Arya flopped onto her bed and let out a sigh, a lot had gone on in the last three weeks, and that's excluding everything that happened with the gang. She was feeling a lot of emotions, mostly guilt, confusion and another strange emotion she couldn't quite put her finger on.

She thought back to what happened.

Arya sprinted across the campus, her breaths coming in short gasps, but she was determined to find him and share her news. Despite facing obstacles and setbacks, she persevered and succeeded and she wanted to share it with him.

Finally, she spotted him in a red baseball cap, walking with his friends to their next class. Arya ran over and leapt into his arms.

"Hey!-" he exclaimed, surprised by her sudden embrace.

"I did it! I won first place in the women's robotics competition!" she shouted, laughing in excitement.

Luke congratulated her and gently put her down. "Well done."

"Thanks! Let's celebrate. How about we check out the new-" Arya's suggestion was interrupted.

"Today? Sorry, I already have plans with Mark and-" Luke's voice trailed off.

Arya tried to hide her disappointment and forced a smile. "No worries. Another time."

He kissed her forehead and walked away with his friends.

"It's not like I drove all the way here just to tell you," she muttered to herself, watching him leave.

Arya remembered when they had finally met up for dinner.

"Anyway, I created the code, and that effectively meant we had to redesign the bot so that it could meet the weight requirements- are you listening?" Arya watched Luke play with his burger. She could tell he stopped listening to her a while ago. She nudged him. "Learning how to code on the new system took a lot of time and effort. I thought you'd be- I don't know, proud your girlfriend did that,"

"Yeah, it is impressive, but if you were on the men's team..." He looked at her and then away.

"It wouldn't have been that impressive." She finished for him, holding a sad smile.

She remembered how she had to bite her nails into her palms to stop crying. They barely saw each other anymore, and she didn't want to ruin the moment. Then another memory came floating in.

"Hey, Arya," Jordan said, coming into class. He peered over her shoulders and saw her designs and calculations.

"Ooooh, what are these for?" He went to grab them, but she stopped him.

"They're nothing," She muttered, putting them into her bag.

Jordan could immediately tell when she was trying to hide something she was initially proud of. He had been in that position all too many times.

"Hey," He said in a softer tone. "You alright? Didn't you have that competition this weekend? How did that go?" He asked tentatively.

"I came first." She muttered.

She jumped at his high-pitched scream.

"I am so proud of you," He said, engulfing her in a hug and spinning her around. His energy was infectious. She couldn't help but smile.

"You are?" She asked him once he put her down.

Jordan looked at her weirdly. "Of course I am. We're friends, Arya. Your accomplishments mean as much to me as my own." He winked at her, to which she smiled, finally letting go of that shitty feeling she had been harbouring all week.

"So tell me," He said as he looked at her work. "How did you redistribute the weight of the robot?"

Arya was confused. Why was he asking her this?

She forced out a laugh. "Oh, you probably don't want to hear me ramble-" She said as she tried to take back the pages.

He held them out of her reach. "I do. Why wouldn't I? You're so smart, and this is so impressive," He said like it was that simple.

She paused momentarily, another blush gracing her face at how he stared at her. "Well ok, I used this calculation first, but that didn't work-"

Arya closed her eyes and let out another sigh. She then thought back to another incident.

"You HAVE to be there, babe. Davina and I have been working on this for so long, and I want you there. It would mean so much to me," She persuaded Luke looking up at him with hope.

"Mhm, sure, babe," He dismissed.

Arya thought about how she told Jordan.

She scratched her neck nervously. "Yeah, we're trying out for the competition, but it's nothing big. I don't expect you to be-"

"I'll be there if you want me to be," Jordan said, reaching out to hold her hand and then thinking better of it.

"I'd like that," she whispered, wishing he held her hand.

Arya visibly cringed, thinking back to the competition.

She gleamed as she handed her opponent his broken robot back. The look on his face was worth everything.

Arya then looked to the crowd where the rest of her friends were and squinted to see if her boyfriend had shown up. He hadn't, with not so much of a text explaining why. She looked away and frowned.

She then turned back to her friends and laughed. Jordan was there whooping and cheering, holding a massive sign with her name in bold letters. She suspected he made the sign himself. Once the competition finished, she rushed to her friends and came face to face with Jordan.

"You came?" She asked dubiously.

"Of course, we're friends, and this means so much to you," He stepped forward for a hug, and she held him dearly.

"Thank you," she told him gratefully. She had to hold the tears back.

"Hey, hey, hey," He said reassuringly, rubbing her back. "Don't cry. You did really well. We're all so proud," He told her with truth and conviction.

"I know," she gulped.

Arya remembered what came next.

"I'm just saying you could have been there?" She crossed her arms and tapped her foot impatiently. She was done with his half-assed excuses.

"It's not like you're there for me either," Luke tried defending himself like a petulant child.

"You never ask me to be there; you're always with your friends." She gritted out, frustration lacing her voice.

"And you're always with yours!"

She turned to walk out.

She knows she should have ended it then and there but couldn't bring herself to end it.

"Wanna hang out?" Luke said, hugging her from behind and nuzzling her neck.

Arya braced for his reaction, an act she didn't realise she did so often. "I'm hanging out with Davina and Tessa, sorry love, maybe another time,"

He stopped nuzzling her neck. "You're always with them,"

"Come hang out with us," She said, trying to pacify him.

He let go of her and stepped back. "Nah, I don't like hanging out with them," He waved her off and ignored her for the rest of the night. Arya thought it was better this way, Davina and Tessa weren't exactly his biggest fans, and they constantly butted heads with him these days.

Arya then remembered how fun that night turned out.

"Hey Ari, wanna hang out after school," Jordan asked her. "With Naomi, too, of course. She'll be there," he added the last part quickly.

"I'm hanging out with the girls tonight," Arya said, almost sad she won't see him. Then without thinking, she said. "You're free to hang out with us. Bring Naomi and the guys,"

"Yeah, sure,"

Later that night, Jordan and the others had turned up with snacks.

"Ladies," He said in a charming voice, and Arya couldn't deny she swooned.

That night she watched Tessa beat him in an arm wrestle, which he complained to Arya about good-naturedly as Tessa and Declan celebrated loudly. She also observed how he teased Davina, and when she gave him a warning look, he gave her his best puppy look, and it worked! She laughed him off. Arya was glad they got along so well. He was so easygoing, and she loved how easy it was for him to make friends.

It wasn't only the girls. Jordan and Dominic practically became besties over their love of Taylor Swift, and the two made the rest of the night very entertaining.

Arya realised the other day that when she was just having a shitty day, she only wanted to talk to the one person who would listen without judgement.

She took out her phone and scrolled to Luke's name. She paused for a moment of contemplation, and then she scrolled back to Jordan's name, and without hesitation, she hit call. 

She realised the first person she wanted to speak to was Jordan. She thought about how they were becoming closer, but Jordan never crossed a line.

"Arya, give it back!" Jordan yelled down the hall, not caring about teachers.

Arya laughed as she ran through the halls, sidestepping people left and right. She squealed as firm hands grabbed her by the waist and lifted her.

"Put me down," She said in between laughs. She was giddy with laughter, almost like she was on cloud nine.

"If you insist,"

Her laughter stopped short as she felt the smirk in his voice.

"Wait- Jordan!"

Jordan laughed maniacally as he spotted the trash can.

"No!" Arya squealed as she gripped his forearms. She fought back the blush as she felt the taut muscle underneath his shirt.

With her squirming in his grip, Jordan began to wobble. He let her go before he tripped, sending them both against the locker.

The intense feeling from the lockers barely covered up her heart pounding as her brown eyes stared directly into his green ones.

"Are you ok?" He asked, worried.

She let out a laugh. "At least buy me dinner first." She joked but then stopped and looked at him.

They both stare at each other in shock.

A blush crept up Jordan's neck as he became flustered and backed up a little.

"We're friends, right, Arya?" Jordan asks, and she can't tell whether she is trying to convince him or her.

"Yeah," She said slowly. "We are,"

Jordan smiled, but it was small and sad. "Good, because you're one of my favourite people in the world, and I-" He hesitates for a moment. "I don't want to ruin that,"

"Yeah," She said slowly again. "Of course,"

He backed up and gave her a comforting smile, to which she returned.

She didn't see his grimace.

Arya covered her eyes as she realised how amazing she found him.

They were at a bar. Tessa was sitting on Declan's lap as they both chatted away with their drinks.

Davina was beating Bennett at pool and teasing him about it.

Arya looked over to see Dominic and Jordan start singing Taylor Swift's "The very first night."

Dominic grabbed Naomi to dance with him. He spun her around as she yelled at him to slow down. They all started jumping up and down to the song as the boys belted out the chorus. Jordan grabbed Arya and began singing directly to her. She couldn't help but laugh at how expressive his face was.

"Do you know how much I miss you" He sang to her. She was in awe. He was radiant.

"I miss you like it was the very first night." She sang back to him. She knew she was blushing.

She groaned at the way she began acting whenever she was near him.

"Hey, Arya," He said as he passed her in the hall.

"Hi", She mumbled, looking down. She looked up to see Tessa smirking before she was shooed away.

Or the other embarrassing time.

"Can you pass me that keyboard, please," He asked her.

She watched how he was so focused on what he was doing. His usual mischievous expression was replaced by a more thoughtful one, bringing out a different side of Jordan that she loved seeing and getting to know, and this was the perfect opportunity to observe him as they worked on his project together.

"Arya?"

"Huh?" She realised he had said something and she hadn't heard.

"Can you please pass me the keyboard?" He said with a smirk. She knew he caught her practically drooling over him.

"Yeah, sure, sorry." She passed the keyboard, feeling all levels of flustered.

He chuckled lightly at her. "Are you feeling... flustered?" He said, waggling his brows.

She laughed him off.

She knew she was in trouble, Jordan was all levels of crazy, but he was also all levels of brilliant. His brain was light years ahead of everyone else's, and Arya loved that. His soul was a mix of chaos and art; he never kept them apart. People said he couldn't focus on anything, but Arya knew they were wrong because she had one hundred percent of his attention when he looked at her. He was attentive to her, anticipating her needs before she even realised them.

Jordan was watching the girls bake. Tessa was reading the instructions, Arya was working on the dough, and Davina was supposedly helping. She and Tessa were getting on each other's nerves.

"Separate those eggs," Tessa told Davina, who rolled her eyes.

Davina put two on either side of the board and looked at Tessa smugly. "There, done."

Tessa looked at the board and then at Davina. "Be so serious right now."

Davina shrugged nonchalantly.

"That's not how you separate eggs," Tessa said, coming over. She grabbed the eggs and held them over Davina's head. "This," She slapped the eggs over her head. "Is how you separate eggs." She finished looking Davina in the eye.

Davina was scarily still before she looked up and smiled at Tessa. The egg yolk was running down her hair. "Thanks for the tip," she said as she reached for the freshly baked pie that cooled down. "This," She slapped the pie on Tessa's face. "Is how you separate a pie from its pan."

The pie had come off the pan as Davina lowered it from Tessa's face. The majority of the pie fell on the floor. Arya and Jordan had gone still, watching everything play out.

Tessa slowly opened her eyes. She wiped some of the frosting from her face and looked at it. Davina stood in front of her with egg yolk on her head. Tessa let out a chuckle as she looked up.

"Run,"

Jordan immediately went to grab Arya and dove for cover behind the sofa as Tessa and Davina broke out into an all-out war.

"Thanks for saving me." She whispered to him, smiling despite the war zone around them.

"No worries," He smiled back as he hovered over her, his body covering hers.

They eventually ate their baked goods.

Arya was grinning to herself as she relayed the memories. She couldn't deny it anymore. Just thinking about him lifted her entire mood. She went to sleep happy, her last conscious thoughts being of him. She knew what she had to do.