To Tris Jacobs, having a crush on someone was literally poison. Knowing that someone could easily hurt her just by kissing someone else, forgetting her name and glancing at another girl was beyond catastrophic.

Even though she knew that having a crush could hurt her like this, she still found herself falling hard for her best friend's brother, Max Grey. His grey eyes always drew her to him in a way she was not quite familiar with and gave her butterflies.

She sighed, dragging her bag behind her as she climbed the stairs that led to her best friend, Rachel Grey's, large house. Tugging at her jacket, she let out a shaky breath, hating how cold it got in New York.

"Christmas huh?" Rachel asked as soon as she got to the top of the stairs. She was bouncing a soccer ball on her feet, looking up at Tris momentarily before stopping the ball. "The snow is a great opportunity to play ice hockey though."

Tris rolled her eyes, not surprised that Rachel had managed to squeeze a sport into the conversation. Rachel laughed at her expression and held the ball under her arms, brushing her moist brown hair out of her face.

"You know?" She opened the door, "I always thought these stairs were way too long."

She placed her free hand over Tris' shoulder, silently guiding her into the house. The sound of their footsteps echoed as the two friends walked into the house, silently whispering about school.

Tris couldn't believe that Christmas was over and school was approaching in a few weeks.

Just as they were about to reach the stairs, Max came down the stairs lazily, his eyes glued to his phone with a slightly angered expression on his face. Rachel noticed how Tris tensed up beside her and cleared her throat loudly, smirking when he looked up.

"Ladies," he nodded towards them, not even looking for a long time before he went back to his phone and cursed. Tris' heart gave a little tug at how he didn't even look at her, making her practically face palm at the fact that she was so hung up on him noticing her.

Having a crush on one of the most popular people in school was like having a crush on a celebrity who rarely ever noticed anyone apart from the people they deemed worthy of their attention.

Sadly she didn't make the cut.

She was Tris Jacobs, the person who was only ever noticed when she was with her best friends who had made it up the social food chain.

"What's the plan for today?" Max suddenly asked, slipping the phone into his pocket. He glanced at Tris for a moment, a look of recognition falling onto his face before nodding and turning back to Rachel.

She was perched on the stairs, rolling the ball around with a bored expression on her face from the silence. When he turned away from her, Tris found herself releasing a breath she didn't know she had been holding.

Rachel looked up at the sound of her brother's voice and nodded towards her best friend, even though she knew she was trying to avoid his gaze. He raised an eyebrow, like he only remembered then that Tris was there.

"Sleepover," She answered, running a hand through her brown hair that happened to be different from Max's. Instead of just brown hair and brown eyes, he had grey eyes and the type of hair that you wanted to continuously run your hand through.

Tris' eyes moved from his hair to his pink lips which he was biting the bottom of. He cleared his throat and she blushed, looking up at him while he rubbed the back of head. Rachel gagged from behind Tris, being the same troublesome best friend that she'd grown to love and hate at the same time.

Rachel stood up, tucking her soccer ball under her arm, "I'm going to shower. Max keep her busy,"

At that moment, Tris felt like strangling her bestfriend who took it upon herself to try and get her to date her brother. Sure, she appreciated it but at the same time, she wanted to go out with Max because of her hard work.

You can't even talk to him idiot.

He nodded nonchalantly, watching Rachel as she run up the stairs before turning back to Tris, finally giving her the full attention she hadn't recieved from him since he accidentally tripped her when they'd first met.

"Wanna watch Tv?" Max offered, shrugging lightly. He found it awkward that he practically had to babysit his sister's best friend but tried not to show it. Tris frowned and shook her head, deciding to stay silent before she embarrassed herself like she usually did whenever she was around him. It was the first time she had been alone with him and unlike her lovestruck fantasies, conversation didn't flow easily.

Max cleared his throat, swinging from his heels to his toes, something he often did in awkward situations and tried to think of something they could do instead of waiting for Rachel to finish her endless showers.

"We can make something," he offered after a moment of silence, smiling at the brunnete in front of him. Tris smiled, glad that he'd finally found something she'd loved doing- cooking- and nodded.

Max released a breath, almost one of relief and began to walk towards the kitchen while ignoring the buzzing in his pocket. Tris noticed but didn't say anything. Instead, she focused on the fact that she was standing right next to Max Grey.

She inhaled, savouring the scent of wind and cologne that clung to Max like a t-shirt clung to a sweaty person. Their footsteps fell in sync unintentionally and Tris smiled, shoving her hands into her pockets to keep her hand away from his hair that was practically begging her hand to run through it.

Max glanced up at the girl next to him, noticing how she looked at everything but him. He had to admit, the girl was quite attractive but he wasn't into girls like her.

For a screw and dump, it would've been ok but not for a full time relationship. To a boy like him, who valued the freedom of being single, love seemed pretentious and horrible.
Besides, with the things he got himself into, dragging a girl into all of it seemed unfair.

When they finally got to the kitchen, Tris walked towards the cookbook she knew they always kept on the counter next to the breadbin. Max watched her as she walked around the kitchen like she'd done it a million times before. Max frowned slightly.

She probably had done it a million times but Max had been too caught up with his own problems to notice how much time she spent around them.

Tris looked up when the intervals between the buzzing of Max's phone grew shorter, slightly annoyed that his phone was interrupting the time they were meant to be spending together.

"Sorry," Max sighed, noticing how the brunnete had set her jaw. Tris waved it off and opened the fridge, looking for some butter.

Max unlocked his phone and stared at the text messages bombarding his screen. He swallowed hard when he reached the last one and looked up at the girl walking around the kitchen in a hurry.

"Let me help," he said, stepping towards her. Tris nodded, smiling back at him and cleared her throat, ready to say something to him.

She took a deep breath. "Thanks Max."

Max nodded and began to look for a bowl in their large kitchen while the text message ran through his head over and over again.

Text message from Z.M:

Target: Tris Jacobs

*******

Hey guys! I hope you enjoy this chapter and I'd love to hear you thoughts! It's a bit different from how I wrote it before but I like it better.

The chapters will grow longer overtime. I just made it like this because it's just a prologue so...yeah.

The trailer is above!

Love
Musawa