The Dating Game

SIX

"Do you have a game today or something?" I ask Chase as we start walking to my house together.

He offers me an exasperated smirk with a nod of his head. "Might be my last."

"How? Doesn't the season end in, like, February?"

"Somewhere around then. But Coach got on my ass at practice yesterday when I showed up late. Not to mention all the gossip going around because of me."

I raise my brows in agreement at that.

"Why do you ask?" His voice delivers the question low and what he believes to be charming. "Were you planning on stopping by to watch?"

"In your dreams."

"By the way, why did you do that today?" Chase asks after a minute of silence, completely ruining the bliss I was feeling after the awkward energy had completely left us.

"Do what?" I ask, pretending to not know what he's talking about. I know exactly what he's talking about and I know the last thing I want is to explain myself to him. He should know why I did it.

"You kissed me. Like, really kissed me."

Yep, I know. Please stop reminding me.

"You said I was boring," I give him a lame excuse. I can't exactly say I kissed you as a way to stand up for myself—it doesn't make much sense without the context.

"I was proving to you that I'm not."

He frowns skeptically beside me. "But you said you wanted to take it slow."

"So you complain for days that I won't kiss you, and when I finally do, you won't stop questioning me about it?" Changing the subject seems like the right thing to do here.

"Hey, I didn't say I didn't appreciate it-"

"You know, you should really stop underestimating me, Matthews. There's a lot more to me than you think."

"Oh, is there?" His voice rumbles to my side as he tugs my hand toward him, making me lunge his way. He catches me by the arm and pulls me close to him, positioned well for a ballroom dance, if it were to come up right now. "Why don't you show me?"

I laugh directly into his face at his audacity. You kiss a guy one time and suddenly they think you'll give all of yourself to them. Ridiculous.

"You don't just get to see all sides of me at once, big boy."

His face stiffens for a moment before he eggs me on further. "Some day."

I roll my eyes and start walking off toward my house without my hand latched to his.

"Hey! Wait up!" he calls out. Yeah, I'm not waiting up.

He finally meets back up with me when I get to my front door, my hand hovering over the doorknob.

"Michelle," he says, pulling me into a hug before I get the chance to open my door.

"What?" I ask, clearly annoyed.

"Keep kissing me like that. Maybe then I'll enjoy this game."

My system freezes and I register his words, realizing he may have just admitted that I'm a good kisser. It wouldn't surprise me if it were anyone else, considering I know what level I'm at in most things, but coming from Chase Matthews—the man who has probably kissed more people than he can count—it's kind of a huge compliment.

But with that same logic, he's probably just saying that to get me to kiss him some more. What a classic teenage boy.

"Whatever," I wave him off and open the door.