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“It's no big deal...” Troian whispered at me. I laughed.

“Hm, if you say so…” I didn’t believe it, but then the day we stayed out of the room hit me hard. “So that day… After practice, it was him…”

She cut me off: “Yes, now shut up, please!” The words came out so quickly that they seemed to be spliced together.

“Okay!” I raised my hand in surrender.

A silly smile overcame me. Troian was cute when she was caught in the act. But that night wasn't about her. Or about me. It was about Colleen and my brother, and dearest Derek had just sent me a new text letting me know he was arriving at the bar.

I faced Kendra and forwarded her the message.

I watched her take out her own phone and smile at what I had sent. Her blue eyes then found me and she raised the glass of whiskey and Coca-Cola that she was drinking in a toast from a distance. I did the same with my drink and smiled at her, satisfied with our achievements.

That night would be a success, I was sure.

Half an hour later, Colleen was excited enough to pull Zorah and Becker into karaoke while they sang Selena Gomez. We all joined in and laughed, having fun with it.

That's when I was surprised by someone holding my shoulders and turning me around.

It was Derek.

“Finally!” I basically screamed.

“Yeah, the team party was shit…” He declared, smiling with his usual charm.

“Hi, Ivan!” I greeted the friend who lived with my brother and he was friendly too. “So, we are at that table.” I pointed to the place, there were some people from the team still sitting. Among them was Kendra, who laughed with Jazmine.

“Uh, the cursed Barbie is there…” My brother complained.

“Hey, I'm trying to be nice to her.” I asked. “After all, you want to kiss her cousin, so try to be good, please.”

Derek looked at me, confused. “Since when have you defended her, really?”

“Since we are on the same team and seeking the same goal.”

And that was the truth. Of course the change was requiring some effort from both of us, but we had made some kind of progress in the last few days. Or maybe I'd had too much to drink and wanted to be more positive about our relationship.

“Okay, fair enough…” My brother was still trying to convince himself of what I was saying. “I'm going to the table.”

Ivan followed him and I started paying attention again to the people singing “Love Yourself” by Justin Bieber now. As they finished the song, Colleen came down from the stage with a wobbly smile, coming over to me.

“What is he doing here, Veronica?”

“I called him…” I said, smiling almost proudly.

Colleen took a deep breath and her cheeks, already redder from the alcohol, turned fully flush. I watched her look away from me to him and smiled at the scene. Colleen was really into my brother, poor thing. A few weeks ago, as a friend, I would have advised her to keep her distance, but after the latest events and our conversations, maybe it would be good for Derek to finally meet a girl for more than just one night.

I decided to tease the blonde:

“If you want, I can tell him to get lost…”

She barely finished the sentence.

“No!” She smiled forcefully at me, which made me control my laughter. “I mean, he's your brother, do whatever you want, but you don't need to send him away.”

“He paid attention to you the other day when he dropped me off at the dorm. Besides, it was nothing but compliments about you.”

Colleen seemed to have been caught off guard by what I said. Maybe, deep down, she wasn't expecting my brother to be able to give me any compliments about her.