I looked down at my toothbrush after I spat out my mouthful of toothpaste foam and rinsed. My eyes moved on their own and locked onto Mark's, which was hanging from our shared toothbrush holder.
The events of last night rushed back to me.

Holy crap.
I can't believe I actually did that.
Oh my gosh, now things are gonna be even more awkward.

"No," I the faucet and splashed water onto my face, "it's not going down like that again. I won't let it be awkward again."
"Are you talking to yourself in the bathroom?" Mark's voice came from outside the door. The thud that followed after basically told me that he was leaning against it. Either he was trapping me in the bathroom or he was waiting to go in.

Imma assume it's the second one.

"Dude," I quickly applied facial cleanser onto my face, rubbing it all over, "everyone in New York talks to themselves. Get with it."
I think he said something back but I had already turned the faucet back on, scrubbing the cleanser off my face.
"Either way, hurry up! We're gonna be late to lab if you keep hogging the bathroom."
I rolled my eyes as I started to pat on my foundation. The guy totally sounded like a girl sometimes. I turned the door knob with my free hand then quickly returned to my place in front of the mirror.
"You can't do that in your room?" Mark walked in and plopped his clothes on top of the toilet seat cover.
"Uhhhh child. Last time I checked, we share the bathroom," I finished putting my makeup on then plugged in my hair straightener, "And plus, I was here first. So if you don't want to be late to lab, it up."

"Ok fine. But don't complain to the other guys later about how I took a shower in front of you."

Wait.
What is he doing?

The shower head and the glass door opened then shut. Holy crap, he actually was taking a shower with me still in the bathroom.
"Wow," I picked up my hair straightener and locked my gaze onto the mirror, "real classy."
Not sure if him taking a shower in front of me was a good thing or a bad thing. Like is he doing to because he's really comfortable around me or because I've been bro statused.
Either way, it was starting to get hot in the bathroom with the shower on and my hair straightener close to my face. I flattened out the last couple strands of hair then turned it off.
"You want me to close the door Mark?"
"Nah, just leave it. Otherwise the bathroom's gonna get too stuffy."
"Ok."

I closed the door halfway, then went back into my room to stuff my lab coat into my backpack along with my lab goggles and manual.
The semester was already half over, which literally blew my mind. Everything seemed to go by way too quickly.
"Mark you have 10 minutes to get your out of the shower!" I yelled, quickly shoving down a yogurt.
"Calm down," he walked out of the bathroom with his jeans on.

And only his jeans.
The kid was literally just walking around the apartment without a shirt on.
I wanted to say something but then he would probably nag me about how I was making a big deal out of nothing.

"What?" he threw his backpack onto the couch then walked towards me. With every step he took, I could feel his body heat radiating and smell the scent of his shampoo.
"Nothing," I threw my yogurt cup into the trash. Avoiding eye contact, I tried to swing by him quickly but he caught onto my arm.

I looked up at him, trying not to look any further south than necessary.
"Yeah?"
His eyes narrowed, "You're not gonna say anything?"
"About what?"
"Wow," the corners of his mouth twitched. I thought he was gonna smile but I guess he held it back. "I'm surprised you didn't say anything about me walking around shirtless. I though at the very least I would get a shirt thrown at me."
"I'm trying to be a little more accpeting of your...man habits. Don't push it," I loosened my arm out of his grip and scrambled to pick my backpack up. He laughed as he followed me to the couch, slipping on his shirt at the same time.

"Oh my gosh, you're so slow," he slumped against the front door, pretending to be annoyed. If he keeps this up, I actually will get annoyed. No matter how cute he is or how much I like him.
"Shut up," I sighed, slipping on my navy blue TOMS and pushing him aside. I walked through the door and he followed, closing and locking it behind him.

"Just saying," Mark said, pressing the down button, "I like this so much better than what we had before."

Yeah..but the question is what exactly is this?
A flirtationship? An actual relationship? Or just me being seriously friendzoned?
My mind had too many thoughts running through it so I just nodded, scared that I might blurt something out that I shouldn't.

The walk to the subway and the ride to campus was harmless enough. Tourists have already begun their daily traffic jam on the sidewalks, slowly walking around and taking pictures of everything.
By now, Mark had fully mastered the art of dodging people while keeping a fast walking pace and  jaywalking when the opportunity arose. Thankfully the subway station was only a couple of blocks away from our apartment building so getting there didn't take too long. The train even came on time.

"You two are seriously so slow," Jackson whined, picking himself off the bench him and Peniel were sitting on outside of the subway station on campus.
"This guy wanted to shower this morning," I nodded at Mark. He put his hands up, "Hey, either I took a shower and we rush to lab or I smell like sweat and BO all during it."
"Ok yeah," Peniel said, side-stepping a freshman, "I'd rather have you smell like shampoo than your dirty socks."
"Which, by the way, smell like dog shi-"
"Jackson," I pulled on his shirt, making him swerve to the left, "let's learn how to walk and talk at the same time without running over the freshmen."
"Good call."

The rest of our journey was basically filled with Jackson talking about how he couldn't wait for lab to be over even before it even started until we entered the lab room.
"Have you guys gotten your tickets yet to the Haunting?" Peniel asked as we all took our seats by the lab bench. My stomach dropped. I knew I had to do something but I'd totally forgot what it was until now.
"Oh crap," I almost yelled and jumped off of my stool, "That's what I had to do! Are there even tickets left?"
Peniel shook his head, holding up 2 tickets, "Sorry, I got the last 2 this morning while we were waiting for you. The other one is Jackson's."
The sinking feeling grew. My stomach probably had a hole in it by now.

"Uggghhhh," I slouched onto the lab bench after pulling myself back into my seat, "I knew I should've went with Eric in between soc and orgo lecture."
"What's so special about this anyways?" Mark asked as he poked his head over. "I thought a Haunting was some TV show about ghosts."
"Not a Haunting. THE Haunting," Jackson reached over the pushed Mark's head back with his finger.
"Cause that tells me so much dude."
"The Haunting is sort for Halloween Haunting. It's an annual Halloween party that literally everyone in the city goes to. The only thing about it is that it changes locations every year and it's exclusive. Ticket holders only. And as you can see," Peniel gestured over at me, "there's only a certain amount of tickets and not just anyone can buy them. You gotta know people."
"I know the same people you do!" I rolled my eyes, feeling the jealousy bubble inside of me. This was seriously not cool. The Haunting was this week and I already had my costume all figured out. Now I can't even wear it. And not to mention I was going to miss one of the biggest parties of the year.

"You guys talking about the Haunting?" One of Mark's lab partners, Haylie, asked as she put her lab coat on. The girl was stick skinny, petite, and super pretty. She literally screamed "Mark's ideal type" so loudly that it hurts.
"Yeah," Mark turned himself around to look at her, giving her a half smile. The jealousy in my stomach was churning in my stomach.
"Are you going?" She put her lab goggles on top of her head, batting her fake eyelashes at him. I wanted to rip them off of her eyelids one strand at a time.
"Apparently not, since I don't have a ticket."

All of a sudden, her eyes got all wide. She swooped down and pulled out 2 tickets from her bag, lifting them up to Mark. Oh my gosh...she was gonna ask him to the Haunting.

This .

"I bought a ticket for my friend but she said someone asked her to go so now I'm a loner going alone. Wanna come with me?" 
Mark grabbed the second ticket from her, giving her a full smile this time. The jealousy was definitely up to a boil by now.
"Sure. You wanna me to match costumes with you?"
Haylie nodded, "I'll text you the details later."
"Cool. Sounds good."
"Yay. It's a date."

Uh. Excuse me.
No . It's not a date.
This is something called pity, and you're something called a charity case.
Get it straight.

I leaned into my hand, spacing out as the lab instructor explained the lab. 2 horus later, I was ready to dump the hydrochloric acid over Haylie if I heard her say "Mark's coming with me to the Haunting" one more time.

"I'll see you guys later," I said, swinging my backpack onto my shoulders. My voice gave it all away. I was so not in the mood.
"Wait _________________," Aron's voice said behind me, getting closer as he ran to catch up. "I was uh...wondering if you were going to the Haunting."
I felt my shoulders slump, "No. I totally forgot to get tickets and they sold out."
"Well," he stopped walking in front of me, making me stop otherwise I would probably crash right into him, "do you wanna go with me?"

He held up two tickets with a smile on his face.
Crap. I don't wanna say yes and give him false hope and wrong intentions. But this was my only way into the party. My only way of keeping an eye on Haylie to make sure she didn't pull anything.

"Sure," I grabbed the ticket in his hand as Mark walked by. I saw his eyes linger on my hand pulling the ticket out of Aron's then shift over to look at my face. I pretended not to see him. If he's gonna go with Haylie, I'm gonna go with Aron.

Author's Note
chapter title: Worry About Yourself First-M.I.B (ft. Bomi) [x]
lol i actually have no idea if there's a party in NYC during Halloween called the Halloween Haunting. totally just made that up haha xD
and i hope these song title chapter titles are helping you guys find new songs :) 
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