|| well, hello there hot stuff ^|| 

"Piper? Your phone has been ringing for the past three minutes, dear!" I hear Mrs. H calling from the house, and I stretch as I sweep myself out of the hammock. 

I turn back to Nolan who is stretched out on the hammock like a fat cat in the sun. 

"You coming?" I ask. 

"Go ahead, I'll be there soon." He mumbles, throwing his arm over his eyes. 

"Yeah right, fatass." 

"You know you love my ass." 

I roll my eyes and chuckle as I make my way to the back screen door, where Mrs. H is standing, holding my ringing phone out to me with a kind smile. 

"Thanks, Mrs. H." I smile at her and gently take the phone from her hand, looking down at the caller ID. I frown slightly, not recognizing it. But I accept it, settling down into a deck chair and placing the phone to my ear. 

"Hello?" I ask into the phone. 

"Hi, Piper, um, this is Mike." 

"Oh," I pause, sitting up a little straighter. A little flutter hits my stomach that is completely foreign to me. 

The first thought (and the automatic one) that comes to my mind is that this is some sort of elaborate prank. But why would it? Mike was the one who drove me home from the party, and was nice to me at lunch and in the hallway. 

But just to be safe, I make a mental note to choose my words carefully. Who knows, he might have the phone on speaker. 

"Hi, how did you get my number?" I ask slowly, selecting each word slowly. 

"A friend of a friend of a friend. It's kind of a long story. Anyway, you haven't been at school lately and the english project is due in two weeks. I was wondering if I could swing by today after practice so we could work on it?" 

Holy crap holy crap holy crap. 

Inhale. 

Exhale. 

Okay, I'm good. 

"Um, I've been staying at Nolan's for the past few days-" Quick think of a reasonable explanation. "My folks are out of town." 

"At Nolan's? His mom's chill with that?" There's a twinge in his voice that I can't place but I ignore it. 

"Yeah, family friends, the whole spiel." I ramble, twisting my ring around my finger out of force of habit. 

"Alright, so can I come by, say at six? We can start to plan for the project." 

"Sure, see you then, oh and Mike?"

"Yeah?" 

"Could you please grab any english notes that I missed over the past few days?" 

"Sure thing, see you at six." 

Click. And he's gone. 

What the heck just happened? 

Calm down, Piper. This isn't some cliche romance where the fancy ass football player sashays into the room with the glow of a thousand suns and grabs the girl of his dreams that he just noticed after she put on a little mascara and discovered Victoria's Secret. 

"Piper?" I look up to see the sun has been blocked by Nolan's body above me, and I stand up from the chair quickly. 

"Oh, yeah, what's up?" I mumble, running a hand through my hair. 

"Who was on the phone?"

"Mike, he's coming over late to work on the english project."

A deep frown settles on Nolan's face and I step back slightly. What the hell?

"What?" I ask him, settling a hand on his shoulder. 

"Huh? Nothing just..." He trails off, gazing at something in the distance over my shoulder. 

"Nolan-?" I start.

"It's getting hot, let's go back up to my room." He says suddenly, grabbing my hand and leading me quickly up the stairs. 

"Nolan, what the hell?" I ask, annoyed. He is practically dragging me like a rag doll. "I am not a doll and you are not some giant toddler, even though you're really acting like one!" 

He still doesn't respond, only slamming the door behind him and pacing back and forth. 

"Nolan Howard, answer me right fucking now I swear to god-"

But he freezes, stopping mid-pace and just stares at his feet. He blinks quickly for a few seconds, and he finally looks up at me. I have my eyes wide in confusion and my arms splayed out. 

"Earth to Nolan!" I wave my hand in front of his face. 

"Sorry," He shakes his head, his head whipping back and forth messily before he exhales. "Sorry, I must have been in the sun too long, my head is killing me."

"Ya think?!" I sigh, flopping down on his bed in annoyance. "Seriously, I think you may have been dropped on your head recently, or gotten in a bad tackle-" 

"Fuck." He slumps down in his lounge chair, his forehead in his hands. 

"What?" 

"I've missed two practices, coach is gonna have my ass." He groans. He grabs his phone from off the desk and leaves the room, presumably to call Coach Rodgers. 

I just sit on his bed, and decide to flip through my Facebook. While scrolling, I come upon one of those "who to follow" pages. And it's Mike. 

He's cute, his profile picture showing him with his tan skin and bright teeth smiling next to a toddler. Probably a little sibling. 

My thumb hovers over the "friend" button, wavering for a moment. 

To friend or not to friend, that's the real question. 

Oh what the hell, I press my thumb down and quickly exit the app, as if he can see me staring at his pretty boy green eyes. 

Nolan returns to the room with a slightly pissed off look on his face, and he throws himself down, yet again, into his lounge chair.

"Not good, huh?" I ask. 

"Not great, Coach is pissed and wants me to do a private practice at five to seven. It won't be terrible."

"Oh, that's not too bad. I'll hold down the fort while you're gone." 

"I told him I couldn't go."

"What?" I ask, shocked. "Why?"

"Mike is coming over at six, and I don't know how I feel about him alone here...with you." 

Huh?

"Nolan, I'm not seven and last time I checked, your sperm did not create me so don't start acting like my dad." I snap sassily, crossing my arms over my chest. 

"I'm just looking out for you, Piper." He says with a finality in his tone, as if he's a parent and 'this is the last word I want to hear on the matter'.

"So what, is 'english project' a new euphemism for Netflix and chill?"

"What do you think I was doing at Melissa's house every time I told my mom I was working on a 'school project'." He makes air quotes around the last phrase and raises his eyebrow in a 'duh' motion. 

"Well," I say with a frown. "I am not a 'man-hoe' like you, so I think I'll be fine." 

He just rolls his eyes. 

"Call coach back and tell him that you're going to that practice, you can't get kicked off the team." 

His face grows conflicted as he debates my words. Finally, he groans and grabs his phone once more.

"I'm gonna regret this." He mumbles to himself as he swiftly exits the room again. 

~

5:59 p.m. 

Stupid clock, making me all jittery and annoying. Nolan has been gone for an hour and I have been sitting in the front window seat for just as long waiting for Mike. I keep telling myself that this isn't a date. This isn't a date. This is simply a business exchange.

But the little girl in me is all butterflies and unicorn shit. 

I look over at the clock again, 6:02 p.m. 

He's late, he's not going to come. This was a prank. 

I get up from the window seat, readying myself to head back upstairs and sleep away my cares, when the doorbell rings. 

"AH!" I jump, nearly falling out of my skin. 

"Piper?" Mike's muffled voice calls through the door. "You okay?" 

"Yeah!" I call back as I check my teeth one last time in the hall mirror. 

One, two, three-

"Hi." I say as I swing open the door and step aside to let him in. He smiles brightly, stepping through the door frame. His hair is slightly damp and his t-shirt is slightly damp, but he doesn't smell like sweat. He probably showered after practice. 

I stand awkwardly in the foyer, looking down at the ring on my finger. 

"So, where do you want to work?" He asks.

"You've been here before, right?" I ask out of nowhere, and so freaking awkwardly. 

"Yeah." He laughs, the corners of his eyes crinkling as he does. Aw. 

"How about the den?" I ask, grabbing my backpack from the foyer and swinging it over my shoulder. 

"Lead the way." He gestures towards the door to the den, and I do just that, walking down the carpeted steps down to the "man cave" as Nolan and his dad called it. 

~

"Ugh, I don't understand this play." Mike groans as he throws his head back against the couch. 

We're sitting on the carpeted floor of the den, leaning against the large plush couch and we have our Romeo and Juliet scene script on our laps. 

"How? It's pretty straight forward." I laugh slightly, flipping through the pages again. 

"Okay, so first he's all like 'Oh Rosaline' I love you baby but you don't love me oh woe is me." Mike says dramatically, throwing a hand over his forehead in a highly exaggerated fashion. I giggle a little. He's actually quite funny. 

"But then he sees Juliet and BANG. He wants Juliet. I swear he has the attention span of a goldfish." 

"Mhm, seems like you two have something in common." I joke. 

"Hush, Juliet. We must learn-eth our lines-eth." He says in a mock British accent. 

"Fine, okay, your line first." I say, turning to face him. 

"If I profane with my unworthiest hand, this holy shrine, the gentle fine is this: my lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand to smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss." He says with sultry flare. 

"Damn, Romeo you sly dog." 

"Hush!" I say with a laugh, readying myself to say my line. 

"Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much, which mannerly devotion shows in this; for saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch, and palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss." I say with a light and flirty tone, trying to get into character. 

"Okay, they're about to make out and she's talking about pilgrims? Damn, Shakespeare had some weird kinks." He mutters. 

"Mike!" 

"Alright, alright." He says, looking for his next line.

"Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?"

"Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer."

"O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do; they pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to despair."

"Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake."

"Then move not, while my prayer's effect I take..." Mike trails off, looking from the script to me with a strange look. 

"And that's where we - they, kiss." He clears his throat. 

"Oh." I say softly, looking down at my hands. "I mean, we don't have to-"

"But it's in the script right, so..." He trails off again. 

"We could do one of those stage kisses." I say quickly, sitting up. 

"Stage kiss?" He asks.

"It's like," I move closer to him, facing him. "I put my hand on your cheek" and I do. "And I put my thumb on your lips." So I do. "And I just kiss my thumb instead." I can feel him looking down at me under his long long lashes, but I can't meet his gaze. My heart is beating way too fast. I lean forward and lightly kiss my thumb, and move away quickly.

"Like that." I say. Crap, I know I'm blushing. 

"Okay, we'll do that. I say the line again and do that 'stage kiss' thing." He clears his throat and looks down at his script. 

"Then move not, while my prayer's effect I take..." He says, and moves towards me, placing his warm hand on my cheek. He looks down at my lips for a moment. I am stock still. What the hell is happening right now? 

His thumb goes over my cheek and I hold back the urge to part my lips. I'm barely breathing. 

He moves towards me, and lightly kisses his thumb, moving away. 

I am probably a deep shade of red now, but thankfully the den lighting is forgiving.

"Then have my lips the sin that they have took." I say the next line. 

"Sin from thy lips? O trespass sweetly urged!" Mike suddenly moves closer to me, his voice going lower and almost to a whisper. "...Give me my sin again." 

His hand goes to my cheek again, and I wait for his thumb to go to my lips. But he just looks down at me for a moment. His thumb lightly brushes my bottom lip. 

"Give me my sin again." He repeats in a whisper, and moves his lips down to his thumb. But at the last moment, he moves his thumb away and kisses my lips instead. 

I am in shock. Oh my god, Mike kissed me. Wait, his lips are still there! And like the idiot I am, I kiss him back gently, hesitantly. His lips are soft and warm, and just...nice. He pulls away for a moment, his lips still a breath away from mine. 

"And then you have a line." He whispers against my lips. 

"Huh? Oh right." I mutter incoherently. "You kiss by the book." I whisper the line shakily. 

"And then that's when the nurse walks in." He says, but doesn't move away. 

"Yeah." 

Neither of us moves away, just staring at each other. My mind is reeling and I think this is what it must feel like to be high, and I feel like I'm floating. 

"We should probably do the scene again." I whisper. He nods but doesn't move away. He gets a glint in his eye that gives me goosebumps. 

"I think it went something like this." He mutters, and I gasp as his fingers curve around and into my hair and he pulls me to him, kissing me again. 

I respond gently, placing my hands on his chest. His hands don't move from my waist and hair, which I'm happy about. 

His lips move slightly against mine. All too soon he pulls away, and we both breath heavily. 

"Good rehearsal." He says huskily, moving away slightly but still keeping his hold on my waist. 

"Yeah, good." I repeat lamely. I probably have the dorkiest smile on right now. 

"Go on a date with me on Friday." He says suddenly, and I jump slightly. 

"Um, sure." I say automatically. Holy crap if my head doesn't stop spinning. He grins brightly, and he tucks a loose strand of hair away from my face. 

"It's a date, Juliet." He says, and I laugh lightly, and we go back to rehearsal, with only a few more interruptions. 

|| GOLLY GEE. This is a long and WOWZA chapter, please comment below what you think. I really love writing this story and I need YOUR help getting it off the ground! So if you're enjoying, please share it with your friends, family, pets, etc.||