Addiction

--1--How it All Started--

"So you and Lila broke up?" I asked as we sat on outdoor couches by the fire pits by the student center.

We had managed to sit down on opposite ends of the seat, a good foot and a half away from each other. To say I was screaming inside my head would've been an understatement. I was absolutely freaking out. Things like this didn't happen to me, ever. I had one boyfriend in high school, we dated when I was seventeen my junior year but it was really nothing, sure he had asked me out and was cute but he was also quiet and I figured out pretty quick he was sort of weird and not in a good way. Hot twenty-three old hockey players didn't look at me twice. I didn't want to screw up any miniscule chance that I might have to be something with Liam freaking Simpson.

"Yep," he said, "I'm not lying."

"Okay," I said, "So why aren't you at the party drinking?"

"Because that's not going to fix anything," he replied, "I did that last weekend and I just felt like crap because I had a hangover and found out she slept with another guy."

"Ouch," I winced, "That hurts."

"It hurts pretty bad," he said, "So I figured the best way to get back at her is to do what I'd do if I'd never met her."

"This is getting deep," I laughed awkwardly, my hands fumbling around on my lap and tugging at the hem of my t-shirt.

"I thought you were a deep conversation kind of girl?" he asked, cracking a smile, his stupid green eyes glimmering in the glow of the fire in front of us.

"I am, I just didn't think you were a deep conversation kind of guy," I replied.

"Well you learn something new every day," he said.

"Apparently," I laughed.

"What's your favorite color?" he asked after a minute of terribly awkward silence.

"What?" I laughed.

"I asked what your favorite color is," he replied, his emerald green eyes staring into mine, making my brain turn to mush.

"Yellow," I replied, "You?"

"Blue," he replied, "Why yellow?"

"I don't know," I laughed.

"Seriously, why?" he asked.

"It's a happy color," I said, "It reminds me of summer and daffodils and sunflowers. Why blue?"

"I'd rather not go into that right now," he replied, laughing nervously before shooting me a sly grin, as if the answer to that question meant letting his guard down and he needed to save face with the grin at the end.

"So I'm the only one who has to answer these questions?" I asked.

"Yes," he replied.

"Sounds fair," I replied sarcastically.

"Fine, you can ask me a question and I might answer," he replied.

"Why me?" I asked after a moment of thought.

"What?" he laughed.

"Why me? Why choose me out of all the girls here who'd go out with you in a heartbeat?" I asked.

"Because you don't throw yourself at me," he said, "And you're obviously not easy."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I laughed.

"You're hard to get, or at least that's how it seems. You don't have a boyfriend, I've followed you on Instagram for a year, never seen anything with a guy, you didn't look like you cared at the party back there when I tried to talk to you," he laughed, "I guess I want a challenge. When you're a cocky freshman it's nice to have girls throwing themselves at you but it gets old quick, plus, we go to a pretty small school so I kind of usually know at least three people most girls who are trying to get me in their pants have hooked up with already."