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“My brother is drooling over her, he definitely wants to repeat the dose and, besides, he is well behaved. Especially after…” She lowered her voice when she said: “the photos…” It was clear that this still hurt her. “He liked her, maybe he just needed a little push to be with her again.”

“And who said Colleen would want to repeat the dose?” I questioned, even though I knew that yes, my cousin was even more in love with Derek Torres after the first night they spent together.

Veronica made a defiant expression.

I hated when she did that.

“Okay, she wants it badly…”

“I knew it!” Her voice came out almost in a shrill scream. I smiled at your excitement with this unlikely couple. “So, I wasthinking about going out as a group and running into my brother in one place. As if it were a coincidence.”

I narrowed my eyes on her.

“You really want to play cupid, huh?!”

“No, I wantusto play cupid.”

I sighed. I didn't know if that was a good idea. Colleen would like it, of course, but she didn't know if it would be any good in the long run. Plus, it was becoming exhausting to hate Veronica seeing her every single day. Indifference would be better, but apparently, we needed to maintain some kind of relationship. So if it wasn't hate, it would be a pseudo-friendship for a greater good.

“Tell me you're in, Kendra!” She whispered , pushing me lightly, letting her shoulder hit mine.

“That's not a good idea.” I pointed out.

“But…” The brown eyes looked at me expectantly while a smile hid on their lips.

I grimaced before declaring: “But I'm in.”

She raised her arms excitedly and wrapped them around me for a split second. She just held me there for a little while, which was enough to send shivers down my spine all over again.

I had no idea how Kendra and the rest of the girls knew about that karaoke bar, but it was incredible inside. The cheerleading team had come in force. And it should be like that, an outing between friends. And with enough people that it really seemed like a coincidence.

I told my brother that I would be there and that if he wanted to show up, he would be welcome. At first, he even denied the invitation saying he had a Lacrosse team party. This discouraged me and almost made me cancel the plan with Kendra, but she responded by saying that we would do it and in the worst case scenario, we would have fun.

I was forced to agree.

Our dynamics had been changing a lot lately, especially after the training in which she was my main base. When I came down from that, I saw clearly that we could, indeed, bring somethinggood to light between us. We were very competitive and could bring out the best among us. That would be good, right?

I stared at her, watching her laugh at something Jaz said while on the other side of the table. And for a moment, I wondered why I was noticing her so much, but deep down, I believed that I always had.

After all, when we hated someone and insisted on this feeling, it was normal to pay attention to the person, nourishing their bad side and ours. Letting it eat away at us until there was nothing good left about this relationship, however, with Kendra, things started to get weird. I wasn't an idiot, I always saw the search for excellence on her part, but it bothered me until... it stopped bothering me. And now, with a bittersweet aftertaste, her excellence tasted much better.

“Hey, you're looking at Kendra a lot.” Troian whispered to me, making me look away, staring at my martini glass. “Soon she'll freak out and you two will start a fight...” My friend joked.

I had to laugh, because a few days ago this would definitely happen. Kendra would freak out, I would freak out even more, and we would fight badly over nothing. Luckily, that night we both seemed willing to deal with things much more peacefully.

“That's not going to happen, today is all about peace.”

I took a sip of my drink, feeling the olive brush against my lips. I loved martini, but I always hated olives.

“Hm, what are you up to?” My roommate gave me a challenging look as she sipped her drink through a straw.

“Nothing...” I shrugged. She wasn't convinced, but I wasn't going to give any more explanations either. It didn't need to.

I paid attention to the table again. The music in the place was mostly country, nice but nothing special. Not the type ofsong I would get up to dance to. I continued drinking and now I also observed Becker sitting next to Troian and holding his hand under the table.

“Hey...” My shoulder touched my friend's, calling her. “When did you intend to tell me?”

Her eyes widened and her face flushed a little more. Her hand automatically released his and she spread them flat on the table. This caught his attention and made the boy look at her, but Troian didn't seem willing to give him any explanation.