Chapter 3

✱Emma's POV✱

"Here, take it." I said as I held the T-shirt out to him.

He looked at it with hesitant eyes.

"Do you not want it or anything like that? Because if you don't, I really don't care. I'm just offering you the T-shirt because I wouldn't want to stay in an extremely sticky, blue-brown shirt. But then again, everyone has their choices I suppose?" I pulled my hand back towards the bag in my car.

"No, no. It's not that I don't want it, I do want it. But....."

I studied his face, he looked hesitant and... scared?

Oh My God.... I internally started laughing.

"Wait a second, are you scared to take the shirt?" I said with a little smirk. " Don't worry, I'm not that cruel. I would never prank someone while helping them. My parents taught me better than that. Besides, this is Carter's shirt. He would have my head if he learnt that I put itching powder or something like that on his shirt just to prank someone. He loves his clothes way too much."

"Fine. T-th-th-th- Damn!"

"Are you trying to thank me?"

"Yeah, I guess." He said and brought out his hand to take the shirt from my hand.

I immediately pulled it back.

"Nuh uh. What do you say Blakey boy?" I said mockingly.

He narrowed his eyes at me.

"Don't you dare call me that. T-thanks for the shirt" He took the shirt from my hand.

" You're welcome Blakey boy."

He just narrowed his eyes at me and pulled off his t-shirt.

"Woah dude! There are these things known as washrooms. Go and change there."

"Aww Blue! Does me being half naked make you nervous?"

"Firstly, no, it does not make me nervous, it repulses me. Secondly, why the fuck are you calling me Blue?"

"Dear Blue, you should never be in denial 'cause if you do then you will miss out on all the good parts of life. Also, coming to why I'm calling you blue, does the incident from this morning ring a bell?" He said looking at me with raised eyebrows.

I went to answer him but then looked down at my watch and realized that I have only 10 minutes to get to my next class.

"Well, look at the time! As much as I am enjoying this lovely conversation with you, I have a class in 10 minutes, so, until next time jerk." I gave him a sarcastic smile, locked my car and went back inside.

I am sure you all are confused about what just happened back there. Let me explain. It all started an hour ago after our literature class.

~1 hour ago~

After reaching home, I decided to FaceTime Carter, one of my best friends.

He picked up on the second ring.

"Emma Amelia Grace Sparx! I am going to kill you!!!" I heard Carter scream before I even saw him.

"Hey doofus, nice to see you too." I replied sarcastically.

"How dare you leave me to deal with these idiots alone!! They are at each other's throats 24/7. How could you do this to me. I thought you were like my sister." He ended softly.

"Mase, stop being so over dramatic, it can't be that bad - oh who am I kidding, it's terrible isn't it?"

"Yeah, most of the times I feel like clawing my face off. How can two people-"

He was interrupted by the door opening and two people coming in, in the middle of an argument.

" Noah Antonio Rodriguez! I don't get what your problem is!"

"What is up with people using each other's full names" At my words all the three heads snapped towards me.

"Mia!!! You bitch! Glad to know you finally remembered your friends. After 3 days, this girl finally decided to call and who did she call? This useless excuse of a guy." Megan screamed.

Don't get confused as to what my name is, my name is Emma itself, Mia is just my nickname.

"Hey don't take out your anger towards Noah at me!" Carter said.

"Hey Hermosa! How are you? I miss you so much" Noah said with a smile.

" Finally! One person who greets me properly. You are the only person who loves me, Osito." I chimed.

Noah blew a kiss at me.

And then chaos erupted. All of them started arguing with each other, mostly Noah and Megan, a few yells were directed towards me also.

Until they yell at each other, I'll just introduce them.

Firstly, Carter Samuel Mason. He is the serious one of the group. His blonde hair and light blue eyes attracted many girls many girls towards him. Too many, to be precise. But he always brushed them off. He was more than just a friend to me. He always plays the role of the elder brother I never had.

Next up, Noah Antonio Rodriguez. He is half - Spanish and half - American. Due to his chocolate brown hair and hazel eyes, which always have a mischievous look in them, people always find it difficult to take him seriously. This guy is literally a Teddy bear, hence the nickname Osito which means Teddy bear in Spanish.

While Carter played as my brother, Noah played as my best friend. He is very similar to my mischievous side. The only difference is that his mischievous and funny side is the side you will almost always see.

Due to our similarity in the mischievous mode, Carter was the bait to most of our pranks.

And next the forth musketeer, Megan Faith White. She is one of the very few friends of mine who are girls. In other words, she is my only girl best friend. She looks like a porcelain doll with her pale skin, black hair and black eyes.

Carter, Noah and I go on most of our missions together.

The three of us, balance out one another and make the perfect trio.

Noah is our cyber specialist and mechanic. Any account, he can hack into, any lock, he can pick, any machine, he can fix.

Carter is the scientist, artist and the weaponry of the group. For those in you all who think an artist is not important, I will have to say otherwise because sometimes sketch artists can come very handy. Also I called him a weaponry because he knows how to use almost every single weapon in the world.

Whereas I work as the strategist and fighter. I am proud to say that till date, not one of my plans has failed, also, being trained by the best fighter the agency had ever known and being appreciated by him, which is very difficult, has its perks.

Megan prefers to not go on missions because she is in love with the idea of peace. But that doesn't mean that she isn't trained.

As you might have already guessed, Noah and Megan dislike each other like anything.

Even after I finished all this explanation, these idiots are not done arguing with one another.

That's enough.

" Guys! I didn't call you to listen to you all argue with each other!" I yelled.

All of them apologized and asked me how I was.

" I'm perfect. Also, I wanted to tell you guys that I went into Phoenix mode today." Was my reply.

"Oh really? Which phase? And how?" Megan asked all at once.

"Barely 0.5. To answer your second question, it was because of some Blake Ryder guy. It's totally not my fault, he was being a jerk." I said and narrated the entire story.

They all laughed and told me that I was crazy. In my defence, I wasn't having the best day of my life.

To explain about the phase 0.5 and the Phoenix mode I mentioned earlier has 5 phases. Each one coming out in different situations and each one deadlier than the other. The fifth phase, being the deadliest one, has come out only once till date. As for the name Phoenix, it's my nickname in the agency.

" Emma, are you seriously fine." Carter asked with a serious expression on his face.

" Yes Carter, I am fine." I answered, completely understanding what he meant.

The topic wasn't brought up again and we talked for a while until I had to leave. I promised to call them as soon as possible.

On my way to the campus, I went to the café and bought an iced latte to go.

After reaching the campus again and parking my car, which is a black convertible, I saw that I had a missed call from Mike. I called him back and started making my way through the parking lot.

"Hey Mike!"

"Hi Mia! How are you?"

"I'm fine. Everything's okay. I don't have a lead yet, but I think once I get settled in, I can get the information we need. Anyways, how are you?"

"It doesn't matter how long you take with this mission but that was not why asked you this question." He said with a serious tone.

"Why is everyone asking me this question today? "

" I think you and I both know why I am asking you this."

" Alright I lose. But seriously, I am fine, it's just that today is one of the days I remember him more than usual."

" I understand Sweetheart but remember the promise you made to him, alright? He would be so proud of you." He said.

" That is all I want Mike. Anyways, I gotta go." I said once I reached the main doors of the college.

We said our goodbyes and I stepped into the college.

Not even a minute later, someone came in front of me and blocked my way.

Blake Ryder.

Can someone please tell me what this guy's problem is?

"What do you want Ryder?" I questioned, looking at him with a raised eyebrow.

"What did you say Babe? You want another quickie? But we just had one." He said loudly.

This was all the people around needed to start gasping and whispering.

"The fuck are you playing at Ryder?" I lowly hissed at him.

"Fine Babe. Let's go to your car for it. Just because you're so good with your hands." This statement of his got us more gasps and whispers.

" I told you that you declared war by messing with me Sparx." He spat lowly into my ear.

That was how I ended up spilling a drink on Blake Ryder the second time in a day and him to end up with a red face and a grey T-shirt which had turned a disgusting blue-brown colour.

〰️✱〰️ End of flashback 〰️✱〰️

So you see, my lovely readers, that was how I also ended up lending one of Carter's spare shirts to Blake Ryder.

I am not sure why though because I wasn't joking earlier when I said that Carter loved his clothes way too much. He would definitely kill me if he found out that I lent his shirt to someone else. But what was I supposed to do? I felt guilty for letting my anger get the best of me and spilling a drink on him for the second time on the same day. I knew I couldn't let it go just like that. I had to do something and I had a bag full of clothes in my car. So I just went ahead and gave it to him.

Also, if you're wondering why I couldn't just give one of Noah's shirts, then I'd have to say that their sizes weren't the same. Firstly, it is because Noah is pretty short, even shorter than me, in fact and secondly because Noah has much more muscles than Blake. Anyways, back to the story....

When I went in I saw that the professor was already there. Oh, so she is one of them who come early to class.

I saw Ben, who was already sitting in on of the seats around the centre rows, wave me over. We greeted each other and started talking about nothing in general.

After sometime, all of the students came in and she started speaking. Oh and guess who was one among the students! Yup, you guessed right. Mr. Jerk Ryder. Ugh, my fate sucks.

After speaking about the history of music for a while, she asked for a volunteer to come to the front and sing. When nobody volunteered, she started scanning the crowd and her eyes landed on me.

" Oh, a you're new, aren't you? I don't remember seeing you last year. I am sure I would have remembered a pretty face like yours." She said enthusiastically.

"Yes ma'am. I joined the college this year itself." I replied.

"Well that's perfect then. Come on up here and show the entire class your talent."

While I was walking to the front, I was thinking which song to sing. Then I remembered what day today was and I knew which song to sing.

Once I reached the front, I picked up the guitar and pulled up a stool and sat on it.

I started strumming the chords and felt the familiar lyrics of ' Two of Us ' Louis Tomlinson flow out of my mouth.

Throughout the song, memories flooded my mind and as I completed the song, only one thought floated through my mind:

I love you IJ.