15

Hypothesis; in this game, it's tame or get tamed.

Ali had forgotten to text me. So I'd texted her instead. After a few freaked out apology texts from her, she'd finally told me her room number and I'd headed here with the box of pretzels which we were currently eating while watching the brand new season of stranger things.

The door swinging open had both our attentions snapping up to it. Ali had a pretzel up to her mouth and I was in between two chews. Her roommate threw us a pitying look, shutting the door behind her.

The first thing I noticed about her was her hair. It was black and shiny and had bangs that touched her eyebrows. She was obviously taller than both Ali and I, she looked older as well. Adjusting her books in her hand and her bag's strap on her shoulder, she headed to her bed. Her small lips stretched into a small smile on sighting Ali.

"While others are partying hard at Jase Terrysson's place, you dragged this poor girl into your sad lonely life," she said to Ali, motioning towards me with her hand.

Ali, took a hard bite of her pretzel. "Screw you, Manu." Her voice was muffled by the pretzel being tortured by her mouth.

The roommate, Manu, laughed at her expense, dropping her bag onto her bed and walking to us—or to me. She leaned down to steal a pretzel from the box, causing Ali to glare at her. Ignoring her, she smiled warmly at me. "Hi, I'm Manu Shabra. I'm her roommate."

Ali stuck out her tongue when Manu pointed at her but I returned the smile. "Noah Bennett. Nice to meet you."

"You too," Manu replied with a smile. Sitting cross-legged next to us, she took a bite of her pretzel.

"Are you done with your architecture project?" asked Ali.

She huffed in reply and pursed her lips. "Nope. I'd go into more detail but I don't want to bore Noah with sophomore architecture stuff."

My eyebrows shot up. But before I could stare how I wasn't bothered by it, Ali cut in with a sharp nod. "Why should we talk about architecture when our dear Noah just received another text from Daniel Brighton."

How did she know that?

Like a psychic, as soon as I thought the question, she shrugged and pointed to my lit phone between us. I snatched it up and stared at the message from Daniel.

From: Assface

I can't sleep. What are you doing?

"If you don't want me reading the text that's literally in front of me, reset your display so your phone isn't lighting up every two seconds." I looked up at Ali who had spoken, ready to defend my cause but Manu cut me off.

"Wait a minute," she said, her eyes widening by the second. She gasped. "You're the Noah Bennett? The one that Daniel never takes his eyes off during his recent games?" She gasped again. This time, more dramatically. "I thought you were taller."

My expression dropped. In my defense, the average 'tall girl' was around five foot two, and I was five foot three. So sucks for the people who were talking about me behind my back.

Second; There were people talking about me behind my back!

I wanted to pass out.

"Er," I began with a nervous smile. "How do you know me exactly?"

Manu snorted, pushing her bangs out of her eyes. "Pfft. Everyone knows you. It's almost been a year since Daniel showed such interest in a girl. Plus, the entire school would know about the girl who has a high chance of taming him."

It was almost as if everyone had this view of Daniel as the big bad wolf. The steal-your-heart-and-run-away guy. The man your mother would warn you against.

The bad boy.

But ever since I'd gotten to know him even to a little extent, he'd proven to be the exact opposite. Daniel did not like parties, he decided to personally deliver my coffee because he felt guilty about the bartender brunette accident, and as far as I knew, he didn't always have girls hanging off his muscular shoulders.

Daniel was sweet, and kind, and though he could be annoying sometimes he was—

Oh for the love of flip flops.

These were the signs. Seeing him differently from others, constantly texting him and wondering if everything was fine when he didn't reply, smiling whenever he pouted.

He was growing on me.

I'd swear out loud, but it wasn't convenient right now. I did however ask, "why do you think he has to be tamed?"

Manu's jaw dropped dramatically. "You can't be serious. That guy goes through women like Ali goes through historical novels!"

Beside me, Ali dropped an exclamation in protest. "Hey! Don't use me as the comparison."

I bit my lip. "You do go through historical novels pretty fast, Ali."

The girl rolled her eyes. In the background, one of the characters screamed and Manu still had her pointed gaze on me.

Okay, maybe I hadn't really tested the body count part properly. But I was going to. All I needed to do was rephrase the question, "How many women have you deflowered and left heartbroken, you devilishly hot heartbreaker!".

I sighed. "I don't think I'll be the one to tame him though." Lifting my hands, I made air quotes around the word, 'tame'.

Manu grinned. "You're well on your way to doing so," she said but dropped her smile into a cringe in the next second. "Just don't drop your panties when he makes a move and you'll be A-okay."

Snorting at the thumbs up she was giving me, I rewrapped my fallen braids back into a bun.

I was not dropping my panties for him so easily, he still had a long way to go before I even considered that. Plus, I doubted Chanelle would find it funny if I slept with her ex. It would only mean he'd once again outsmarted her and her plan had foiled.

That was not going to happen.

After all, Daniel and I were friends. Doing anything with him would tarnish that. As much as I hated his guts, I had to admit I liked his company. The plan was to make him fall for me. It'd hurt him when I broke his heart, so why risk breaking mine as well?

On Monday, when Daniel showed up with two cups of freshly prepared coffee before my first class, what Manu said replayed in my head.

Everyone wants to know the girl who has a high chance of taming him.

Maybe it was exaggerated, but if she meant I'd be the one to teach Daniel not to be such a—

"Hi," said Daniel in a cheery voice. He gave me a one over and burst into the widest smile I'd ever encountered. I frowned deeply.

If you're wondering what the heck was going on, I'll start by saying I went too easy on him with picking his outfit. The pink jeans and pink leather jacket didn't look too bad on him—even though the jacket looked a size too small and I probably overdid it with the pink shirt inside. Infact, he looked like an adorable bunny with his hair held up in high pigtails.

And me?

I was forced to go punk. Literally.

The skull on Carol's black ripped t-shirt looked like it was about to jump out and wreak havoc. And I wasn't a ripped jeans kind of girl, but somehow, Daniel had made we wear a pair. Not to mention that Carol had gone overboard with the hardcore makeup she'd plastered all over my face. I'd almost fainted after looking at my reflection this morning.

"This is your fault, asshole," I huffed, briskly collecting my coffee from him and taking a long loud sip.

Daniel grinned. "I think you look great. It really brought out your inner personality."

"Oh really. What part of my eyeliner says determined and coordinated?"

His curious glinting gaze shifted to the sharp line that Carol had drawn from my eyes to almost touch my hairline and he had the gall to chuckle.

"I was going for hard headed and stubborn but I guess I can't really change the way you see yourself, can I?"

With my frown still intact, I flipped him off. He found it amusing and in turn it made me more furious. Was I supposed to be dropping my panties for that attitude? Ha! No effing way.

Without saying goodbye, I turned on my heel and began walking away from Daniel. I had like fifteen minutes to spare before I'd be deemed late.

"Noah, wait!" Daniel called behind me.

I halted just as his hand wrapped around my wrist. As I spun around to face him, my gaze latched on his hand wrapped around mine.

Despite how much I tried to fight it, electricity cracked there. It quickly rushed to my heart, making it beat five times faster than it did three seconds ago. I didn't rip my hand away though. I decided to ignore the tingle. If I didn't focus on it, the burn would die. Hopefully.

My gaze found his instead. "What?"

He let go of me sharply and balled both his hands into fists, biting down on his lip. "Asher's birthday is coming up in two days, and I thought I could ask for your help to plan something for him. He's not really a celebratory kind of person so it'd just be me, the guys, and you." He paused to search my soul, voice deepening. "If you want to, that is."

For some unknown reason, I found it cute and welcoming that he'd include me in planning something like this. It totally went against the bad boy code—if there was such a thing—for him to even plan something for Asher. A typical bad boy would take their friend out to a party. Get wasted and laid, not endure the stress of planning something from scratch.

So with a smile and holding on to my coffee, I said, "sure, why not."

The second I'd said the words, Daniel's arms were around me. And even though he was squeezing my midsection way too tight and I was this close to tainting his pink shirt with chocolate coffee, I liked it.

This was the first time I was this close to him and the first time I got to inhale his scent; Butterscotch and caffeine. And as I put my nose closer to his jaw, I caught a whiff of shaving cream.

Asides the fact that I was probably assaulting him with my nose, the electricity had quadrupled. I could positively say I was on fire. Part of me wondered if he could feel it too, if this was supposed to be normal. But I was stiff and my brain had short-circuited in the five seconds the hug lasted.

He pulled away with a grin. "Don't bring your car to school tomorrow. I'll come pick you up after classes and take you to my apartment to set up."

Before I could even open my mouth to drop an opinion, Daniel was already thanking me and hurrying away. He left me there with my jaw on the ground and my heart racing.