Laura believed the only chance she could get back on Samuel was to get better results on their next assignment and rub it on his face. She was ready to outshine him and their entire batch if it was not for their major history teacher.

Both of them were on their last year of university, their rivalry was known to the entire history major. Who would get the first place spot, her or Samuel Lambert.

Their history teacher, Professor Gina, who is known for being the matchmaker put us on the same group assignment. She doesn't only enjoy giving a lot of exams and assignments, she decided the organization of the glass seats as she sees fit and the same for the group projects.

That was precisely why Laura found herself in the same group as Samuel more than she cared to count.

Their rivalry didn't start because of grades, in fact they were friends once. Since their first year in university, the two of them became friends thanks to their own friends who started dated. Celine and Theodore.

The four of them were inseparable, they always did things together, from studying to shopping to preparing their dorm rooms etc. and after Celine and Theodore broke up, naturally Laura and Samuel grew apart and everything turned into unconditional hatred.

"Cannot believe Professor Gina!" Laura complained from her dirty, messed side of the dorm room. "Did she have to put us with the boys?"

"I feel like we should start to get used to this." Celine sighed as she began packing her bag.

This was the nth time the four of them had been forced into one group, at some point their group chat remained intact just in case they were forced into another assignment together.

"This is the last year, we should hold it in for the next couple of months." Laura scratched her exposed belly as she scrolled through reels.

"Will you get up and do your laundry?" Celine frowned "we have to go tomorrow to the airport at 9AM, I can't stand the guys dismissive attitude if we are late."

"Don't want to." Laura rolled over. "Too. Lazy!"

"Laura, please, go do your laundry!" Celine pinched Laura back "do you realize how packed the laundromat will be now? Everyone will be there because of the traveling schedule tomorrow so hurry up!"

"Ugh! Fine!" Laura jumped to her foot and grabbed her dirty cloth basket "I am tired, and I hate Professor Gina, and she has a way to get on my nerves, and I am hungry. I will stop by the store and buy some stuff, do you need anything?"

"Get me some bugs spray." Celine waved to her to leave quickly and Laura did.

Laura put on her airpods, started her Taylor swift playlist, and went to the laundromat across their dorm building while humming to Love Story song and feeling like a total social reject as people looked at her like she was drunk on the broad daylight.

The laundromat was filled to max, there was no empty washing machine, so she had to wait, she scrolled through her phone, texting her brother and keeping an eye on a certain machine she was ready to fight everyone for.

She zoomed toward it the second the person left, someone groaned to her side since she had beaten him to the machine. She stuck out her tongue to him and opened the machine.

"How childish." Someone to her side said.

Laura turned around and found Samuel, he was putting his cloth into the machine next to her while glaring at her.

"Shut up!" She put in her cloth with more anger than necessary, then started the machine while they both were glaring at each other. She timed it for 45 minutes and decided to go to the grocery store next to the laundromat and get some toiletries and travel stuff.

She stepped out and Samuel was a step behind. She ignored him and opened the door to the store, he was there, of course everyone would need supplements before their travels, so she ignored him again. She picked her stuff quickly, stood in the line, still ignoring Samuel standing in the front of the line.

Finally, she went to pick her cloth, halfway expecting someone waiting for her to finish. She put her bag on her basket and started emptying the machine from her cloth. Samuel was doing the same.

"Don't you dare be late tomorrow." He told her.

"Say this to yourself." She gave him the middle finger.

"You are the one with the habit of being late." He snapped.

"Wake early, princess." Laura walked away still giving him the finger. And he was ready to murder her with his glare.

She returned to her dorm room frowning angrily, Celine was cleaning her bag and organizing things on her bed. "I met Samuel at the laundromat, he just had to be an ass!" Laura growled. "When was I ever late?"

"Every time, Laura, every time." Celine chuckled. "Did you get the spray?"

"Yes, here." Laura flipped the basket on her bed and didn't see her shopping bags. "Where is it?" She flipped her cloth around and still couldn't find it.

"You didn't buy it?" Celine picked Laura scattered cloth.

"Of course I did." Laura hissed, "I even got some toiletries, did I forget it at the laundromat? But I am sure I put it on the basket."

She looked at her basket and gasped, this basket had been with her since her first year here, she went shopping with Celine and the guys once they were friends and Samuel and her bought the same color. Did she accidentally put it on his basket?

"Okay, girl, we have got trouble." Laura turned to Celine "I think I accidentally put the stuff on his basket and I will forever hate myself if I got indebted to him. "

"Calm down, I am sure he will find it and text you to return it."

"What if he didn't? I have got a lot of snacks as well."

"You know Samuel isn't like that." She chuckled "he will bring them."

Samuel flipped his basket upside down, he should've taken care of his laundry few days earlier, not only did he wait in a long line for hours, he also met Laura who had made it a talent to annoy the shit out of him.

That was not even the worst part. He was certain that now was the time to throw all the stuff he and Laura bought together on their first freshmen year, the same basket, the same desk lamb, the same pillow cases, the same cloth hanger.

Why couldn't he throw everything away? Maybe because he missed those days before his friend Theodore broke up with Celine, Laura friend. He quite like her and her company, being with her never felt like boredom and he never had to mask himself in her presence.

Why did Theodore break up with Celine? Why did he and Laura break apart further than Theodore and Celine? Their friends managed to keep an acquaintances level even after breaking up but they didn't.

After the break up, it started with who will get the better mark, then it became to who will be the first place in the patch, then who will become a professor assistant, and the list continued about who will be better.

He hated how Laura made him this competitive, he hated her further for being the one who broke off their friendship because it would've been awkward for their friends even if it was an understandable step they would had taken.

He thought competing with her while keeping a good distance was the best thing ever but with Professor Gina that was utterly impossible. As if the old matchmaking could see the chemistry between people, she would assign people as she saw fit and apparently there was a chemistry between him and Laura.

This was, he couldn't even keep count of how many times she assigned them together throughout the years. And it will probably not be the last.

Tomorrow they will travel to a historical site, Professor Gina made sure her favorite pair were at least together, no one had been paired together more than Samuel and Laura.

He left his laundry for the last day and that what he got. Laura toiletries. Soap, shampoo, conditioner, hair cream, face masks, few towels, tooth brush and paste, few hair bands, tampons, a heating container for cramps, nail clippers. And a lot of snacks. Some heat packs pocket size and two flashlights and bugs spray.

It was only because their basket was the same color and size she must've mistakenly put her stuff on his basket.

He should take the stuff back. No, she should come and take them. The last thing he wanted was getting attention by walking into the girls dorm and she wouldn't want to do that either.

There was an unspoken rule that guys aren't allowed to the girls dorms and vise versa.

"What are you staring at?" Theodore entered their dorm room and jumped on Samuel bed where Laura stuff sat. "Since when did you buy this many stuff and here I thought you were saving money."

"Don't touch anything!" Samuel grabbed his friend hand. Laura would never let it slide if there was one missing air molecule from her stuff. "There had been a mix up." He explained to his friend what happened.

Theodore looked at the many girly stuff and said "I should have realized, she is using the same brand since ever, lavender everything." He sighed and jumped to his bed "take it back or text her to come."

"You know she will never step a foot here and I will not step a foot into the girls dorms." Samuel would rather die than go there.

Once, he made the mistake of going there to return a book he borrowed from her on their first year and their seniors never forgot that day till now. It was a freaking taboo to go to the other dorms.

She will probably wait for him to bring back the stuff but she was mistaken, he would never set a foot there and she would never come here and he will not next first and she will probably do the same.

A game of push and pull. That how they were.

Still, he felt something missing. He looked at her stuff and noticed her period supplements. He remembered that she had the worse possible cramps, she would need her stuff. He checked his calendar, it was the 17th of February, kind of the middle of the month.

The middle of the month had always been her time.

"I will take it back." He stood up and grabbed her stuff, he didn't want to go, he really didn't want to but it felt like he would hate himself if he didn't go.

Theodore looked at him dumbfounded, Samuel knew his friend would say something because it was known that he wouldn't want to deal with Laura at all and now he was volunteering to go.

Samuel took the stuff and walked out the dorm to text Laura, she didn't reply so he called her. She didn't answer and it went right to voicemail, her phone was probably out, she always had it either on silent or on a dead battery.

He saw a group of guys whispering among each other as he walked his way to the front door, he slightly heard them talking about a girl waiting outside.

Laura was outside. He was sure.

He found her leaning on the wall with a lollipop on her mouth, her brown hair still had some of the same sleepy hair she had on the laundromat, her short jeans skirt and white hoodie didn't leave the guys going in and out from imagining.

He hated it. He should've gone to her instead.

"Laura." He called her. He might hate her but he was still a gentleman, today was different, they wouldn't mention it.

"Give them to me." She snapped.

No, definitely she was starting to get on his nerves. She should've apologized or said something instead of this.

"You should be careful." He hissed "and be grateful that they were on my basket, what if they were on someone else's laundry?"

"Shut up, I don't have time for your lectures!" She snatched the bags and left in a hurry.

"Wait!" He called when he noticed stains. Laura growled and looked at him, Samuel hated her but no girl deserved this. He took off his shirt and tied the sleeves around her waist then left without a word.

Laura cursed on herself and Samuel all the way from the guys dorms to her dorm room, ignoring Celine who was still tidying Laura bag after finishing hers, and running to the bathroom.

"No way I can return this!" She mumbled after handwashing her cloth and his. "He should've just ignored me. That stupid, idiot...." And the curses went on till she left the bathroom.

"Whose shirt is that?" Celine who was a clean freak and accustomed herself with all messy Laura stuff would notice a new appearing shirt.

"Samuel." Laura mumbled. "I got my period and he just had to help. Why was he like that? Didn't we agree on loathing each other till death it will part?"

"Samuel had always been a gentleman regardless of his hatred, no rivalry, towards you." She chuckled.

And Laura snapped "I am sure he will rub it off on me all the time when we are in the trip, I don't think I will stand it!"

Laura threw herself in the floor and rolled around muttering her hate toward him even when he saved her from the embarrassment.

Celine sat near Laura on the floor and put a candy on her mouth "why do you guys hate each other this much? I don't believe it is because of me and Theo, so make your excuses."

"I don't know, I just hate him!" Laura rolled and set her head on Celine labs "you know I love you and you are the best so Celine, bare with me and my cramps on this trip."

"You know I'm always with you." Celine flicked Laura forehead "I prepared your bag, come and make sure you stuff are in place."

"I will not live a day without you." Laura groaned.

Next day, the bus stopped by the airport, Laura was dragged by her friend in and found the boys waiting for them, Laura traitorous heart skipped a beat when she saw Samuel. It was either because of yesterday events and accident or how he looked like a model out of magazine.

Laura chose to beleive that it was neither of them, she believed it was because her period and moved on.

But it was impossible to not look. Samuel wore a baggy black pants and a very normal white shirt and had a black jacket on, sleeves loosened as he leaned on a pillar talking to Theodore and white shoes. He didn't even bother combing his hair and it still looked more subtle than Laura hair that refused to be styled and she ended with the scissors in hand if Celine didn't safe the day.

Theodore was the first to notice them. Laura felt guilty about only focusing on Samuel and ignoring Theodore, so she silently praised his engineering outfit even when he wasn't an engineer major.

"Right on time." Theodore grinned, even after breaking up with Celine, he was still the same kind understanding guy as ever. Unlike someone else who frowned his handsome face upon seeing her.

"We still have 30 minutes before the plane boards," Celine pointed at the food court and smiled "should we get some snacks?"

"Let's do that!" Theodore smiled "Samuel twisted his ankle this morning so he will probably look funny walking, should we go without him Laura."

Laura wanted to terribly join them, she was hungry, or it was her cramps, she couldn't tell but she didn't have an appetite for anything after they couldn't stop on a certain bakery this morning because they would get late if they stayed in its line.

"I'm good." She forced a smile and sat on the floor, legs unable to carry her any longer.

Celine sighed and nudged Theodore to move without them, as if they weren't couples before.

Soon as they left Laura couldn't keep her mouth shut. "You look good." Is what she wanted to say but instead said "twisted your ankle, I should've seen that."

"Shut up!" He frowned "I might be clumsy but not the point of putting my stuff on a stranger's basket."

"It was your fault for being there."

"You should be grateful that it was me or you will not have your stuff in the bag right now."

"So what do you want me to do? Bow to your mercy?"

"You are sitting in the floor like a beggar so might as well do it!"

Laura snapped and jumped to her foot, headbutting his chin in the process. Yes, she was on the floor but she would never beg or bow to his mercy.

Samuel staggered on his feet and glared at her like she killed his dog, he held his jaw and growled "how dare you?"

"Yes, what are you going to do?" She hit his chest with her head asking "will you hit me back? Do it in front of the whole world, I dare you."

A kid passing by saw them and sucked on her pacifier rather aggressively. Laura and Samuel couldn't fight in front of her so they awkwardly took a step away from each other.

"Kid, where is your mommy?" Laura knelt to her.

The kid pointed at her parents minding their own businesses on their phones not realizing their daughter was missing.

"How about sister take you to them, this place has so many scary peole!" Laura looked sideway at Samuel "but sister can fight them for you."

"Why don't you do this baby talking all the time instead of pickering and picking fights?" Samuel asked from behind her.

Laura stood on her feet and pinched his cheeks hard, he only looked at her in shock, "see, little girl, I can fight all the bad guys."

The girl took her pacifier and threw it at Samuel. "Do you believe I am the bad here?" Samuel pushed Laura hands and said "bad people can trick you to believing they are good, do not trust anyone and go back to your parents." He handed her the pacifier after cleaning it with a tissue and the girl went back weeping.

"Did you have to scare her like that?" Laura hissed.

"She would know the world is not that nice." He frowned at her.

"That was not your call, she is not even 2!"

"It wasn't yours either, it was her parent's and their negligence is not our responsibility."

"It is not but helping that child without scaring her was what a good person should do!"

"Playing hero, aren't you?"

"No, this is called humanity if you didn't hear of it!"

Theodore came back holding some fries for them, Laura and Samuel directly pretended that the other did not exist.