Subconsciously, I licked my lips. People cast us weird looks as they walked by, probably wondering why we couldn't do this elsewhere. Meanwhile, my heart hammered away in my chest. I could feel Daniel's chest rising and falling with each breath he took. And when my eyes caught his, I held my breath again.

"How was your game on Friday?" I asked him.

He clicked his tongue and exhaled. "Not very good. We drew for the first time in this season and Asher had to be subbed."

My gaze narrowed slightly up at him. "Why? What happened?"

"Don't worry, it's a Natasher thing." When my brows furrowed in confusion, he elaborated with a chuckle. "The entire team ships them."

I couldn't help but smile. So Asher and Natalie were also going through a situationship. How convenient.

"And what about you? I heard you were distracted through the game."

"I wasn't in the best place." Daniel peered down at me so intensely, that I felt my sanity get swallowed by his essence. "And you weren't there. I looked everywhere for you."

I bit down on my lip. I probably shouldn't have been so happy that he searched for me but I was. This was supposed to be forbidden. This thing between us. It was so right, it became wrong.

"Well, you kind of freaked me out two days before so—"

Daniel interrupted me with a laugh that reverberated from his chest to mine. "Let's focus on the good things that came out of it. Like Saturday and right now."

Yes. This was good.

He ran his thumb over the side of my face and pursed his lips. "What are you doing tonight?"

I furrowed my brows at him. I was supposed to add the final touches to my painting of Dad but that could wait. infact, it was pretty much ready.  I had about six days left with Daniel so I wanted to make the best out of them.

"Nothing. Why?"

"Would you like to come over and watch a movie?" He grinned.

Seeing how cute he was just made my heart clench and the burning desire to kiss his waxed hot in my veins. I bit down harder on my lip.

Not mine.

"Sure." Even if it was going to kill me.

A glimmer passed Daniel's eyes and that grin widened. "Let's go then."

My eyes went wide. "Wha—Right now?"

His grin morphed into a pout and he stepped back but still held on to my hand. "You're right. You're staying over so you'd probably need a change of clothes for classes tomorrow. But you could just throw on one of mine. They probably won't fit, but I'm sure you'd look pretty either way." God. He was so cute when he rambled like that.

"I don't have classes till ten tomorrow, so I'd probably just hurry back to the hostel."

"Great! I'll drop you off before practice. Maybe even get you some of that liquid sorrow you drink."

The laugh that left my lips was soft, nothing like the monster it usually was. It almost startled me.

"But Ali and Manu. I can't just leave them."

Honestly, I didn't think they'd mind. The two of them seemed eager for the both of us to date and if it was left to them, we'd probably get married. However, leaving without telling them would come off as rude.

Before I could protest further, Daniel was already tugging me back into the library. "Let me handle that."

And he did.

Like I'd expected, Manu and Ali weren't opposed to the idea of Daniel and I alone in his apartment. Their minds were probably reeling with scenarios.

As soon as Daniel was done excising the both of us, I took my bag out of his hands and slug it over my shoulder. No way was I letting him carry my bag like I was disabled or something.

He just gave me a look and began tugging me outside again. When I looked over my shoulder, I caught Ali and Manu waggling their brows at me.

"Details later," Manu mouthed towards me while Ali smirked beside her.

I faced forward, heart pounding, realization washing over me. I was going to be in a room. With Daniel. Behind closed doors. Probably in the dark.

Scenes like this always went one way, and my rogue mind was anticipating every moment.

~

The apartment was evidently different from the last time I'd been here. For one thing, it was way more organized and there weren't any raging basketball players around. The atmosphere was cool and the room was dark.

Daniel flipped on the light switch and the place was flooded with light. The modern themed room was brought to life instantly.

I closed the door behind me and set my bag down on the couch.

Daniel walked to me, loosening his pigtails and running his fingers through the soft curls. I wanted to do that.

I averted my gaze to the huge TV on the wall.

Majority of Furman's students came from money so it was easy to explain the lush furniture and decoration Daniel had in his apartment. Though they weren't too extravagant. The entire place looked cozy and anywhere I looked, I saw a piece of Daniel. Like the trophy case in the corner.

"I'll quickly go grab some blankets and pop the popcorn in the microwave," Daniel said. When had he taken off his shirt? Holy fried mackerels. "You could turn on the TV and make yourself comfortable."

I simply nodded and tried not to overthink the KitKat bar he was carrying around. For the love of all things good, why did he have to be so perfect?

Shooting me a smile, he jogged away to his room. I turned on the TV to find it already connected to Netflix. As I settled down on the couch opposite the tv, I fought to remove the shirtless image of Daniel from my mind.

Just when I was about to win the battle, I heard his voice and I was back to square one.

"Are you hungry?" He materialized with two slices of cake on separate plates and a bounce in his step.

Also, he'd changed. And by changed I meant into shorts and no shirts. So that took me from square one to square zero. This attraction was doubling by the minute.

I cleared my throat but it was still hoarse when I spoke and my eyes were on every other part of Daniel except his face. In more literal terms, I was gaping at his bare chest. "Yeah. Yeah. Cake's good."

Once he noticed my struggle, he reveled in it. A smirk popped onto his lips after he dropped the plates on the table before me. "Juice or water."

You. "Water," I said instead. "We could have the juice during the movie."

Winking, he disappeared into the kitchen, giving me a few seconds to recollect myself. At this rate, I wouldn't make it through this sleepover.

A hand was to my chest when I heard Daniel call from the kitchen. "I'm picking the movie."

I snorted. "Fuck no."

He came out with two bottles of water. "If your taste in movies is anything like your taste in novels, I'd be suffering a nosebleed by tomorrow morning."

"You'd just have to deal with it." I huffed and snatched up the remote from the table. "Out of the kindness of my heart, I'll give you a choice. The in-between or To all the boys I've ever loved?"

Daniel pouted but didn't complain. And a few minutes later, we had two large bowls of popcorn and the plans for six hours of movies laid out before us. I'd caved on the movie choosing though and he used one choice I gave him to add Pikachu to our movie list.

He surprised me in many ways. Hardcore basketball players like him were supposed to be into horror or stuff like that. Not movies about a cute yellow pokemon with a lightning bolt for a tail.

While he was rebellious at first, about thirty minutes into The In-between, Daniel was entirely immersed in the movie. So immersed that I could easily check him out without getting caught.

At the end of the movie, his popcorn was finished and he'd encroached into mine. I'd let him. The sides of our thighs were pressed together and I could feel all the heat his body gave off.

"Well, I enjoyed that way more than I'm willing to admit," commented Daniel with a breathy chuckle.

"I knew you were a softie."

I didn't realize how close we were until he turned to look at me and our faces were just centimeters away from each other. I swallowed and forced a smile for him. Throughout the movie, I'd been distracted by him. It was a good thing I'd seen this one before.

Daniel's breathing slowed. I noticed. With a nervous chuckle, I leaned away and got up. "I should probably change into something more comfortable."

He shook his head seemingly out of a reverie. "Right. Just head down the hall to my room. I have a clean shirt on the bed and a spare toothbrush in the bathroom. You could change there. I'll make more popcorn."

"Okay."

As soon as I turned away from him, I slapped my hands to the side of my face and scurried to his room. Just as he'd said, he had a clean tee and a pair of shorts on the bed.

The room was like the rest of his apartment. A neat bed sat against the far wall and to the right, the bathroom door stood. There was a rack of basketballs in one end of the room and a closet in the other.

I stepped in and hurried to take a quick shower before brushing my teeth. In the process, I took note of his hair products of course. Finally, I threw on his shirt and shorts, wrapping my braids up into a bun. I made a mental note to wash and rebraid my hair this week before stepping out of the room and going to meet Daniel in the living room.

The intro scenes of Pikachu were already rolling when I got there. Daniel, with his lower lip tucked into his mouth had his full attention on the screen.

I placed a hand on my waist and leaned to the side. "You suck, you know?" He faced me and I narrowed my eyes at him. "You started the movie without me."

A silence settled between us first, his gaze drinking in my appearance. I quickly folded my arms over my chest. I had no underwear on, Daniel hadn't let me hurry to the hostel so there was that. And if he kept looking at me that way, I'd probably jump him.

I licked my lips and went to sit beside him, bunching up his oversized shorts before my behind met the couch.

"My clothes look better on you," he said, eyes bleary.

He was bluffing. The shirt was at least two sizes too big and reached all the way to my mid thigh and don't get me started on the shorts. If not for the fact that they had ropes, lord knows they'd be at my ankles by now.

Ignoring, his compliment, I turned to the tv. "Shouldn't you be watching more basketball player stuff?"

He snorted. "You clearly know nothing about sports."

I shifted my gaze to him. "Of course I do. When I was little, my dad and I used to—" my words caught in my throat. It was like a reflex whenever mt dad came up.

I felt Daniel's hands under my chin before I recovered from the brain blackout.