She's one of my boyfriend's really close friends. They've known each other since they were like five."

"And he still doesn't know she's in love with him?" Anmol asked in disbelief.

I rubbed my hands together, pushing my hair over my shoulders. "Honestly, a part of me feels like he truly knows but doesn't want it to change anything. And I get that but-"

"It's not even just that Mace," Maddy interrupted. "She's making you doubt your relationship with him. Like, she's better for him than you are. Well, she's dumb as hell to even think that."

"Right." Anmol agreed.

"And if she thinks that Sam will suddenly fall for her than she's dumb for that too."

"Yes." I felt Anmol was about to stand up and preach with the way she was agreeing with Maddy.

"And trust me when I say that you have that man wrapped around your finger because he will probably do almost anything you tell him to."

"That-That is the truth." Anmol started clapping and I took her hands, bringing them down with a smile at how crazy my two friends were.

"Was this supposed to be some motivational speak?" I asked.

"Yes." Maddy and Anmol said at the same time.

I sighed. "Thanks."

Anmol put her hand on my arm. "And Tanya? Trying to pull a stunt like that? I heard what she said in the changeroom yesterday after practice about how she actually did want the media to catch her and Sam together and make it seem like they were dating."

"I kind of figured."

"Well, the plan didn't work and something is incredibly wrong with her if she actually thought that was going to make you break up with Sam if you didn't believe him." Maddy implored.

"What we're trying to say is that when this weekend passes by I better see you happier than you've been when you come back. I also want to see you and Sam all happy and shit as well, got it? Don't let one girl who doesn't understand that she clearly doesn't have claim on your man get you down, okay?"

"Okay Anmol. Got it."

"Good," Anmol's view went to the field and she squeezed my arm slightly to alert me. "They're coming out. Look."

I could hear the crowd literally roar in the HDF indoor field as the guys walked out onto the field. I could spot the curly hair as if he was miles away. He was wearing a headband that pushed his curls that would usually fall over his eyes even though he cut them three months ago.

The headband looked so ridiculous I was certain that Caleb was the one who got it for him, I thought, holding my camera up to take some pictures of him walking.

Sometimes those were the best pictures. The pictures where the person has no idea that you are taking the photograph. Then you would show them and they'd be so surprised. Sometimes I'd wonder if they are surprised that the picture turned out a certain way or if it was because I caught them in their true element. Not them posing and smiling when they might not have wanted to smile. But them doing something that they want to do.

The thing was that Sam knew that I would be taking a picture of him. He always did. So, when I saw the curve of his lips when I zoomed in, I wasn't surprised when he turned his head to face me.

"Ooh, I see someone is looking at you." Maddy teased.

I rolled my eyes, lowering my camera to hide my smile. "Shut up."

"Derek looks so cute today." Anmol gushed.

"He didn't look cute yesterday?" Maddy asked Anmol.

"His hair wasn't like that yesterday. Now he looks extra cute."

"Never say extra cute ever again please and thank you." I told her, turning my attention back to Sam who was still watching me. I took that moment to take a picture with his eyes staring directly into the camera. When I put it down, he shook his head in disbelief probably laughing to himself.

My hand reached up the pendant of my necklace and I twisted it in my fingers. I watched Sam's hand reach up and tap against his chest, right over where his heart is. I couldn't help but smile and I could already hear Anmol and Maddy teasing me.

"Ooh."

"Stop." I warned them, not taking my