A steady knock woke me up.

                I moaned a bit, lifting my arms to rub my eyes. Except that they were trapped.

                “Jessi, someone’s at the door,” I said in that strained, tired voice everyone has in the morning.

                She also moaned a little. “5 more minutes…” she begged, snuggling closer to me.

                The knocking resumed. “Jessi, at least let me up,” I said. She shook her head and hugged me more.

                “No. You’re trapped here with me,” she said.

                “Wait a minute please!” I yelled at the person on the other side of the door. I struggled a bit, trying to slide my way out of Jessi’s grip, but I couldn’t manage to do it. “Jessi, please…” When she didn’t budge, I spoke up again. “If you let me go right now, I’ll make it up to you later,” I promised.

                She thought about it for a second, then apparently decided to agree as she let me go. I sighed in relief before putting on my shirt and shorts. “Coming!” I yelled, rushing to the door.

                On the other side of the door stood Tiffany, someone from my old school who also made it into Berkely. “Hey Alex! Did I wake you up?”

                I smiled wearily. It was a weekday, so sleeping in was expected; still, I felt bad. I don’t exactly know why, honestly. “It’s no big deal. I shouldn’t be sleeping in that much anyway,” I told her, speaking my mind.

                “Oh, I’m sorry,” she said, frowning apologetically.

                I waved it off. “It’s fine; I’m not that sleepy anymore,” I told her.

                She nodded. “Ok,” she said, uncertain. “Well, I came to—” I guess Tiffany looked over my shoulder, because her next question surprised me. “Do you sleep with Jessica?”

                I was taken a back for a bit. “I mean, the other bed has blankets that are probably not your’s and Jessi is on the bed with a blanket that only has a single color,” she explained.

                Wow, she’s pretty smart. I mean, she always had good grades and excellent essays, but that didn’t always mean good deduction skills. I guess she has all of the above.

                I didn’t really see a point in lying, so I just spoke honestly. “Yeah, I do.”

                Tiffany interrupted me before I had the chance to explain myself—or, ourselves. “You two make a cute couple,” she commented.

                “Oh no, we’re not a couple,” I told her. “We’re just really close friends,” I said, reassuring her.

                She didn’t look convinced, though. “Oh, sorry,” she said. “I assumed that since you two are always with each other and stuff that you two were closer than friends.”

                I smiled. “I guess I can understand that. Sorry for the misunderstanding, but Jessi and I just share a friendly relationship; we knew each other from 2^nd grade and we spent a lot of time together; and on top of that, we enjoy each other’s company.”

                “Honeey?” I heard Jessi’s voice call out to me. I facepalmed internally. Don’t do this to me, Jessi, please. “Aleex?”

                “Jessi—”

                “Come over here,” she said, sitting up with the blanket still covering her and holding her arms out, reaching for a hug. She then noticed Tiffany behind me. “Oh, hi Tiffany!” she said, waving at her. As she did so, her arms left the blanket that she was holding up, letting the blanket pool at her lap.

                “Jessi!” I whined, looking back at Tiffany fearfully as she stared at Jessi, jaw wide open as Tiffany stared at Jessi’s upper body. “Don’t just—”

                “What? What’s wrong?” she asked innocently, looking at me with the same emotion.

                “Tiffany, I can—”

                “Aleex, come over here,” Jessi whined. I sighed and walked over to the bed, in which Jessi instantly tackled me into a hug. “See? That wasn’t too hard, was it? Now what were you talking to Tiffany about?”

                “Jessi, I was trying to—” yet again, she cut me off, but this time, with a kiss directly to my mouth. “Yah, Jessi!” I said, whining a little. “Stop interrupting me!”

                “You forgot our morning kiss,” she told me happily.

                “You——kiss—friends--…?” I heard Tiffany say, obviously perplexed.

                “Jessi, I was trying to tell Tiffany that we weren’t a couple, but you aren’t doing a very good job at convincing her otherwise.”

                “Oh, really?” she said, eyeing Tiffany. She studied her for a while in what ended up being a staring contest before giggling. “I’m just kidding, Tiffany. I was awake while you two were talking and decided to have some fun,” she said, explaining herself while letting go of me. She reached under the blanket and pulled out her bra to put it back on.

                “So what did you come here for?”

                She seemed to be still thinking about something because she looked at me with an initial reaction of shock before seeming to realize something. “Oh yeah, I came here to ask if you wanted to work on our journals for Bio with me and some friends,” she explained.

                “Oh, can I come?” Jessi said from behind me.

                “Of course!” Tiffany told Jessi. Something about her voice didn’t convince me though. Maybe she was still suspicious about Jessi and me after seeing us waking up. “Well, see you on the second floor of the library in an hour, ok?”

                “Yea,” I told her, smiling. She smiled back and backed out of our room.

                As she closed the door, I turned to Jessi. “Jessi, you have to stop doing that,” I told her. For some reason, Jessi really like tricking people into thinking that we were a couple despite our conversation earlier. It sometimes made me wish for the cute, shy girl I knew back in elementary school.

                “Why?” she asked, putting on her best innocent face.

                I sighed and shook my head. “Once they find out we room together, who knows what kind of rumors people will make up.”

                She removed the blanket and started to fold it. “I don’t care. They aren’t true. Do you want to make them true?”

                I looked at her strangely. She looked back, biting her lip and trying to look y I guess but we just ended up laughing at each other.

                After the usual morning rituals, Jessi and I left for the library.

                “Hey Alex,” Jessi said.

                “Yea,” I replied.

                “Do you think Tiffany dislikes me?” she asked, looking up at me with curious eyes. I semi-shrugged my shoulders (it’s hard to shrug your shoulders with someone holding down one arm). “I heard the way she said ‘Yea’, and I know you did too.”

                “I thought it was because she was suspicious that she found us the way she did this morning,” I told her.

                “Yeah, I thought it was like that at first too. Her disliking me is an alternative reason,” she told me.

                “Wait. Why is it even a reason? Why would she dislike you?”

                Jessi chuckled. “Aish, you were always slow on these things,” she told me.

                “What?” I whined. She shook her head in response.

                You’d think that after all these years of knowing her, I’d know what she meant. But you never know with girls; they live in a world separate of guys, no matter how close you get with them.

                As we entered the building, I reminded Jessi to let go of my arm. You’d think that she’d remember after all this time in college, but again, girls.

                We passed through the security gates (the little grey arches that beep when something stolen passes through them) and climbed the stairs to the second floor. While that was happening, I couldn’t help but feel like people were watching us. I tried to catch them, but I never did.

                As we reached the second floor, I looked around at the study tables. My search was short-lived as a group of waving people caught my attention; and sure enough, it was Tiffany. I smiled and started to walk over.

                As I approached the table, I studied the people at the table to see if I recognized everyone. When I verified I did, I took the only seat left.  Wait, I thought. Jessi has nowhere to sit.

                Before I could get up, Jessi choose to just take a seat in my lap.

                “This is Alex, and the friend he brought is Jessica,” Tiffany said, introducing us. Then she looked at us, and her expression turned from normal to curious, and maybe a little suspicious, like this morning.

                “Oh, I know you two. You’re the Alexica couple!” Rachel, the person sitting on the right side of Tiffany, said.

                At first, I didn’t know who she was addressing. Alexica couple? What was that? But then I thought about it a little. My name, Alex, plus the last part of Jessi’s name, Sica, makes … oh. “Oh, no we’re not a couple,” I told them, smiling apologetically.

                She frowned. “Really? I’ve seen so many pictures of you guys, and you two are like the most popular couple on the campus.”

                “Really?” Jessi said excitedly. “Hear that, Alex? We’re the most popular couple on campus! Do we get an award or something?”

                “Yah, let’s not confuse people even more, ok?”

                Jessi sighed. “Ok, fine.”

                Rachel, as well as everyone else in the table, looked confused. “So you two … are NOT a couple,” she said in confirmation. Both Jessi and I nodded.

                I might have been seeing things, but I swear I saw several people in the table let out a breath. Of relief, disappointment, or what, I don’t exactly know.

                “So we got the award above people who are actually couples?” I asked. She nodded. “Huh,” I said, stumped. How does that happen?

                “I mean, you can’t blame everyone,” someone else, Dan, said. “You two are always together and you two are either always holding hands or something like that.”

                “Ok, anyways,” Tiffany said, not giving me much of a chance to think about the subject. “How about Jessica grab a chair and sit next to Alex so the rumor doesn’t get stronger, and we start talking about Bio.”

                There seemed to be a unanimous acquiescence of that decision as Jessi got off my lap to borrow a chair from another table.

~The Do’s and Don’ts of a Friendly Relationship~

                After that, the group decided to go for lunch together. Jessi had a singing audition to go to, so I decided to go with her there and eat lunch with her afterwards.

                “It was sweet of you to wait for me,” she said, leaning her head on my shoulder.

                “Mhm,” I responded.

                “If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you love me,” she told me.

                “Mhm,” I repeated.

                “Do you?” she asked, looking at me.

                I looked back at her. “No, I hate you,” I told her.

                She started to fake cry. “Alex hates me…,” she said, hitting my arm repeatedly.

                I smiled. “I’m kidding, I’m kidding. Of course I love you; I’ve known you for eleven years” I told her. She immediately stopped and smiled.

                “Yay! Alex oppa loves me!”

                “Shh,” I told her. “Remember the rumor?”

                She nodded, but didn’t seem too phased by it.

                We both turned our attention to the menu, trying to decide what to eat. “Oh, how about that?”

                I looked at what she was pointing at. It was a spicy pasta dish. “Well, have fun with that. You know I can’t eat spicy things.”

                “It’s so big though! I can’t finish it myself,” she said, trying to reason with me. “Plus, it tastes really good. I promise. It’s like flaming hot Cheetos, but better.”

                I like flaming hot Cheetos. “Ok sure, let’s get that,” I said, giving in. I was going to hate myself later for this, but oh well.

                As I finished deciding what to get, a waitress came to our table.

                “Hello, my name is May and I’ll be serving you two today. Are you ready?”

                “Yea,” I responded. I ordered for both of us along with a smoothie.

                “Hehe, is that for the thing I ordered?” Jessi asked.

                “And also it tastes good,” I said defensively. I turned to the waitress. “That’s all for us,” I told her.

                She smiled and put her notepad away. “You two make a cute couple,” she said.

                Before I could respond, Jessi responded with, “thank you!” and a smile. She smiled back and walked away.

                “Yah, let’s not strengthen the rumor about us, ok?” I said, trying to sound firm.

                She giggled. “I don’t know why, but it’s so fun to pretend to be your girlfriend.”

                I smiled and shook my head. I could never get mad at her. She was like a contagious smiling disease; no matter what she did, she would always do something cute and make you laugh.

                “Do we wanna clarify things to May?” I asked her.

                “Nah,” she said lazily, leaning on my shoulder again.

~The Do’s and Don’ts of a Healthy Relationship~

                The next day, we received a letter in our mailbox from the school. It was the person in charge of rooming arrangements telling us to meet her in her office.

                We arrived at the designated time, 11:00.

                “So, you two are Alex and Jessica?” We nodded. “And you two share a room?” Again, we nodded. She folded her hands together, leaning her elbow on her desk. “At first, we allowed you two to room together because we thought since you two are the closest to each other, it would be nice for you two to share a room to comfort each other. Plus, we already agreed on letting you two share a room prior to the school year start because you managed to convince us. However, regarding recent rumors spreading about you two, along with some evidence, we have reason to believe that you two are abusing this privilege and ask of you two to move out of the room. We have provided additional, separate, rooms for both of you to stay in.”

                I frowned. “Wait. It’s the rumor that we’re a couple, right? The ‘Alexica’ couple?” I asked.

                She nodded. “So you are aware of this.”

                “Yea. And I’d like to say that the rumor is false. We aren’t a couple, nor have we been having in our room.”

                She looked at me curiously. “As much as you would like to deny it, you can’t deny substantial evidence. We have numerous pictures of you two around campus holding hands, as well as information from an anonymous source that Jessica confirmed that you two were a couple.”

                I looked at her with raised eyebrows. She smiled half-heartedly and shrugged. “Ok, let me explain,” Jessi said. “We have known each other for eleven years, and after my parents died 4 years ago, I moved into his house. Since we started to live together, we started to become closer than the first 7 years; we ever tried being a couple in high school once, but we both agreed that it didn’t work out. So I think it’s natural for two people as close as we are to hold hands; I especially do it because it feels comfortable to me. As for the confirmation I gave yesterday, we were eating lunch together and the waitress commented that we make a cute couple, to which I responded ‘thanks’ without another thought. I thought it would be fun to make pretend a little, but I should have realized what I had just done, and I apologize.”

                The director stared Jessi and I, and we stared back. “I will install cameras into your room for one month. If you give me any reason to believe that you two are tricking me, I will immediately separate you two.”

                I smiled through gritted teeth. Really? I know how hard it would be for Jessi; she has been sleeping with me for the past three years. To suddenly stop doing that would be … I don’t know.

                I looked at Jessi, who was emotionless. She kept on staring at the director, who was already turned away from us, typing away at her computer.

                That was generally a bad sign. Around me, she typically always showed some type of emotion that I was able to read.

                “Ok, thank you for understanding,” I told her. “Let’s go, Jessi,” I said. Grabbing her arm.

                “Goodbye, Alex and Jessica.”

                “Bye,” we both said, departing from the office.

~The Do’s and Don’ts of a Friendly Relationship~

                “What a ,” Jessi said angrily as we entered the elevator.

                “Hey, it’s just a month. You’ll be able to survive not sleeping with me for a month, right?” I said.

                She looked at me strangely. “What do you mean?”

                I looked at her in disbelief. “That’s why you dislike her, right? Because that means you can’t sleep with me anymore, since that would be suspicious?”

                She looked shocked. “What? No, that’s not why I was—wow, I f—” the elevator’s ding! cut her off. “—hate her. How is that suspicious? Didn’t we already tell her that?”

                I shrugged. “I think it’s best not to if you don’t. We don’t want to get separated, do we?”

                She sighed. “I guess,” she said. “Well, they said they’re going to install tomorrow, right?”

                I nodded as I reached for my key. “Why?”

                “Can I just sleep with you for tonight, and then I’ll stop after they install the cameras?” she asked with her begging eyes. I hated it when she did that. She and I both knew I couldn’t resist them.

                No, my brain told me. Take this opportunity to get used to sleeping by yourself, it said. “Fine,” my mouth said by itself.

                She smiled. “Thanks Alex. But I’m pretty sure she’s breaking one of the amendments on the Bill of Rights; the third one, about not invading a citizen’s privacy? Especially since they’re a government funded school and all…” she said.

                “Hey, I know I’m a stud and all, but it’s just a month you have to survive without this, right?” I said, motioning to my body.

                She laughed, and I grinned back.

                A knock came on the door.

                I opened it to reveal Tiffany. “Hey, I heard about the news about the camera,” she said.

                I looked at her, but before I could ask, she said, “I saw you entering rooming arrangement director’s office, so I was curious, especially since I knew about the rumors about you two. I had an inkling about what it was going to be about, although I didn’t actually believe it, so I had to listen for myself. So I stood by the door as innocently as I could and caught the conversation between you three,” she said. “Must having your privacy taken.”

                “I know, right!” Jessi said, clearly still annoyed.

                She smiled. “Here, take this,” Tiffany said, handing us a small diary-like notebook. It was a mixture of pink and blue, decorated with hearts and flowers attached to the cover’s front and back.

                “What’s this?” I asked, opening it up. She didn’t respond, giving me time to read the title she gave the notebook in fancy, cursive writing. It read “The Do’s and Don’ts of a Friendly Relationship”.

                Jessi and I laughed upon reading that. “Thanks Tiff,” she said, grabbing the notebook. “It’s so pretty, too,” she complimented.

                “I think that’ll help prevent any further instances, and maybe help all those in a situation like yours. I already put in the first entry for you guys,” Tiffany said.

                Jessi opened up to the first page and, true to her word, the first entry of the notebook read “DON’T—Be Too Intimate With Each Other”.

FIRST CHAPTER WOOT

sorry it's late DX senior year and all ):

Hope you enjoyed!

EDIT: changed the title name because previous entry was a bit vague