'I really hope that's the last time we have to deal with that racket, we don't need any more girls walking around with their hearts broken.' Sue sighed, she pulled back from her locker with her books in hand and carefully slid them one after the other under her cast before closing the locker. She turned to Paulo, 'We still have an agreement; this isn't supposed to be treated like a huge deal and we're not supposed to be getting distracted by it.' She said turning to him.

'You don't need to repeat yourself — I know. I really thought telling David would've been a favour to us in the long run. I just didn't want him to make a big deal of it, is all.'

'That wasn't precisely what I was referring to.' Sue stated, she had already given his idea some respect it deserved. She had thought about doing the same thing herself for the same reasons that morning, but something else had come up that kept her from doing it. She hung her head low, 'D—Do you think anyone got the wrong idea from. . .from earlier?' She asked. She couldn't help but be a little worried about doing such a performance in the middle of the hallway.

'After painting it like a drama rehearsal I'd be surprised if they did.' He said, trying to be reassuring.

'But' Sue wondered, 'What if, they did?'

He shook his head. 'I don't think they did.'

'But what if….?' She continued to press worryingly.

'It's fine!' He shouted, 'I just wouldn't worry about it! We got an applause, so I suppose they got it.' He smiled to himself; deep down he couldn't help but feel slightly impressed with their handywork. 'Gotta admit with a performance that convincing I doubt anyone would think differently.'

'Y—Yeah. I guess so.' Sue replied. A thumbnail went to her mouth, she chewed on it. She couldn't help but continue to think otherwise.

'What's gotten into you? I mean it. Nobody could doubt that good of a performance! You did well!' Paulo chuckled.

'Alright! You can shut up about it now!' Sue shouted.

He wasn't expecting that sudden outburst. He jumped back in such quickness he'd almost fallen over. 'Is something wrong, Sue?' He asked.

Sue slunk back, feeling a little regretful for the outburst. 'It's nothing.' She muttered.

'You know that clearly means it's something.'

'Just drop it. I didn't mean to snap at you just now. It's just. . . leave it be.'

As Sue turned to leave, Paulo's hand went to her shoulder to stop her. 'Hey, come on, you can talk to me about it.'

She brushed his hand off and turned to him. 'Not right now, besides. It's not something you have to worry about.' Sue turned back in the direction of their class and started to walk towards it.

Paulo followed behind, stroking his chin, he refused to leave it at that, he was going to get to the bottom of it. 'You didn't mean for all that back there to happen, did you?' He asked. Sue stopped. 'C'mon Sue, if you can't talk to someone about your problems, who can you speak to?'

Sue twisted around, her mouth agape. 'That's not fair! How'd you even work that out so fast?'

Paulo shrugged. 'Dunno. Maybe for a change I'm finally getting good at something.' He smiled, before frowning at her, 'Are you going to talk?'

'Look, I'd rather just I really just want to work on this on my own for once, Paulo.'

'Was it what you said before.' He asked, still pressing.

'N—No! Stop bringing that up! I—I couldn't think of anything else to say at the time! It just came out!'

'Was it all the people that hung around?' Paulo asked. Sue kept quiet. He thought he was getting closer to the problem.

'No, it wasn't! Just leave it!'

He just couldn't – he cupped a hand to his chin and thought towards the floor. 'You seized up earlier, that didn't appear normal. Sue you don't have stage—?' He looked up in time to see her on the verge of tears.

'S—Sue are you okay?' He asked.

She wiped at her eyes, 'God damnit, Paulo. I told you to stop prying!'

'I—I'm sorry! I didn't mean to. . .are you crying, what's wrong?'

'I'm not crying!' Sue hissed through her teeth.

'Alright, you're not. I'm here for you though, you know? Can you at least tell me what's wrong? Was it stage-fright?'

Sue shook her head, 'It's fine, I mean it. This isn't anything you can help me with and you don't need to concern yourself with it. I need to sort this out on my own.'

Paulo's shoulders fell, 'Alright. I understand. . . just. . . know I'm here if you need me. If I'd known I'd've—'

'Don't worry about it. Come on, we've got class to go to.' Sue said moving forward again. Paulo lagged behind, still wondering if there was anything he could do. This would come up again sometime, he was sure.

Sue spoke up a moment later, 'Do you think David will give it a rest now that he knows?' She wondered, going back to earlier.

'I can only hope. Though, he's been acting a little weird today, more so than usual, that's for sure.' He replied, before returning to a thought he had just now.

'I'm really surprised he didn't want to hear about it at all. I know he's thick but surely he's not that thick!' She commented.

Paulo didn't give an immediate reply, that was precisely what he was busy thinking to himself over. He agreed with her; becoming weary of David. He couldn't discredit the feeling inside that there was something strange going on in the background. Sure — David was a tad unpredictable at times, it certainly wasn't helping he didn't want to hear a word about their relationship until Sue gut-punched him. But even then, when the situation called for it, David was straight with him much like anyone else and normally he'd come through. Something about earlier made him feel that there was something very important behind it all, but he was drawing a blank; every thought that went back to that moment went back to those stupid fictional ships he spoke about that morning. He tried to wonder why? Was there some correlation?

Sue was still visibly furious with David, 'At least he gets it now. He can join us in this reality instead of some fantasy world.' She said.

'That's a bit harsh, you know?' Paulo commented.

'Is it?' She challenged.

'I was just thinking this is coming from someone who roleplays a fantasy game themselves. You know?' Paulo joked.

'Hey! That's completely different!' Sue said in protest. 'And I don't live in it like he does!'

Paulo laughed at it, there'd been a point said. He returned to his thoughts again. He thought about David. He wondered whether it was all as it seemed? Something from that morning just wasn't clicking with him. He couldn't answer it himself; he needed help. He turned to Sue. The thing David said earlier sounded pretty nerdy, and she was a complete nerd, right? He thought it was better to ask; 'What do you know about shipping?' He asked.

'Shipping?'

'Like, character shipping.'

'Why this all of a sudden?' She asked, a little curious, but also suspicious; nothing Paulo would ask about normally.

'David said something about it earlier after I was done talking to him about us. I couldn't make heads or tails of it.'

'Do I really want to search for greater insight to David's thoughts?'

'Come on, just work with me here. I'm just interested in seeing where he was trying to come from, do you know what I'm talking about?'

'Well, I might. . .know a small amount about it, but why?'

'Dunno, figure it might help.'

'Why ask me though?'

'Because you're the biggest nerd I know.' He smiled.

A frown appeared on her face. 'Oh! Now I'm not going to tell you!'

'Hey come on! I meant it jokingly.' He laughed. 'But seriously you read more books than I do so I thought you might know something about it. Do you?'

Sue sighed. 'Alright — I know a small amount, what did you want to know?'

'David said something about different. . . personalities, I guess? One particular group couldn't get along unless they did. . . things. . .' He scratched his head, he was having difficulty remembering the details. 'Actually, forget it. I'm forgetting everything, I was pretty zoned out about it.'

Sue rolled her eyes, 'Augh, I have a feeling I know what you're talking about — If you want to be two dimensional about it, you can think like that. I mean, I guess that cliché could exist. It depends on the writer.'

'What do you mean?' He found himself regretting those words as Sue's eyes lit up at the moment's notice of interest.

'Well if you want to throw out everything about the character out the window and resolve a problem between them, I guess you could. But that rips out their background and the history between them, and not to mention—', He'd already zoned out. There was a chance he felt he could've been more invested but the problem with David still occupied his thoughts. While Sue continued to explain the intricate details of character matching and relationships, Paulo cupped his hand to his chin and nodded, trying to use what she was saying to piece together that morning. At the same time, there was something nice about this, Sue giving him her thoughts on such a topic. If only he had the concentration or ability to find himself interested in it.

'—Anyway I hope that explains whatever you were interested in.'

Paulo shook his head, 'Nope, not a thing.'

Sue sighed at him in frustration, before her attention went to a book escaping her grip, landing in front of them.

'Hang on, I'll get that for you.' Paulo said promptly. He reached for the book.

'If you could. It actually hurts to bend over.'

It clicked, Paulo froze and took a moment before retrieving the book. When it all came together he rose back to his full height and put the book under his arm. 'I'll carry this.' He told her.

'Thank you, Paulo, but you don't need to. I can at least handle my books. Look, just going back to earlier, let's put this thing with David behind us for today. He knows now, so there's nothing more to say about it. Let's just treat this point forward like any other school day.' She said, walking ahead again.

He tried to say nothing, but a part of him couldn't. He called back from behind her; 'Actually, thinking about it more now. I think it might've ended up worse.' He scratched his cheek with a finger.

Sue turned around, 'What do you mean?'

'J—Just a random thought! I was just thinking I probably should've stopped you earlier. . . But. . .ah forget it, it's okay. Like you said; we'll see him during lunch.'

Sue grew curious, 'No, explain. I'm still not following you. He knows now, right?'

'He knows, he knows. It's just. . . ah. . .you know what? Never-mind what I was saying, I was just thinking of something! Come on, we've got class to go to.' He tried to wrap an arm around Sue, but Sue threw him off and broke free.

'Stop acting so strange, now I'm really worried! What're you on about?'

'Don't worry about it! You don't want to—'

She tried folding her arms her arms the best way she could with the one free arm. 'Spill it! If you're hiding something, I'm going to get to the bottom of it. I can guarantee you on that. How is it worse now?'

Paulo's eyes narrowed on her, already knowing Sue had a fine art of getting to the truth of something. He couldn't trust whether he could really keep it from her. Whether or not she really needed to know this truth was something he just didn't believe she had to know. 'I'm telling you it's nothing to worry about. I—I already explained it to him. He knows! Just forget about what I said, he . . .had a different view of how it all happened, is all!'

'I can only begin to imagine what David was really thinking about.' Sue said in thought. 'Hey, this relates to earlier with the shipping thing, doesn't it?' She looked at him expectedly for an answer. 'What did he say?'

'W—Well he talked about a few things, nerds online, relationships. . .' Paulo began to recount. Sue moved her hand to her hip. She knew he was still holding back. His face contorted as it slipped out, '. . .Something vulgar. . .'

'Vulgar?' She shouted, some shock on her face.

'Look, I'm not elaborating, at least. . . not here. Let's just talk to him when Lunch comes around. I seriously wouldn't look into it.' He pointed towards her books in her other hand. 'Pass me the rest of those.'

Sue shook her head, 'I can carry these.'

'Nonsense; let me take them from you. Here, pass.' He reached out for them, but Sue's arm shifted so they hid behind her. 'Sue.' He said sternly.

'We aren't supposed to do couple-like things, remember?'

'Yeah, I know that. I'm just doing this as a friend; pass them.'

Sue held her books closer to herself, showing some unease in her face, before eventually coming around. 'Alright, fine.' She shifted her arm and took the books in her free hand before holding them out to him. 'Here.'

'Danke. Come on, better get moving before the bell rings.'

He took them and began leading her towards the classroom again. Sue lagged behind for a moment, blushing a little bit as several eyes turned towards them. Sue charged ahead of him, walking in front. Paulo shook his head.

Along the same hallway as their class, Sue's walk had slowed to a dawdle behind him, she'd been stuck in thought; her free hand cupped to her chin. With Paulo unwilling to share his thoughts about David's behaviour, it was up to her. Something about it drew her attention more than just before. She wanted to take Paulo's word for it. If the whole conversation from David was as crass as he described, she just wasn't interested. But. . .it was about them, so she couldn't help but be just a little interested in it.

She thought back to that moment with keen precision; she walked through the doors, she saw them by David's locker. She had assumed that Paulo would have spoken to him about it. She couldn't lie, there was some ingenuity in it. David was the kind of person who was likely to freak out about it and make it into some huge deal. Better to have dealt with that then when he could've. But David did freak out. So why? What if he-. Oh god, what if he didn't believe Paulo. Then when she said—

She remembered, then she realised.

'Ow! Sue! Ack!'

They were right at the door to the classroom and ready to walk in, before Paulo felt nails dig into his shoulder as Sue pulled him away from it. She dragged him into a side hall that was empty and pushed him up against the wall, her face red as ever.

'He didn't think we had sex that night, did he?!' She panicked.

'Ow! Ow! Sue! Your nails! Stop!' Paulo complained.

'Just answer the question!'

'Jesus! Yes! He said something about it as much earlier! Said something about his stupid online communities and our kind not being possible unless we—Ow! OW! Sue! Let go! Your nails!'

Sue having realised released her grip. She wanted to apologise, but her hands moved to her face instead and covered it as it grew redder. Paulo couldn't help but feel sorry for her.

'Is it really that bad?' He asked, before the regret instantly set in.

'Of course it is, you block-head! Do you think I want to look like a whore to the school?!'

'I—I didn't. . . I didn't mean! N—No! I'd. . .' He stammered.

'What are we going to do? I couldn't live if David goes around spreading rumours! Today's been awful enough!' Sue wailed, coming close to tears.

Paulo's hand went to his phone in his pants pocket, he withdrew it and started tapping on the screen frantically.

'What are you doing? Are you texting him?' She asked.

'Yeah, give me a second. I'm sending him an explanation, and something a little extra just to cement it.' Paulo said. He held up the message to her once he was done. 'There. Is that better?' He asked.

Sue read it over. 'Y—Yeah.' Sue said. It was brief and clear enouh that anyone would have gotten the message, surely David would too, so long as he was willing to listen to reason. There was one problem with the message, specifically the following part. The look in her face spoke volumes about her confidence in it, 'Is the death threat really necessary?' She asked.

'If we're a seat empty around lunch, you'll find him in the river in the park.'.

'Paulo, I want this fixed, but you're not murdering one of our friends.'

'Why not?'

'Because I don't want that!'

'What if I just take him around the back of the school.'

'No!'

'Come on, it'll get the message across faster, can't you think of it like I'm defending your honour?'

'How very Abbey of you!'

He frowned, 'Alright. Point taken. And for what it's worth, I was joking for the better part of it — look, you're not as sad as you looked before!' He said. 'Suppose actually the best I could really do is just give him the cold shoulder for a couple of months.'

'He's so lucky I'd not write something about him!' Sue said, referring to the school newsletter.

'What on earth would you write?'

'Oh, I could think of a whole raft of things!'

'Let's hope it doesn't come to whatever that is.' Paulo chuckled worryingly.

Sue shook her head, 'Don't give me that face, suppose I was kidding too. I could just ban him from the table for a little bit. That's punishment, right?'

Paulo's phone vibrated. He opened it and read the 'Gotcha' that came back. He held it outward towards Sue. 'Here.'

Sue sighed. Her face softened. 'I, umm, earlier, didn't hurt you, did I?'

Paulo looked at his arm, 'Nah, man, it's okay.'

'No, let me look.' She said reaching for it. He moved it away. She jumped in the new direction. Missed! And again. But his arm moved. 'Paulo.' She said looking up at him, holding out her hand. Paulo sighed. He held it out towards her. She studied her marks. 'Are my nails really sharp enough to do this? Come on, we're going to the nurse's office.'

'No.' He said pulling his arm back. 'We've already got one rumour running around, we don't need another. Besides, it's not hurting anymore.'

Sue held onto her broken arm. 'I'm sorry. Nothing's going right at all today.'

He came beside her and gave her a small hug. 'Don't worry about it. I'd freak out this whole thing too if I was in your position. Today's just started out rough.'

Sue smiled at his sentiment, but still felt awful. They both walked out of the hallway, Paulo turned to her again once he realised someone had been missing all this time. 'By the way, where's Amaya, she's usually with you in the mornings?'

'Oh, right!' Sue started, remembering what she was going to tell him that morning. 'I was going to mention it when I walked up to you back there originally; you're my closest friend for the next couple of weeks.'

Paulo's eyes narrowed onto her, 'Even though I'm the boyfriend?'

She smiled, 'No, no, no! I mean that in a way Amaya's on the bad list for the next couple of weeks.' Sue explained.

He blinked, 'Why?'

'Amaya blabbed.' She said. Just at that second, Sue had looked out to her side and at that exact moment eyed Amaya following in the corridor. Amaya looked up just in time to see her glare and darted into one of the rooms, before peeking out towards the two of them. Sue huffed in disbelief.

'Amaya blabbed?!' Paulo said shocked. 'Is that even possible?'

'Oh, don't play stupid, you know how much Amaya talks when she's completely into something.' Sue said, laughing to herself. 'I suppose that also extends to things about her friends. But yeah, she's on the naughty list for the next couple of days. I really asked her not to, I swear.'

'And I thought for a second you were grilling me for telling someone earlier.'

'Hey, I thought I was doing us a favour.'

'I did too! Who thought they'd both turn out to be bad ideas!' Paulo said shaking his head. 'So, what's the damage then?

'I'm not sure. At most, most of my MMO group seems to know as much.'

'I suppose it isn't a problem if it's such a small group.' Paulo said, recounting the days when Mike used to talk about it.

'It's…not really as small as it used to be.'

'O—Oh?'

'Yeah, we actually picked up quite a few people.'

'Oh! Well that's good to hear!'

'Yeah, but for the exact number of people. . . Amaya accidentally sent a server announcement.'

Paulo was silent. 'What does that mean?'

Sue was hesitant, 'Maybe most of the people in our class know?'

Paulo froze, 'Our whole class?!'

'Well . . .maybe not the whole school but at least our year, I'd say.'

'That's still lot of people.' Paulo said, still struggling to come to terms with the new situation, he stared at her. 'Are you okay? You appear incredibly fine with all of this given earlier.'

'Am I?' Sue asked him.

'You're not?'

There was a bit of a shake in her voice, 'I—I don't know anymore. I mean nothing's really come up from it, has it?'

Paulo looked out to his left, he caught a few glances from people walking past the corridor, he recognised them from his year. They whispered to each other. He turned back to Sue. 'No, suppose not.'

'I'm sorry.'

'Why?'

'I'm a hypocrite! I gave you shit about it earlier but I didn't want to be the one who seems to have made it worse.'

'It's fine, Sue. I told you yesterday I wouldn't be worried if people found out.'

'I know. . . but people are going to be talking about it and—'

'Augh, they were talking about it before. People always talk about new relationships, they'll get bored of it soon and then things will go back to normal.' He put his hand on her shoulder. 'Anyway, you better forgive Amaya, she's a good friend and it had to be a mistake.'

'I—I suppose. I might make her stew for a bit.' She thought aloud. 'You'd think you'd know a girl, right?'

'Right!' Paulo laughed in agreement. 'Are you feeling better?'

'A little.'

'Good, So, does that mean—'

'No, distraction rule is still in place.'

'Shoot.' Paulo laughed.

Sue smiled. 'I'm going in, suppose we'll talk more about lunch.'

'Okay, looking forward to it.' He said, he handed her books back to her.

As Sue disappeared into the doorway, Paulo recognised an orange figure skulking beside him. As he turned his head towards them, he watched as they cupped her hands together and held them above their bowed head. Paulo smiled, but shook his head at Amaya as she said her loudest 'Sorry!' to him.

'Don't worry about it, no harm done. But the one you want to apologise to is in there though.' He said pointing towards Sue's desk. He watched as Amaya nodded and waved to him as she ran off to her own class.

He smiled and shook his head. He walked into the classroom and found his seat.

Sue bit down on the end of the pencil's eraser during the lesson in frustration; she found herself having difficulty answering the questions on the worksheet. Not because they were particularly difficult — she and Paulo had studied relentlessly enough over the month just to prepare for these questions. They were menial at best. The problem came to be the fact she just couldn't focus on the class whatsoever.

She glanced forward from her worksheet to Paulo in the front row of the classroom — her decision; she stays down the back of the room, and he works from the front, for both a learning advantage and, well, just so Paulo wouldn't get distracted. Because he would — it was Paulo after all, she'd believed.

But she began to regret that decision. Ironically, the tables had ended up being turned, she didn't count or herself being distract by him being so far away. She wanted to ask him a question. She was embarrassed about it inside. Even worse; still distracted and very embarrassed as she still mulled over that morning's incident inside her head.

She tried to focus on the work in front of her but for the last fifteen minutes she hadn't made much progress. She quickly looked around to others in the class, how far behind exactly was she? Then the panic set in, they were already on the second page! She fumed! She couldn't take it! She needed to get onto the work but a single question plaguing her that morning.

Paulo wasn't expecting her to put out at any point, right?

She felt her skin burn. There was a bit of embarrassment in her that David's stupid shipping had provoked such thoughts. She was going to kill him later.

As a shame as it was, Paulo was well known to a lot of people for sleeping around. It had gotten him into trouble a number of times too. But sleep around he did. And Rachel, his last partner had been vocal about their antics before, not that she paid too much attention to them.

What did that mean for them? Was Paulo expecting the same? Was it normal for him?

Though, she considered, on the other-hand, when Paulo dated Jasmine for the time, there was absolutely no mention of anything sexual between them. Jasmine said he was nothing short of a gentleman. Something she'd never believe then herself until much later. Given that point, she wondered if she might have been over-thinking it. He never did the wrong thing the day before, he was about as gentle as Jasmine described.

That should have been enough to think otherwise, Sue told herself. For some reason, the whole thing continued to bother her. For some reason, somehow — she felt it became important to discuss it with him to solve right then and there. But she couldn't! Not with him all the way at the front of the room. Try her best to tell herself to wait until lunch or even later, it just couldn't!

At the same time, she begged herself to know why in the fuck was this so crucial to her?

It fell on deaf ears; she realised there was still one way she could ask him. She flicked her phone out from beneath her desk while keeping an eye on the teacher. Phones were banned during class, there was no way in hell she'd be able to keep the conversation going between them. But she still had to know. But was it still the wrong place and time to even think about asking? Even worse, what would happen if one of them got caught? What was one of the unfair punishments teachers threatened to do if they caught anyone? Read it out aloud to the class? Oh God. Oh Jesus. She couldn't!

. . .But she needed to know!

What a conflict! Despite everything; the need to know, the need to be sure — there was supposed to be an effort not to turn the whole thing into a distraction, this was one of the worst ways she could accomplish that! It wasn't her intention! But. . .they were in a relationship, and Paulo had been in a few of them before which weren't just hugging, hand holding. . . and kissing.

She hadn't been in a real relationship before. Was that expected in a normal relationship? Would she be a worse girlfriend if she didn't? Would Paulo really think less of her? Was it even remotely okay to think like that in the first place?! She just didn't know!

And it wasn't that she didn't. . .have these kind of feelings before; that she could—. . . That one day she'd—, and he'd—, and then he'd wrap her gently in his arms, and—. . .

Sue collapsed onto her desk and gave a sigh. She gave it a real moment this time and some deeper consideration. She was overthinking things; it was clear now. The chances of him not expecting her to do anything in that realm were very likely in their own right. After all, she considered; Paulo was against dating originally that whole year, but he still made the allowance just for her. He had his own sights on the prize. He was going to graduate. That's what he wanted.

Anything that wasn't just that was just going to be a distraction; plain and simple.

She was over thinking it. Paulo had promised her.

There was zero expectation.

She was going to put her trust in Paulo.

Meanwhile Sue's thumb had already worked at the question into the text message and sent it without her realising. She stared down at it in horror. Then upwards to Paulo, who made some subtle gestures as if he was sneaking his phone as well. . . until it looked like he was backing off.

He just scratched his side! she realised. You're going to read my message aren't you, Paulo?!

He didn't. Not for the whole day.

Sue sat at the desk in her room that late evening with only the hum from the desk lamp keeping her company as she continued the activity sheet from earlier that day. She'd finished the majority of her homework, and she ploughed through the worksheet uninhibited. She'd forgotten why she had trouble with it. Combined with the study during lunch and the extra drama club activities, the ordeal from that morning was somewhere stashed in the back corner of her memory. She'd completely forgotten about earlier and the message she sent to Paulo as well.

One thing she did know, was she was utterly bored.

Her shoulders dropped, and she sat back in her chair once she wrote the final equation and the answer. There was still her science book that was about as much energy she could stand to put on homework for that one evening. It had been a long day. She'd been working non-stop since she'd gotten home. She was utterly bored and felt deprived of fun, having dedicated most of her time to Paulo to make sure he would graduate. All at the cost of things she'd enjoy; like new books, watching movies, or even making new quests for her MMORPG Group.

She dropped her pencil, pushed her books aside and flicked open her phone. She could continue the homework tomorrow that earlier morning before she left for school. Alternatively, she schemed - she could ask Paulo for his, just to see if he was keeping up and then borrow his answers. Ah, nefarious indeed, although that would be cheating, and she was the tutor, she wouldn't dare. With her phone open she did her usual; she checked her email, scrolled through her messages; taking a time to marvel at how many Amaya had left, all profusely apologising for earlier that day. She couldn't keep this up. The punishment had gone on for long enough. She really needed to let her know things were all cool. She tacked on the screen and sent the message to Amaya. She turned the screen off and stretched.

Her phone vibrated again, she anticipated that would be Amaya quick on the dial. She opened her phone again, but the message wasn't from her, it was from a different person; her boyfriend. A single message: 'This could explain the stink-eye you've been giving me the whole day. Thank god it was only this!'

She remembered. She started a reply. 'I didn't mean to! Sorry! I just needed to know, don't ask why.' She wrote. Then, 'Do you?'

The reply came back without any delay. 'No! Not at all!'

A sigh of relief. All that panic that day had been for nothing as she'd come to expect. Paulo was keeping to his word; focused on graduating. Though, she couldn't lie to herself, that made her feel just a teensy little bit insecure. 'Nothing's wrong with asking, right?' She texted.

'Never wanted to force you to do anything if you don't want to.' Was the response.

She couldn't help but blush and gush to herself as the feeling he was being thoughtful of her washed over her. 'Sorry, didn't want to complicate things with the question.'

''Salgood, Sue.' Came the response.

She chewed on a thumbnail. She wrote in 'But what if—' but then stopped like she did back in the classroom. More thought, she'd never be the sort of person who'd dare talk about such things in person. She knew enough about it despite so; she did hang out with a lot of people who had boyfriends of their own. Was it still too early to ask about? It had only been the second day.

Rachel, Jess — that one time, Tess. They'd all. . .done it, once, at one stage in their life, closer at the age she was at now. It was normal. . . right? It's just another way of showing your lover affection. A more complicated way, maybe, but one people described as being something wholly different. She couldn't lie; that was what intrigued her, that whole idea. That made her jealous of the others.

A blank pause as Paulo already shot something back; 'Then again, if you were interested. . .' Along with a wink emoji. She groaned and tacked back her own response, erasing the one she had before.

'The moment's passed. I'd check back in about a year's time.'

'Doh!' The next message said, followed by another 'But, seriously: never made the assumption and don't want to complicate anything for you.'

She smiled at the message. She really did strike something remarkable after so many years. If only, if only this Paulo could've been the Paulo she knew years ago. Or maybe he was like that already, a diamond in the rough. 'Thanks Paulo, just needed to confirm since we never talked about it. Gonna go back to study now.'

'Okay! See you tomorrow!' The response said.

She paused. 'OX' she sent.

' ^n3n^ ~3' Came back.

'Cheeky!' She said, smiling. Where did he learn that from? Mike?

She pushed her phone to the side and pulled her books back. With all the trouble in her head now gone she really wanted to make all this worth it. Maybe she'd have a real break sometime, even better, maybe she'd spend it with Paulo if she could get him to read more of her books.