Dedicated to @hanifah_badmos for the cover at the top! Thank youu💗

I'm not sure why I'm starting to like Dua Lipa. Also, thank you all for 33K followers!

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Macy: mace_chase_

Sam: Harley_SSSC

Chapter Twenty-Eight: "Rat."

A SCOFF SOUNDED from my mouth. "Are you serious?"

"Why not?" Jasmine laughed, turning on her stomach. "Swimming with animals is amazing. I figured you would want to try it."

"Are you crazy? I'm not about to jump into water only to lead to my death. Give me a pool with no animals and we can talk then."

Stevie made a sound that sounded like a half laugh, half snort from where she was braiding Natasha's hair. "I'll go with you if she won't."

"I would too," Natasha grumbled and I could see the twinge of pain in her expression when Stevie pulled tightly on her hair. "If I didn't feel sick like every five minutes."

"God, now I'm certain that I would never want kids." Stevie muttered.

"Really?" I asked, pausing the movie that was playing on my laptop. "You wouldn't want kids in the future? Is this a now thing or you're certain for life?"

"I'm certain," Stevie confirmed. "I could never. I'm okay with taking care of them, I just don't want any in the future."

"Does Cedric know this?" Jasmine asked.

"He knows but we're not talking about it. It's not like we're planning on getting married or anything like that. We've only been dating for a couple months, anyway."

I shoved a handful of popcorn into my mouth when I heard Jasmine let out a cough. "Fatass." I rolled my eyes, shoving my foot in her face which she was quick to dodge.

"Where are you and Ivan moving again?" Jasmine asked Natasha.

"Um...New York but there was some talk about Ivan possibly taking over a branch in Thailand or something like that."

"You don't mind where little you is going to grow up?"

"Not really," Her hand went to her stomach and her eyes had that distant look in them like she was imagining the future. "I just want her to be happy."

"How do you guys even know it's going to be a girl?" I questioned, still shoving popcorn in my mouth.

"Ivan's certain. He bet five hundred dollars with one of his friends on what the sex of our child is going to be. There's something in his head saying that it's going to be a girl and for his sake I'm just going along with it."

"Wife of the year." I drawled out. Ivan and Natasha being married was still sometjing I wasn't used to. Natasha being pregnant was even stranger. I couldn't possibly imagine her being a mother in eight more months. 

Natasha's eyes sudden widened snd it was then I noticed that she looked slightly pale. Oh no. "I can't wait for the next trimester. I need to go to the bathroom." She got up quickly and left my bedroom, passing by Justin who did a double take.

"Is she okay?" He asked from the hallway.

"She's pregnant."

"Oh," He scratched his head. "Then she's fine."

I rolled my eyes as he walked away. "Anyway...what about you Jasmine? Any kids in the future that you'll name Macy?"

"Someone's begging. And maybe. We're still young. I'm not really thinking about it yet."

"What about you Mace? You and Sam having kids anytime soon?" Stevie joked.

"No." I almost gave her my are you kidding me look? Just weeks ago I was stressing about exams and work, the last thing I would want on my mind at the moment is a kid.

"Judging by the hickeys on your collarbone, I'd think twice."

"Think again because it's not happening anytime soon."  I confirmed for her. My phone buzzed on my bed and I took it out.

Matteo:

Another pun of the day?

Me:

Sure, why not?

Matteo:

I'd tell you a chemistry joke, but I don't think I'd get a reaction

I internally laughed, pushing my hair back and not believing that stupid joke he messaged me.

Me:

That was badd.

Matteo:

On the other hand, you have different fingers.

"Oh, my God." I mumbled just as Jasmine peered over my shoulder.

"Who's that?"

"Matteo."

"A uni friend?"

"Yeah, who has a ridiculous love for bubble tea."

"Bubble tea sounds so good right now." Stevie muttered, running a hand through her blonde hair as she made her way over to peer over my shoulder at my phone. "Wow, Matteo sounds very punny."

She laughed at her own joke and I blankly stared at her then Jasmine when she decided to start laughing at that horrible joke to. "That was so bad. You guys have the worst sense of humor."

"Macy, just get on our level."

"I don't think her elevator can reach that high."

They both started hollering from that lame excuse of a diss, making me roll my eyes. This is what my friendships have come to, showing affection by insulting each other.

Natasha came back staring at Jasmine and Stevie on the ground, looking a little better. "What's going on?"

"They're insulting me." I told her.

"We're not insulting you." Stevie said when they both got up.

Natasha started the movie again when suddenly Jasmine spoke when she started eating the popcorn. "You know what someone would call a bad popcorn joke? Corny."

No. Just no, I thought when my friends started laughing like crazy.

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

"This sounds good." Jacob nodded his head to the beat of the music coming from Jon Ming's iPad. "Who's the girl singing on it?"

"She's on the come up. They don't have a stage name for her so I can't really tell you anything yet." Jon Ming explained when Caleb came into the room and shook the bag of marshmallows in his hands.

"Time to act like we're kids in the woods!" He handed everyone their own stick before making a face. "You know what I never really understood?"

"What?" Brandon asked, shifting closer to the fireplace.

"When people have a bonfire and they roast marshmallows, you see how the stick they attach the marshmallow to is from the ground?"

"Yeah. What's your point?" Jacob answered, his face showing that he clearly didn't like how this conversation was going.

"Isn't that kind of atrocious? You're eating a melted marshmallow. That's great and everything but the stick has so much bacteria on it. Like it just spreads everywhere and goes into your body and into your system and-"

"Okay!" Andrew grabbed the bag of marshmallows out of Caleb's hand. "More for us. None for Caleb."

"What? Half of that bag is mine." Caleb demanded, snatching the bag back. "What's a good campfire song to sing?"

"You realize that we're not outside right?" Sam asked him.

"Yes, I realize this. God, Sam you're such a downer, use your imagination, will you?"

"Okay, I imagine that we're not outside. Instead, we're in the living room toasting marshmallows in the fireplace."

"Wow, your imagination sounds very realistic to me." Caleb muttered.

I turned myself upside down on the couch, taking a marshmallow from Caleb and putting it in my mouth. With my feet hung over the back of the couch, Andrew joined me in the same position.

"Mace?"

"Yeah."

'Remember when we were kids and we used to do handstands against a wall until one of us first got dizzy?"

A short laugh escaped my lips at the memories. "We used to turn everything into a competition. Remember how much we fought over food? Like who could eat the fastest? And remember who always won?"

"Yeah me."

I snorted. "You wish you won, turd. You lost five times in a row that one month back in like seventh grade."

"Shut up. You could never beat me whenever we played field hockey."

"Maybe because my legs were made for the sport called soccer not field hockey you twerp."

"Donkey."

"Horse."

"Rat."

"Snake."

"You're just mad because at everything else I beat you in it."

"Oh yeah?" Andrew grinned and I could see his face slowly turning re because of the position we were in. "What if we took a bag of marshmallows and every time we put one in our mouth we say-"

"Suck ass."

"NO." I yelled at Jacob who chortled obnoxiously.

"How about you say Austin's hair?" Austin said, sitting next to me with a bowl of chips in his hands.

"Done." Andrew agreed. "And you can't eat them. You have to keep them in your mouth and say the word until the first person can't say it anymore. Deal?"

"Fine. Just watch me beat you in something else again."

"Can you guys do that after? I really want to eat this. SAM, GET THE CHOCOLATE!" Caleb yelled.

"WAIT!" Sam yelled back before jogging out of the kitchen and tossing the chocolate towards Caleb. "Here."

"Okay." Caleb grinned like a madman and I wasn't sure if no one else but me would see that creepy smile on his face illuminate on the wall nearby, scaring the crap out of me.

"What if we ever went camping?" Stevie asked, pulling her feet up as she tried watching some on her large phone.

"Like real camping? Outdoors? Tents? Bugs?" Jon Ming asked, his tone clearly telling everyone who creeped out he is by Stevie's question.

"Okay, so Jon Ming is definitely the person that will not come." Brandon mumbled.

"It's not that. It's just what if there's bears in the woods? Don't you guys ever think about that?"

"We'll just give them Caleb as a sacrifice." Jacob answered.

Caleb whipped his head towards Jacob faster than I could imagine. "What? I mean- I'm sure I'll taste amazing because I'm Caleb but no. Give them Brandon, the nice ones probably die first."

"What? No. Jacob is the better candidate."

"No, definitely Caleb." Sam laughed, tossing a marshmallow at his best friend so it hit them right in the forehead.

"We went camping once though. When we were like fourteen, I swear." Caleb muttered. "One of the worst experiences of my life."

"Oh yeah," Sam started laughing. "You screamed one night because you thought a snake was in our tent."

"What was it really?" Stevie asked.

"It was just Ivan tickling his foot with a stick." Sam laughed even harder and Caleb shoved him.

"Shut up or I'm going to throw you into the fire." But the smile on his face made that threat have no significance.  

"What are you guys doing?" Jon Ming asked Andrew and me, pushing us so he could sit in between us.

I could now feel the blood flowing to my head when Andrew answered. "We're just, you know, hanging."

Jon Ming laughed at that and I groaned, bringing my legs down so I could sit on the couch properly. "Why is everyone making puns? Like first Matteo keeps giving me a pun every single day and then yesterday-"

"Matteo?" Andrew repeated, loud enough to unknowingly catching everyone's attention. I didn't miss the way Sam shifted, his expression stern. "Who's that?"

"He's a friend of mine. He's majoring in Chemistry like me." I mumbled, watching Caleb look over at Sam who was tapping his foot against the ground. They have talked about Matteo with one another.

Sam got up, everyone's attention on him as he quickly walked out of the room. "I'm guessing he doesn't like your newfound friendship with the Matteo guy." Andrew said, watching Sam disappear.

"He doesn't. We'll be right back." I muttered, standing up and walking after my boyfriend. I ended up following him into the music room.

I watched him grab his guitar from the corner where it was and sit down on the couch. He strummed a few chords with his finger before picking a guitar pick from the small bowl of them on the table in front of the couch where he rested his feet.

"Sam." I said, closing the door behind me but he didn't pay me any attention. Instead, he started strumming loud on that guitar, fading away any chance I basically had at talking to him. I said his name again but he ignored me, looking down at the strings as he played an old song I recognized from the 80s on the acoustic guitar.

By the time he had gotten to the bridge of the song I realized how idiotic this actually was. I took that guitar out of his hands and he let me do so with ease. "Sam. I'm not here to deal with this immaturity."

He sighed, looking up at me. "What Hazel?"

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing...I mean, Matthew-whatever his name is, is okay. Alright?" He must've seen the look on my face because I did not believe what he was saying one bit. "I just...I just don't trust him."

"What do you mean you don't trust him? You're not even-" I came to a stop, realizing what he meant. "Wait, you don't trust him with me? You think he's going to make a move on me or something?"

"I don't think he will. I know he will."

"That's not going to happen. Even if it did, do you honestly think I would reciprocate?"

Sam opened his mouth to speak but he bit his bottom lip to hold back on whatever he was going to say. After a second, he exhaled. "No, I know you wouldn't."

"Exactly. He's just a friend. That's all he'll ever be to me."

The exact same way you claim Alexis is your friend and that's all she'll ever be.

Sam sunk into the couch, looking annoyed. "You can know that but he probably doesn't."

Okay, but neither does Alexis.

"Then I'll let him know. Sam, between soccer and school, I don't have time to make many friends on campus. You know this and I know this. It's surprising I managed to make a friend like Matteo anyway."

"What about Maddy and Anmol? Aren't they enough?"

I take a moment to realize what this really was about. It wasn't truly about Matteo, he was just a small part of it. "Are you telling me that you don't want me to be friends with someone of the opposite gender?"

Sam didn't say anything and I got the hint that that was exactly the issue. "Sam, you know me better than anyone else, you realize this right?"

He didn't say anything again so I continued talking. "So you know that for majority of my life I was the definition of 'one of the guys'. In case you haven't noticed, most of my friends are boys. Not girls. Boys. And for some reason you don't have a problem with that when they're in this part of the world."

This time Sam opened his mouth to speak but I didn't let him have a chance because I realized that this was a subject we did need to talk about but have been holding off for a while. "Do you have a problem with me being friends with Jon Ming or Austin?"

"No." He managed to say.

"Brandon or Jacob?"

"No."

"Simon?" I asked, thinking of my old friend.

"At first I did but I don't."

"What about Caleb? Is there a problem with me being friends with your best friend?"

"Caleb wouldn't do that to me."

"I know but what about Andrew? He's my best friend and he's a guy. He's been a brother to me my entire life and even if you had a problem with that relationship I have with him just when we first met, I wouldn't have cared what you thought because you didn't matter that way like you do to me now. But what if Andrew suddenly told me he had feelings for me? What would you do then?"

Sam's fingers curled into fists and he took a deep breath, avoiding my eyes and glaring at the table.

"What would you do if you found out or if I told you that Andrew kissed me? What would you do?"

Sam didn't answer the question and I realized that wasn't really the question to ask as my voice raised. "Do you think I would kiss him back if he kissed me?"

Sam's eyes moved away from the table to lock on mine, the intensity of them clear as day. He stood up slowly and walked over to me, taking the guitar out of my hand to put on the table. I didn't know what was going through his mind right now and I wasn't sure if I wanted to find out.

So when his lips parted to answer my question, I put my finger on his mouth to stop him from talking. "I wouldn't." My voice dropped to a whisper and for some reason tears pricked from my eyes.

Sam closed his eyes, his forehead dropping against mine. His breathing was heavier and I felt my fingers shaking as I gripped his forearms. "I know you wouldn't." His breath fanned against my face and I shook my head.

"Of course I wouldn't. Because I'm not in love with anyone else, you idiot. I'm in love with you. And you could be friends with thousands of Alexis' not even knowing if they fell for you like I did but I wouldn't truly be bothered by what they think of you because I know you're in love with me too. Because I trust you."

I pulled his body closer to mine, my lips resting against his jaw as I hugged him to myself. "It's always going to be you no matter how much of a jealous idiot you could be."

I could feel Sam smile against the side of my head. He took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, it's just..."

"Would you feel better if I distanced myself from him a little bit more? If I didn't speak to him for a while?"

Sam ran a hand up his face, his fingers digging into his hair. "I don't want to come between you and a friend. The same way you don't come between my friendships with any other girl."

Only one other girl but whatever.

"Then relax. If something happens you will be the first to know. Besides Matteo is the first real friend I made in England that doesn't really have a connection to you."

"What does that mean?" Sam asked me, looking confused, his hands on my arms.

"Maddy is my roommate but she is also friends with you. Anmol is with Derek who is on the soccer team with you. Need I explain more?"

"What about that girl at the Halloween party we went to? What was her name? Roxanne?"

"It was Rosie. And she's the roommate to the guy you don't consider a friend named Zach. And I barely talk to her. She goes to a different uni and it's hard enough to meet up with the small circle I have in the university I go already go to. Matteo isn't connected to you in any way...unless you're going to tell me that he went to school with you."

"If he went to school with me I think I would've reacted worse than I did the day I met him."

"Like Zach?" I asked him. "What if I told you Zach is working with me?"

Sam stopped his movement on my arms. "What? He's working with you?"

"Seriously?" I asked him. "Are you actually jealous of Zach now?"

Sam scoffed. "Definitely not. It's Zach. I caught the guy doing so much shit back in secondary school you'd be disgusted. Although, I'm sure something is going on between him and his roommate anyway. I just wasn't aware."

"It never really came up."

"Are we okay now?" Sam asked tentatively.

"Depends. What if for your sake and my sanity we got you to actually hang out with Matteo?"

"No." He immediately said, his tone clarifying that he wasn't up to argue.

"Sam." I argued with the use of his name anyway.

"What if I got you to hang out with Alexis?"

"I have," I reminded him. "It has never worked out." That she devil hated me from the start. She wasn't ever going to like me now and I was completely fine with it at this point.

"Okay that's true," He looked at me for a long time, possibly thinking this over in his head a million times before we could agree on this. "Fine. We'll hang out with him. What would we