"Wake up, Lexi." I feel someone shaking my shoulder. What the hell is wrong with people waking me up these days? I groan as I open one eye as I see Z holding a mug of coffee for me. I glare for a few seconds before the aroma of coffee hits me and I smile gratefully. I take the mug and smell it deeply before I take the sip, tasting the sugar and slight milk in it. I smile to Z before taking another sip of the warm beverage. I finish it and place it on the nightstand.

"What's the time?" I say. She takes her phone out and checks it.

"11 AM." She says. I nod warily.

"When did you wake up?" I say as I sit up.

"At 9, you can say, I ate my breakfast and now I need to go to the bathroom, waffles and bacon are ready downstairs, help yourself." She says as she grabs her phone and giving me a quick, really quick, hug and goes to the bathroom. I stretch my arms before heaving a yawn and then swinging my legs off the bed and starting my journey down the stairs and to the kitchen, seeing my pate full of 3 waffles and 3 pieces of bacon and a glass of orange juice. I grin at the plate as I sit down and start eating. Footsteps are heard after my first bite as Mrs. Ray comes down in her business clothes. She smiles when she sees me.

"Good morning, honey." She says.

"Good morning, Mrs. Ray." I say. She pours herself a cup of coffee in a To-Go cup and then kisses me on the cheek before heading to the door. I take another bite from the bacon waffles. After 2 bites the doorbell rings, I furrow my eyebrows.

Maybe it's Mrs. Ray, she probably forgot something.

I head to the door and open it, since I know that Z is probably still texting or singing in the bathroom. I swing it open and see an unfamiliar man standing in front of me. I narrow the door as I raise an eyebrow at him.

"Um, can I help you?" I say. He smirks widely and nods.

"Hello, I am Jackson; I guess you know me as Noah's boss in the gym." He smirks as my face pales.

"U-uh, hi." I say as I hide myself behind the door.

"Oh, don't be scared, I won't hurt you, yet anyways." He says with the same sly smirk as my heart drops. He kicks the door open a bit and my weak arms don't hold it against him. The door flies open and he stands really close to me I smell the cigarettes on him that it makes me wanna throw up the 5 bites I ate for breakfast.

"Listen here, sweet-cheeks, I need my money, so go tell your sweet little boyfriend I need it or you two are gonna get hurt, really, really, bad. Okay?" he says with the same sly smirk. I nod quickly. He smiles at me widely as he pats my head like a toddler. He puts his hand on my cheek, running his rough hand on my right cheek. I try not to flinch from his touch.

"You're a pretty little thing, aren't you?" he says with the same smirk as my hands start to tremble beside me.

"You won't actually do badly at fighting, we'll just have to break a few bones so you can get used to the feeling and then you'll be ready. You have no fat to lose. And by your looks,you won't take 5 minutes to be broken, in every single way; mentally andphysically."

He says with the same smirk as I glare at him mentally but make my expression emotionless. He fake salutes me as he goes down the driveway and to his car. He waves at me with the same malice look and I quickly shut the door. I rest my back against it as tears form in my eyes like a waterfall. Noah endured this? God. I pick myself up as I try to act like nothing happened. I hear footsteps down the stairs and Z comes at me.

"Hey, something wrong?" she asks. I shake my head with a shrug.

"No, just some kids who were lost." I say. She nods her head before smiling.

"Come one, we're going shopping with Derek because he has a conference and needs a suit and we're the only fashion experts here." She says with a laugh. I laugh with her before we ascend the stairs to change our clothes. She hands me my outfit from yesterday as I go to the bathroom. I do my business and brush my hair as well as get in the outfit since I put it in the laundry basket yesterday, so it was clean. We hear the doorbell ring and I take in a deep breath before putting a fake smile on my face. We go downstairs as I see Derek smiling. He hugs both of us and we walk to his car. Z calls shotgun and I groan as I get in the backseat.

How did Jackson know I was at Z's?

Was he stalking me?

"Alexa? Are you okay? You have been awfully quiet." Derek says. I snap out of my thoughts as I look at him with the same fake smile.

"Yeah, yeah, just a little headache." I say, rubbing my temples.

"Have you been taking your meds?" he asks. My eyes widen at this.

"No, she's not." Z says. I look at her weirdly.

"How do you know that?" I ask with a raised eyebrow. She gives me a bored look.

"Your pill bottle is full, or partly full, Lex, I know." She says. Derek glares at me in the rearview mirror.

"Fine, I missed a couple of days." I say.

"These meds prevent the disease from going wild, God, Alexa, should you always be a rebel? The first time I saw you, you had a broken bone for God's sake!" he says. I smile at the memory.

"Well, what's done is done, her MRI is after tomorrow, we'll see then." Z says. Derek huffs and looks at me regretfully. I smile and look out of the window as the music continues blaring through the speakers. Finally we reach the mall as Derek parks in the lot. We all get out as we go to the store Derek wanted. We all get inside as he starts to take out suits and sees if their color is good on him. I sit on a chair nearby seeing I am clearly dizzy from the headache I have.

"Um, can I help you with anything?" a man, probably 21, came and asked me as he sees me sitting with my head in my hands. I look up at him and nod at Derek as he shows himself another suit in the mirror. The man smiles and nods at me before walking to Derek.

"Sir, I guess your skin tone wouldn't go well with shiny gray, take this one, it'll be better." The man says as he takes out a totally black suit with a white shirt and a light blue tie with it. I nod as Derek takes the suit to the change room. We go and wait for him to come out. He does and my eyes widen. His muscles looked larger than ever and he looked twice as ripped as he usually is, he looked-

"Derek, you look hot." Z says, voicing what I was thinking about. Derek laughs as he looks in the mirror. He nods and gets inside to change again.

"Shame, he actually looked decent for once." Z says.

"I heard that!" Derek says from inside the change room. Z and I laugh as he gets out, glaring playfully at us. He goes to the cashier and pays for his stuff and we head out of the man cologne smelling store.

"So what should we do next?" I say. That makes both of them smirk.

Half an hour later, we had Derek's shoes and cologne as well as some other stuff with us and I was whining that we'd stop for some Starbucks.

"Guys, you spent a whole hour of us standing just to see the cologne, I have the right to sit, I am sick after all." My sentence makes both of them falter a bit in their walks as Derek turns to me with a sympathetic look and nods. We all go inside as Derek orders for us. In minutes, my Iced Caramel Frappe was in front of me as I smile at Derek.

"Thank you." I say as I take a sip.

"So, what's wrong with you? You are so quiet." Z says.

"Nothing, I am just, probably gonna give Noah the money tomorrow." I say, Z looks at me weirdly.

"But there is still a whole week. Happy early birthday, by the way." She says and Derek nods as if saying 'Happy early birthday'. I smile and nod.

"Yes, but you said that Jackson threatened Noah and he told June, so, June called Zach and Zach called you and you told me. It's a big deal!" I say. Derek sighs.

"If you want to do it, do it, you've got nothing to lose, I actually see it won't hurt anyone to give him the money a bit earlier, it's ordinary." He says, smiling at me.

"But, what if he chickens out and doesn't continue the deal? We're only 7 days away from the end of it." Z says.

"Then I won't ask for anything more, he gave me more than enough of his money and time." I say.

"He's okay with you being, um, tired?" Derek says uncomfortably as he scratches the back of his neck.

"Uh, I didn't tell him." I say. Derek's eyes widen.

"What? Alexa, that's wrong!"

"What he is feeling now is just a slight crush, that's it. He'll forget me when this is done, I'll finish the bet as dated." I say

"Alexa, he'll be heartbroken." Z says.

"Better be heartbroken than having a shattered one." I say as my eyes fill with tears. Z hugs me from my side as I smile shakily at her.

It's better if it will be me with the shattered heart, not him.