[fifteen]

Lillianah's POV

After a few moments of just starring at each other, he headed back into the locker room. I gasped for air as soon as the door shut. Did I honestly just hold my breath that whole time? It wasn't as bad as I expected it to be seeing him face to face, but my legs felt like I had just ran a marathon. They felt like jello. I sat down on a chair down the hall from the locker room and waited patiently for him. Fifteen minutes later he walked out with scruffy hair that was still a little bit wet and evidence that he hadn't shaved in a couple of days. "Know of a good place we could go to around here?" I thought about it for a minute, I have never really gone out in Philadelphia, sure I grew up there, but I moved away when I was eighteen, I really didn't know. "Not really," I laughed a little bit embarrassed. "Okay, well there's a bar at my hotel, want to go there?" Bar in a hotel? Dare I? "Sure." We headed out of the arena in silence and Max called for a cab. 

I had been thinking about what I wanted to tell him. Inform him on what he was doing to me, but when we sat down in a booth at the swanky downtown bar we both avoided each other and just starred at our drinks. There was a sudden riot going on over at the bar and I looked over only to see the guys Max was usually with at the club. His teammates. One of them looked over at me, eyelashes, and quickly ushered the others out of the bar. "I, uh . . . thank you for coming to the game," he finally spoke up and my eyes went back to my drink. "Thanks for the tickets, my mom and sister really enjoyed it. They wanted me to thank you." "Oh tell them it was my pleasure." I looked up at him into his eyes, and for once I could breath, for once I felt at peace. The corner of his mouth curled up like it wanted to form a smile, then it quickly faded. "Lil, about the other night . . ." "Sor-" "I'm sorry." "-ry." Why was he sorry? I'm the one that's sorry. We both started to talk again, but I stopped allowing him to continue. "Lil, I like you. It took me a long time to try and figure out how to tell you, but that's the best way. I really like you, and I think I stopped the other night because I didn't want to screw up." "Max, I like you too. That's why I ran. I can't believe I'm about to tell you all of this, but you need to know." I took a deep breath, took a quick swig of my electric ice tea and looked up at him. "I've never had a real boyfriend, ever. I don't know how that works, that's why I got scared. I started having these weird feelings thinking about you, and then they would intensify when I would see you and I'm not use to that. I'm not use to having feelings period. I'm not a weird person, I've just never been attached to a person before." I looked back down at my drink and after a few seconds of awkward silence I looked back up at him. He was smiling.

The pain was in the pit of my stomach, I couldn't control it. I couldn't stop laughing. The stories he was telling me of him and his older brother growing up were typical boy stories, but just about ten times worse. He was a devil child growing up, and he learned it all from his brother. "We didn't get an allowance for two years to cover the cost of all the chickens she lost!" "What did you do with the chickens?" "We set them free!" We both continued to laugh and continued to drink. For once things between Max and I felt normal. I saw him as a human being with feelings, not as a man I wanted to take advantage of. I saw him as a guy I wanted to spend as much time with as possible. "Alright, I'll be right back I'm going to the bathroom," I smiled and as I stood up I lost my balance a little bit. I was drunker than I thought. That's why I never drink while I'm sitting down. In the bathroom I glanced at a clock and for a minute I thought it said 1:30, but there was no way it was that late. I looked again and my eyes didn't lie, it was going to be hell trying to get a cab. I walked back out and slid back into the booth where my glass magically filled back up, his did too. "It's getting late, I'll have this one last drink, but I should really call a cab." "Don't bother with a cab, I lucked out and got my own room here tonight, you can stay. I promise I won't try anything and if we're as drunk as I think we are, we can always have the bellhop take us to the room." I couldn't help but laugh, I just had this image of him and I being rolled up to his room by a bellhop. I nodded my head, "okay."

We were definitely drunk, but it was a good drunk. We weren't stumbling over our feet nor slurring our words. We were feeling good. He opened his hotel door for me and I walked in to find two queen beds. A little bit of me was disappointed, but the rest of me was relieved. I set my purse down on one bed and took my jacket off, lying it over my purse. "Umm, here you can wear these for pajama's," he smiled handed me a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt. "Thank you," I smiled and took them with me into the bathroom. I washed all of my makeup off, pulled my hair up into a bun and changed into his clothes. I walked out, having to hold the sweatpants by the band so that they wouldn't fall to my ankles. He was already changed and walked passed me into the bathroom to take his contacts out. I sat on the edge of the bed and watched him as he walked back out and took his watch off, setting it next to the TV. He turned around and looked at me, just a few steps from me. I stood up, approached him and placed my hand on the side of his face. He tilted his head a bit, putting pressure on my hand and I leaned up and kissed him. I felt him sucking on my bottom lip and it sent electric shocks through my body. I brought my other hand up and placed it on the other side of his face. I could feel the sweatpants slowly starting to creep down my hips but I didn't care. I kissed him a little bit harder then pulled away, pressing my forehead against his. "You have to work with me Max, give me time to adjust to everything." "I will." We both smiled. I reached down and grabbed onto the sweatpants before climbing into the bed. I watched as he climbed into the other bed. "Goodnight," he whispered before turning the light off. "Night."

Max's POV

"You are going to stand right in front of her, but don't seem intimidating, come off as gentle. And you're going to tell her these words," Flower started poking his finger in my shoulder. The pause was a little too long and I looked at him to continue. "I'm just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her." I rolled my eyes and started to walk away as the whole locker room erupted into laughter. I turned back around to look at everyone, "hey can anyone adopt Geno tonight? Just in case I bring her back to the room." "Already taken care of Maxime. I sleep with Staalsy tonight," Geno explained before he started to push me toward the doors. I took a deep breath and walked out to see her sitting in a chair. She was a knock out, I looked into her green eyes and smiled.

Was I scared? No, I was terrified. I couldn't bring myself to look at her, my eyes were glued to my drink. Then my eyes shot up to the bar. I was ready to get up and head over to them and stab each of them in the throat with a fork. When Flower saw how pissed off I looked he immediately rounded up the gang and headed out. That must have been the ice breaker because after that I thanked her for coming to the game. I was very lucky for her to show up. "Lil, about the other night . . ." "Sor-" "I'm sorry." "-ry." Why was she sorry? That made no sense. I didn't tell her how she made me feel, but atleast I told her that I liked her. I told her that I really like her. I looked into her eyes and couldn't tell what she was thinking. "I've never had a real boyfriend, ever." This shocked me, she was beautiful, with a feisty personality who wouldn't want to date her? Then things started linking together, maybe it was her, maybe she had a commitment phobia. Would I be able to help her out with that?

We were both drunk, and both very happy. I pulled some clothes out of my suitcase for her and was happy to see Geno had already taken his things out of the room. It would have been a mood killer to walk in on his naked ass in bed. She came out of the bathroom looking so fresh. I didn't think it was possible, but she was even more beautiful with no makeup on, and her hair pulled out of her face. Her green eyes were shining in the minimal light we had in the room, everything about her looked amazing. I headed into the bathroom, splashed some water on my face and took my contacts out. When I walked out she was sitting on the edge of the bed watching me. I turned around to face her and she got up and walked up to me. She placed her hand on the side of my face and immediately I pushed my face into her palm. Wanting to feel her as much as I possible could. It felt like I would lose my life if she took her hand away. I pushed into it and her lips met mine. Once again my legs went weak and I could hear the subtle whispers of Diana Ross crooning into my ears. She deepened the kiss and I wanted to continue but when she pulled away I held myself back. "You have to work with me Max, give me time to adjust to everything." I wanted so badly to lift her up into my arms and kiss her again, but I didn't. She was giving me a chance, she was taking a chance on me. I knew it was going to be a good night.