As it nears 8 o'clock, my phone rings and I look to see who it is. I roll my eyes so hard that I feel a headache coming on. I decline Dominic's call so he knows I'm purposefully ignoring him. He sends me a text a few minutes later but I don't even bother looking at it. Instead, I sit and wait for Elias to tell me he's outside. When I get the call, I rush outside and into his car.

"Nice ride," I compliment his Jeep. I don't know much about cars but it doesn't take a genius to tell that this car is a good one.

"Thanks," he replies quietly. "You look good."

"Thank you," I mumble awkwardly as I silence my phone, ignoring the 23 notifications. "You, too."

"So how was your day?" I offer him a smile.

"It was great. I finished a paper," I lie. Not about the paper but about today being great. "How was yours?"

"It started out bad but it's ending pretty nicely," he replies as he nervously looks at me from the corner of his eye. I catch it and offer him a big smile. And though it all feels forced, it feels good to get away from all the craziness back at school. The drive is pretty quiet and once we arrive at Splat, he looks at me. "We have to sit in the car and eat; I hope you don't mind." I shake my head.

"No, not at all." I need to not eat like a slob. I can't risk getting ice cream on his car. I would never forgive myself.

We get out of the car and approach the line. There are two people in front of us and I dig around in my bag for my wallet. "I got it," he dismisses and I furrow my eyebrows.

"Are you sure? I don't mind. And it won't influence the way I think about you at all," I respond, knowing that a majority of the time guys insist on paying because letting a woman pay for herself is emasculating. 

"It's a four dollar ice cream cone, I got it," he says with a smile. "I asked you here so I should pay. I think that's how it works."

I put my money away. "I guess you're right."

"So what do you want?" he questions as he gazes at the menu before us.

"Can I get one scoop of Oreo ice cream in a cone?" I request, earning a fervent nod.

He orders and pays and we receive our ice cream. As we get into the car, he hands me his. "Can you hold this so I can park somewhere else? There are only three spots and I don't want to be a jerk and take up one."

"Sure," I reply as I grab his cone. I stare at the peculiar orange and white combination.

"What is this?" I blurt as he backs up the car and drives to a neighboring lot, which is empty.

"Orange creamsicle, you can try it if you want." I hesitantly lick the ice cream.

"Oh..." I mutter, wrinkling my nose slightly. It's not what I expected.

"What do you mean, 'oh?' That is probably one of the greatest non-chocolate ice cream flavors around." I don't agree with that.

I snort and shake my head. "Vanilla, strawberry, coffee, butter pecan, strawberry cheesecake, red velvet, cake batter..."

"First of all, red velvet is basically chocolate," he scoffs and I shake my head.

"It's definitely not." They taste very different.

"Oh really?" I nod quickly and he laughs.

"What's red velvet's main ingredient?" I purse my lips and glare at him.

"Shut up," I reply with a smile and he grins at me.

"It's okay, it's one of my favorite flavors," he admits as he parks the car. He shifts his seat back, turns, and looks at me. He accepts his ice cream while I struggle to move my seat back, too.

My phone, which is visible in its place on my lap, lights up. We both glance down and see that it's Dominic. I roll my eyes and scoff, which earns a curious look from Eli. "You can answer it, you know? It could be an emergency."

"I don't really want to talk to him." I finally manage to move my seat back and it jerks back quickly.

"What happened?" He licks his ice cream and waits for me to talk.

"His...our friends are annoying." Will that suffice?

"Because..." he prompts. I look at him and sigh, knowing that the reasoning will just make things awkward.

"Because they assume that we sleep together but we don't. And they know that but they always make jokes and it's annoying." He gives me a slow nod.

"And he doesn't deny it?" Elias raises a brow.

"No he does, just not good enough. I deny it, too, but they're so incessant that it just gets exhausting after the first two arguments. He should be the one telling them, though. They are mostly his friends after all," I reply exasperatedly. "And this probably isn't helping you to not hate him."

"No I'm remaining unbiased until I meet him," he assures me.

"When do you want to meet him?" I wonder casually, trying not to put too much pressure on him. 

"Maybe Monday for lunch..." he suggests nervously. I eye him curiously, wondering if this is his first time really interacting with a girl. Then, we'd be in the same boat. Maybe then I could take the lead because he seems a lot shyer than me. "I'm not a punk I swear, I just need a day to prepare."

I smile at him. "He's not scary, I promise. And if he does say something dumb, then I'll get him under control."

"You guys are really close right?" Obviously, Eli.

"Yeah..." I decide not to be rude. "But we're not a thing, I promise. In fact, he's been encouraging me to see you and hang out with you."

"Really?" He seems genuinely surprised so I nod confidently.

"He thinks my dating life has been nonexistent the last couple years," I reply honestly.

"Really? You've had trouble dating?" I wonder what that means.

"Yeah," I confess. "I'm going to assume you didn't."

"I was in a serious relationship for most of high school. We broke up this summer because she didn't want to do long distance but I think she was always in love with someone else," he confesses and I'm immediately thrown off. So he's not new to this? He's just awkward and shy regularly?

"I'm sorry about that." That must've been heartbreaking.

"Yeah, it's okay. It wasn't healthy," he tells me with a shrug. At least he seems over it. "I've had trouble jumping back into things though. I'm more of a relationship guy and I don't really like casual hookups, which is what everyone is doing nowadays."

"I know, right!!" He nods in agreement.

"You'd be surprised by how many girls will hesitate to talk to you if you haven't gotten around a bit," he explains. "Because my relationship was serious, everyone assumes I still love her."

"How long was the relationship?"

"3 years." I let out a slow exhale and he nods. "She was my person, you know? The one you go to when you had a bad day or you just want to talk. She started out as my best friend and I guess I just fell in love with her." I nod at him, unsure of what to say. If I agree, he might bring up Dominic. He quickly shakes his head. "Why are we talking about exes and failed relationships? Tell me about you."

"Well what do you want to know?" Thank goodness for that subject change.

"Let's play a game. Two truths and a lie," he suggests. "You say two truths and a lie and I have to guess which one is the lie."

We start the game and it gets pretty interesting. It's my turn yet I'm running out of interesting things to say. "Dominic was my first kiss, I haven't had my first kiss, and I have two dogs," I say and his face falls slightly.

"You haven't had your first kiss," he guesses with a quirked brow.

"No, Dominic wasn't my first kiss," I reply. He wishes, though.

"You haven't had your first kiss?" he asks me and I shake my head.

"Why not?" I shrug weakly. What the hell does he want me to say? I've been saving it? I just haven't gotten around to it yet, buddy, give me a break.

"I haven't dated anyone," I explain with a smile.

"But you're so pretty..." he acknowledges quietly, "and you're funny and smart. How haven't you dated anyone?"

"I don't know," I mumble. I can think of a couple of reasons...like my slight, almost nonexistent but also relevant crush on Dominic.

"You've never gone to a party and kissed someone? Like, not even a dare or spin the bottle?" I'm not a party person but he probably wouldn't believe that seeing as that's all I've really been doing these last few weeks.

"No. I've never had the desire to either." I look at him. I weigh my options. I can change the topic of conversation or I can roll with it and use it to my advantage. Eli is a nice boy; I doubt he'll reject me. I need to get these 'firsts' over with at some point so why not now? I exhale quietly as I make my decision. He's nice enough; I'll risk it. I decide to use the techniques Dominic taught me, which I first pegged as way too bold for a shy girl like me. But Eli is shyer so what's the worst that could happen? Daringly, I tilt my head and lock eyes with him. "Not until recently..."

His eyebrows shoot up as takes in every feature of my face. "Huh?" He swallows nervously and I discreetly rub my sweaty palms on my jeans. You got this, keep going.

"I said, that I haven't had the desire to kiss someone until recently," I reply as I lick my ice cream. His eyes drop to my mouth and he inhales deeply. He blinks a few times before narrowing his eyes slightly.

"Okay, I'm a little slow when it comes to stuff like that, so maybe you should spell it out for me," he admits and I repress the urge to laugh.

"K...I...S...S...M...E," I say as I stare at his mouth. I lean over the center console and he moves in faster than I expect. He hesitates once he's a few inches away from my face. His eyes look from mine to my mouth before he closes the space between us. My heart is pounding in my chest as his lips move against mine. I think I'm doing this right. I hope I'm doing this right. My arm goes around his neck and he tries to pull me closer to him. I decide to take a leap of faith and climb over the center console. He breaks away from the kiss to stare at me.

"Oh my," he whispers when he realizes I'm sitting on his lap. He swallows again and I purse my lips.

"Too much?" I ask, gasping a little as his free hand grips my hips tightly.

"Not at all," he replies. He tries to kiss me again but I stop him. I take his half finished ice cream from him and open the door. In a second, they're on the ground and I'm on top of him. Both of his hands are on my waist, pressing me flush against him, and I'm kissing him as hard as I can. I only break away to breathe and his mouth trails down to my neck. I tilt my head back as I let him kiss my chest.

"Your heart is beating so fast."

"Don't stop." He continues to kiss on my neck, only stopping a few minutes later. I look down at him and search his face for a reason.

"Okay, I think we should stop," he insists and I don't bother asking why. I can feel why. I hurriedly get off of him and he adjusts his seat. After letting out a long breath, he puts his head on the steering wheel and closes his eyes. I sit and wait to speak.

"So, uh, how was it?" I finally regain my ability to control my breathing. He nods from his position on the steering wheel.

"Great, you're a pro," he tells me in a quick breath. "Are you sure you haven't done that before?"

"It was just pent up energy." He nods again before he sits up.

"Are you okay?" I ask nervously and he bobs his head up and down. It seems as though that's the only thing he can do.

"Let's get going," he says after a minute of us just sitting there. He buckles his seatbelt and I match his actions. We sit in an awkward silence as we drive back to the school. Once we reach the university campus, I decide to speak.

"The ice cream was good," I blurt, feeling the need to say something to distract myself from the embarrassment of practically attacking him.

"I'm glad you liked it." It gets quiet again until we pull up to the front of my dorm.

"I'm sorry if it was too much," I apologize abruptly. "I kind of got a little carried away."

"No, it was fine. You're fine, I promise. I just wasn't expecting all of that to happen so I was a little taken back afterwards. But it was good. It was fun. It was nice," he rambles.

"Okay..." I look at him and he leans over and briefly kisses me. It's just a peck but it lets me know that he isn't mad.

"I'll text you later," he assures me so I nod. I get out of the car and walk to the entrance of my building. He idles until I reach the door. I glance over and he rolls down the passenger side window and waves at me. I wave back before slipping inside.

I did not expect things to go like that.