"Okay Kennedy," I tell my reflection in the mirror. "You look fantastic, your hair is immaculate and you didn't put too much highlighter on, so relax,"

Jackie wanders through the open door to my room. "Why are you talking to yourself?"

I close my eyes and take a deep breath, feeling my stress levels rise as he takes a seat on my bed leisurely. "I'm trying to stop psyching myself out because I'm going to Dante's house."

He gasps. "Are you scared?"

I shrug, trying to find the words to explain my fears. "Not really scared but -,"

Tyler waltzes into my room with two pudding cups, one of which he hands to Jackie as he joins him on my bed. "Girl! Look at your legs!"

Suddenly self-conscious, I stare down at my legs and attempt to suppress the panic that begins to rise in my stomach. "What? What's wrong with my legs?"

He surveys my mini breakdown innocently as if his ass didn't cause it. "They look great,"

I release a long sigh. "Tyler!"

"What?" He puts a spoonful of his pudding in his mouth and looks at me expectantly. "What did I do this time?"

"You can't just – could you like, not?"

He peers at me as though I've grown another head. I don't understand why because I'm making perfect sense right now. "Why are you so stressed?"

It's as if he hasn't heard me panicking for the past four days about the fact Dante invited me to see his whole family. "His family, Tyler. I'm going to meet his mom."

Tyler shrugs. "No big deal, his mom's nice. Oh – and tell his brother that I'm gonna whoop his ass at basketball the next time he's in town."

I give him an exasperated stare as he turns to play with Jackie. "His mom won't like me,"

"Why won't she?"

Why won't she again?

I think back to what Stacy said – something about girl code. Apparently mothers don't like it when their sons get in relationships because they get too far away from them or some shit like that. Hell, I barely listen to anything Stacy says any more. It's always way too complicated and passively aggressively related to Wayne.

"She just won't," I settle for. He rolls his eyes and I do the same before he throws his empty pudding cup into my trash can.

"She's lovely though, she liked – never mind." He stands and stretches, looking kind of guilty. I narrow my eyes and lean against the wall.

"What were you going to say?"

He shrugs. "Nothing."

Before I can question him further, my cell phone rings, alerting me of Dante's presence. I scramble for my phone before composing myself and picking up.

"Hello?" I say, sounding way more relaxed than I feel right now. Maybe this skirt thing was a bad idea – but would they approve if I wore jeans? Stress.

"I am about a minute away," He says a matter of factly. That means that it's too late for me to change into one of my mom's pantsuits. "You good?"

I check the clock on the far wall of my room and suppress the largest sigh ever. It's only a quarter to seven, meaning we'd probably get to his place before half past and I'll just be there for God knows how long while - according to Stacy – his mom tears me a new one.

How lovely.

"Yeah, I'm ready – I'm just – yeah. See you soon," I go to scratch my head and remember just in time that my hair's all done up and I'd probably melt into a pool of tears if I mess even one strand up.

We hang up and I take a deep breath, readying myself for whatever this may mean. Whether it'll go well or not is a whole different thing to consider. Therefore I won't consider it.

I shoo Tyler and Jackie out of my room and then go to say goodbye to my mom and to David who are having a 'romantic' dinner out in the garden. She mirrors Tyler's shock about my legs and he tells me not to compliment the chef and to also be back by midnight, all of which I plan to ignore before going back in the house.

Dante is waiting by his car when I finally leave the house. His jawline is also a bit more tense than usual and if I didn't notice that I would've thought he was pretty chill about the situation because he looks so casual it kills. When he sees me though, his eyes pop slightly.

"Oh – hey Kennedy," He says, clearing his throat. He also avoids eye contact with me and it's giving me stress induced angina.

"Are you okay?" I ask hesitantly. He meets my eyes with a smile.

"Yeah, I'm just – yeah," Dante says quietly. "I haven't seen you in a skirt before,"

My eyebrows shoot upwards. "Oh – is it too much? Should I go change, I mean we still have-,"

He puts his hands up behind his head and his face breaks out into a smile. "No, you look amazing... Like, really good. I guess I'm just a little... dazzled? Is that the right word?"

Dazzling?

"Oh," I bite my lip and actually look at what I'm wearing. It's nothing big, just a camel coloured knee length skirt and black sleeveless shirt with matching black heeled ankle boots. It is kind of chilly outside though and the fact I'm barely wearing anything may just be the biggest mistake I make tonight. Hopefully it is, I mean, I wouldn't want to fuck up in front of his mom or something.

Why am I so afraid of his mom?

"Yeah... You look pretty," He says and clears his throat again.

"Thank you,"

We stand around smiling at each other. I'm pretty content doing this for the whole night, especially if it means that I don't have to eat in front of new people who are silently judging my worth.

"Um, shall we go?" I ask, when a sudden gust of wind hits my bare arms. Dante's eyebrows spring upwards just a tiny bit before he stops smiling so widely and opens the car door for me. "Thanks,"

"No problem,"

He jogs around the front of the car and gets in on the driver's side, biting his lip. It's like he's in deep thought so I don't disturb him as he starts up the car and turns on the radio.

At first the car journey is silent and it's almost unbearable for me, considering we talk about the most random things all the time. A few days ago, I accidentally let it slip that I had researched our star sign's compatibility and instead of him getting freaked out, he rushed to get his laptop and started searching with me. And then we talked about astronomy for an hour straight.

I'm surprised he hasn't run for the hills yet.

"So," I blurt out, unable to take the silence any more. He glances at me through his rear view mirror and a smile appears naturally.

"So what?"

It takes me a while but I manage to think up a question. "How's tonight gonna go?"

He shrugs. "Well... I'm hoping that nobody drops anything." Then he glances at my legs. "Namely you,"

I gasp, taken aback. "Me?! Why would I drop something?!"

"Not on purpose – but come on Slugger, that seems like something you'd do," 

The both of us relax after this initial conversation point. Dante tells me that his mom has been preparing all day for me and it literally leaves me frazzled in my chair because shit, I am pretty damn disappointing if I do say so myself. She's probably going to take one look at me and regret ever thinking of inviting me over.

At the same time though, I'm kind of excited, mostly to see how Dante behaves in his home environment and how different he might be in front on me. Also, I'm kind of hoping his mom shows me baby pictures of him.

However, baby pictures might be reserved for when I'm actually his girlfriend. We're in a weird unlabelled state of relationship right now and it's beginning to bother me if I'm honest. We're gonna have to talk about it before it gets too weird and I'm stuck wondering what I actually mean to him.

*-8*-8*

"Here we are," Dante pulls up on the sidewalk of a family home, whistling (nervously?) as he does so. "Welcome to my humble abode,"

"It's nice," I comment, trying to hide my shaking hands as I survey the home. There's a car in the driveway already and the lights are on in the front windows.

He smiles. "Wait until you see the inside – my mom went crazy at IKEA one day,"

"Understandable, it's pretty hard to stay sane inside IKEA,"

He laughs. "So you ready to go in?"

I'm tempted to ask him if we can stall for a few moments but then I catch someone peeking through one of the upstairs windows and realise the jig is up. "Sure," I say with a fake smile on my face. He probably sees right through it but doesn't question me.

We get out of his car and I clear my throat, trying to figure out how tonight is going to go. According to Nicole and Stacy it can go one of both ways – his family can either hate me or enjoy my presence and invite me to brunch every now and then.

Dante finds his key, still whistling and unlocks the door. "Mom, we're here!" He hollers and then sticks his hand out near mine.

Slightly hesitant, I put my hand in his and squeeze softly. He looks at me with a smile and starts leading me through the brightly lit hallway. There are so many family photos on the navy blue painted wall and I want to linger and stare at them but Dante is walking with so much speed that it's basically impossible. Something tells me that he's doing it on purpose so I don't see.

All in all, it's very homely and the vibe is quite comforting. I like it.

Dante opens a random door and peers in, still holding my hand. "There you guys are!" He says and opens the door wider then steps inside. I take a big breath before following in after him, stepping into what seems to be a dining room.

His parents are sitting at a dining table, sipping cups of whatever and chatting idly. Though I recognise his mother vaguely from when we were kids and she picked him up from school, it's quite still quite intimidating because they've literally paused where they've sat and are staring at me. It's like they're mannequins and are just looking straight through me.

Dante clears his throat and smiles, squeezing my hand a little. I sidle closer to him a little bit more and force a smile as they stare at me a little bit. "So... mom, dad, this is my – this is Kennedy," He says and then his eyes widen like he's said something he wasn't supposed to.

We really need to talk.

His mom puts her cup down and stands up, also smiling. I think everyone's cheeks will be hurting from smiling too much by the end of tonight, honestly.

"Hi! It's nice to meet you!" She says and comes forward. She offers her palm to me and I shake it lightly, wondering if I'm meant to have a firm grip or not.

"Nice to meet you, Mrs Correll!" I say enthusiastically. "And you too Mr Correll."

His dad stands up too and comes forward, hands in his pockets. Dante really looks like him, just without the glasses and the sweater vest. "Kennedy, was it?"

"Like the president," I nod and maintain my smile. I probably look kind of manic right now but I'm pretty sure this is the only face I can pull off right now.

He squints and me through his lenses and his brow dips. "Do you know a McKinley?"  

"Uh, McKinley Johnson? She's my older sister," I confirm.

"There's such a huge resemblance! You see it honey?" His dad's face breaks out into a wide smile and he taps his wife's shoulder as she looks me up and down with a calculative expression.

"Yeah, I do. McKinley was Anaya's best friend back in high school, how is she doing?"

"She's good, she's almost completed her vet training," I comment, slightly pleased that the topic of conversation has turned away from me to McKinley.

"She still play soccer?"

I shake my head. "She stopped in college,"

"Oh," He stuffs his hands in his pockets and nods while I try not to squirm. "Do you play any sports Kennedy?"

"I used to play softball, but stopped to focus on school at the end of last year's season," I explain. His dad nods, looking slightly impressed. 

Dante suddenly decides that it's a perfect opportunity for him to finally speak up. "Kennedy here has a killer batting arm, she hit a ball at me last month,"

Never will I ever shake this story. It's been haunting me for what seems like years even though it's just about been a month since it happened.

"Please stop," I remove my hand from his just to cover my face but that doesn't stop him. Instead, he puts his arm around my shoulder and pulls me slightly closer, continuing on the story.

"It hit me on the head and I almost fell down," He sounds very excited. I don't know why. "Luckily though I was wearing a helmet,"

His parents laugh. "Was that the night you came home and asked me if you had a concussion?" His dad asks, sounding very amused.

"You did?" I ask him, removing my hands from my face. He shrugs, suddenly bashful. "Oh my God, you - Dante!"

"It really hurt," he admits. "At first I thought you were mad at me for not keeping in touch or something,"

"I didn't purposely hit you, I mean I- oh my God, do you have a scar or something? I'm so sorry!"

He giggles. "I'm good. Better now, actually,"

I release a long breath and turn back to his parents apologetically. "I'm sorry I injured your son,"

His mom just laughs. "It's fine, he was bound to get hit on that big head sooner or later,"

I have to use all my stomach muscles to stop myself from laughing. Dante scoffs. "Kennedy doesn't think my head is big,"

"I do," I try to say quietly but he catches it and looks at me accusingly. As if I hadn't let him know about his overcompensated cranium multiple times and told him I had saved his contact as Big Head. You'd think that he would have come to terms with it by now. "What?"

"You said- wow. Okay. That's fine." He says, removing his arm from around my shoulder and shoving his hands in his pockets with a pout on his face. I roll my eyes.

"Oh come on Dante, your big head is cute," I tell him a matter of factly. He tries to hide a smile but fails.

His dad laughs. "Is she staying for game night?"

My eyes widen. "Game night?"

"It's actually my family game night tonight; every weekend I don't have a baseball match, we play something," He explains.

"Oh," I look down for a brief second. "So, do you like, play in teams?"

He nods. "Yeah; my brother and I normally pair up but I think today I'll just stay with you... Dad, what's the game tonight?"

His dad cracks an eerily familiar grin. God, I could never get used to this. "Monopoly."

Ah. There's no faster way to make enemies for life than to play Monopoly with people and steal all their money.

"So we're gonna be a team?" I confirm. As the daughter of an accountant, I'd say I'm pretty good with money, real or fake. If we lose (it won't happen), it'll all be on him!

"Yep – I hope you've read up on property values," He winks at me and I giggle a bit, trying to steady my nerves.

The conversation falters there and silence looms over the four of us. I look down once more, trying to think up something to say before it gets awkward (even though it's kind of too late already, considering how awkward it is already). It's hard though because all I can think up is how nice their wooden floorboard is.

"Where's Vic?" He asks, taking a hold of my hand again. His mom stares at our hands for a fleeting second, her eyebrows raising slightly before she answers.

"Last I checked he was upstairs," She says and then clicks her tongue a few times. It surprises me how familiar the sounds is at first before I realise that Dante does it all the time. "Why don't you go introduce Kennedy to him?"

Dante makes this low pitched groan sound with his mouth, sounding quite reluctant. "Do I have to? I wanted to show Kennedy my –"

The door opens behind us and into the room enters Dante's literal twin, just with added stubble and a few extra inches of height. It's kind of disorientating, especially since he's squinting at me like I'm an ant in the grass.

"You wanted to show who what?" He says toward Dante after a long pregnant pause. "That sounds nasty."

Dante rolls his eyes. "Kennedy, this is my brother Victor," He introduces. Victor grins at me and licks his lips, looking quite daunting if I'm honest. There's a small part of me that wants to run away and hide.

"Hi," he offers me his hand and I shake it softly, wondering how their genes can be so strong. They even have a similar grip. "I'm Kennedy,"

"Like the president?"

"Exactly,"

He lets go of my hand, seemingly appeased and turns to Dante who, somewhat protectively, wraps his arm around my waist and pouts a little. "So this is the girl you're dating?"

"... Yeah"

"Oh she's way out of your league." Victor takes another look at me and winks. "So out of your league,"

"She is, I know," Dante adds, sighing. Then I think it clicks that he's not supposed to be agreeing (even though it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy that he is agreeing even if it is sort of a lie) because he frowns. "Hey!"

Victor laughs and then walks forward, hands in pockets, to sit at the dinner table. Dante purses his lips and pouts a little more before leading me to sit at the table too and then sitting beside me. His mom walks further into the room, leaving through an archway to what seems to be the kitchen while his dad sits with his brother and begins to discuss a sports game that was on last night.

I heave a sigh and Dante shifts around besides me.

"How're you feeling?" He asks me, voice slightly hushed.

"I'm good. Your parents are cool by the way," I nod along, lowering my voice too. "Which is such a relief for me because I thought your mom might hate me,"

An amused crease appears above his nose as his brow dips. I've said too much. "Why'd you think she'd hate you?"

I've really got to stop listening to Stacy's advice. Or at least learn to shut up every now and then. "Oh, you know..." I wave my hand in the air, expecting the issue to diffuse itself naturally but he awaits an answer quite patiently. "It's just the way... the cookie crumbles?" I finish.

Dante chuckles a little. "God, you're so weird,"

I beam, convinced it was a compliment.

*-8*-8*

It turned out that though Dante's ever elusive sister was supposed to come for dinner, there was a last minute problem with his niece which meant they couldn't make it. It's weird to me that he's an uncle. Most uncles I know are middle aged bald men that leer at young girls and try to entice them with money. Here's to hoping he doesn't become one of them.

Though it was a tense night at first, I ended up relaxing when his mom let slip that I looked pretty and gave me an extra slice of chocolate cake when I mentioned in passing that it was my favourite. That also might have been due to the fact I was also sucking up a little by telling her that her chicken was the best thing I've ever tasted.

His dad was passive yet nice and his brother dragged me into what seemed to be a sibling rivalry but it was all good. By the time we've all sat down to play Monopoly, my cheeks were numb but that was to be expected.

"Slugger, where should we put this hotel?" Dante asks me, drumming his fingers against the table. His mom looks beyond pissed at this point and I don't blame her considering we've taken up most of the properties on the richer side of the board. I bet she regrets giving me that extra slice of cake now.

"Park Place is pretty empty," I scan the board before making my decision. "Pennsylvania Avenue actually,"

Victor makes this weird gargling sound and leans over to their mom to whisper in her ear. Their dad sits solemnly in front of the small piles of money, evidently taking his role as the banker very seriously.

Dante places the red plastic piece on Pennsylvania Avenue with a flourish and then smiles at me. "I've never won at Monopoly before,"

"That's because you're terrible," Victor says 'under his breath'. It merely earns him a glare which he ignores in order to roll the dice. "If we end up on Penn Avenue, it'll be a sign that this game is absolutely rigged and Kenny here has figured out the system,"

I shrug, trying to act innocent. They need a nine to get there so we can steal all their money but anything could happen at this point. Besides, we own most of the properties on either side of them so they're screwed either way.

The thing about his mom hating me may begin to apply now.

Victor rolls the dice and gets a ten. They cheer before actually moving their silver hat and realising that they still gotta pay us for landing on the Short Line.

"Oh snap," His mom swings her fist in front of her like a cartoon character. Using all my strength, I manage to maintain a straight face. Dante on the other hand is grinning like he's the Cheshire cat, just without all the purple and the cat features. "Can we take out a loan?"

Mr Correll clears his throat and speaks in a sombre tone of voice that matches his solemn expression. "You already owe me a ton..." Then he spots the daggers his wife is shooting with her eyes and changes his stance. "But I guess I can make an exception for you,"

She sighs. "No, it's okay. Kenny and Dante seem to have won this time,"

Dante cheers and engulfs me in this almost suffocating hug before letting me go. "Who knew you were the queen of Monopoly?"

I beam. "It's one of my hidden talents,"

He leans forward a little, biting his lip and already seemingly forgotten about his parents being right there. A large part of me doesn't give two shits either but then a slightly bigger part is quite aware of this fact. "Anything else you wanted to show me?"

"Yo, Dante, keep it PG for the folks," Victor interrupts and he leans away, quite embarrassed. "I mean, I'm quite impartial but-"

"Shut up, Vic," He says briskly before stretching. "I think I should start getting Kennedy here home anyway,"

I look at my watch, slightly reluctant. It's almost ten thirty and unbelievably, I'm having way too good of a time right now.

"Shouldn't we help tidy up first?" I ask, stalling a bit. Dante's eyebrows dip down as the rest of his family stand and begin to run away with the most speed I've seen all night. "Wait, where is –okay and they're gone,"

He sighs. "Nobody likes the clean-up in my family," He says but then smiles at me. "Shall we get to it?"

I shuffle and then pick up the stack of paper monopoly money, ready to sort through it. "Well then. At least we get the time to ourselves, I've been meaning to talk to you about something," I say quite matter of factly and then freeze when I realise what I've actually ignited.

Dante looks at me curiously as I pause. "Oh yeah, what about?"

Oh damn. "Um..."

He nudges me with his arm, this big ass grin on his face. "Don't get all shy now, I've seen the first ever legitimate end of a Monopoly game because of you,"

Eh.                                                                        

"Well, it's about..." Where has all my misplaced confidence gone now? I swear, I talk too much.

Dante looks at my bare arms. "You've got goose pimples on your arms, Slugger, you feeling okay?"

Thankful for the diversion, I nod and bite my lip. "I am feeling a little chilly actually?"

"You didn't bring a coat didn't you..." He looks around, momentarily distracted and then stands up. "Okay, um, let me get you something from my room to wear – if that's okay?"

I nod again and he smiles before jogging away, leaving me to my thoughts.

It's weird, I really wanted to talk to him about where we are and what we are but now that I've brought up the issue and that the opportunity to discuss has actually arisen, I couldn't be any more unwilling. What if he takes it in the wrong way – well, there isn't really a wrong way to take it but still, it could happen.

I sigh and crawl over to the messy pile of monopoly money, more ready to sort it out than my feelings.

"You can wear this," Dante comes back into the room sits down again, handing me a grey marl sweatshirt.

Vaguely dizzy, I sit up and inspect the sweatshirt before putting it on. There's the number 53 on the back followed by his surname in navy blue block capitals. 

"You need help there?" He asks, looking amused. I stick my tongue out at him and put it on.

"Thank you," I notice it smells like him when it goes over my head. The sleeves are also too long and my hands are completely swallowed by them.

"It's no big deal," He smiles at me and crosses his legs over each other. I put the remainder of the monopoly stuff away, hoping he's forgotten that I brought up talking. "So you wanted to talk about something?"

I look down, feeling my nerves engulf me completely. It's now or never. "Yeah, I wanted to ask you about... well... us."

He clicks his tongue a few times. "Us? As in – Oh, I see."

I shuffle around and glance toward him, quite unsure what else to do. He's staring at the ceiling with this thoughtful expression on his face. It's hard to figure out what he's thinking but I attempt to anyway just so I can brace myself for his words.

"Hey, remember your mom's wedding?" He says out of the blue. I focus on him, wondering where the hell this came from.

"To David?" I answer trying and failing to figure out what he's getting at. "Of course. Why?"

"I started liking you after that," he says a matter of factly. "Your mom said you should give the last slice of cake to your cousin but you gave it to me and I thought you were the prettiest girl in the entire grade,"

"Oh yeah, I remember that!"  I say, remembering how my cousin Tatyana got so pissed that she missed out on cake that I had to hide to avoid her wrath. I chuckle at the memory. "So you liked me because of cake?"

A small smile graces his lips. "Yep. You also gave me a cupcake at the winter formal a few months after that." He notes quietly. I smile.

"I remember that! I gave you the biggest one because by then I also had a crush on you." I tell him, thinking back to that night when I volunteered to help out after nobody asked me to the dance. It was supposed to be an act of defiance but in reality I was just very salty because Nicole and all my other friends had dates and I was stuck staring at his stupid high top in World History class.

He laughs. "No way."

"Yeah? I hoped you were gonna ask me but you and Tyler just went alone," I sigh and lean against the couch.

"I was pretty shy back then and shit scared of you. But actually, I was gonna ask you out on the last day of school," He admits.

I lean forward a little bit. "You were?"

The clear embarrassment on his face is actually quite appealing to me. "Yeah, I had this really big thing planned and everything. I was gonna buy you flowers, get you some jolly ranchers, ask you out and try to take you out like every day during the summer vacation until high school when we'd be official." He sighs loudly and avoids looking at me.

"...Then why didn't you?"

"Because of you,"

"Me?!"

Dante sighs loudly. "You, sweetheart, were the hardest person in the world to ask out. On the last day of school, you asked me if I liked anyone and I said yeah so you-"

"I asked you to describe her, oh my God," I cover my face with his sleeves. "I got so jealous that day!"

"Jealous? How'd you get jealous?"

"You said that girl was - what was it again - magical!" I move my hands so I can see his reaction and he doesn't disappoint because he looks like he wants to die. "And I wanted to be that girl, especially since you said you'd buy her flowers,"

He laughs. "Kennedy you were that girl,"

I lean forward a little bit more, very shocked. "I was?"

"Truthfully, this has been established many times,"

In that case...  "So where are my flowers?"

His face drops. "Wait - you want flowers?"

I shrug then fold my arms. "And jolly ranchers. You're also supposed to take me out every day,"

"Until we make it official?"

"Exactly!" I start laughing, thoroughly amused but totally aware that we've really not gotten anywhere with this conversation. It's nice to reminisce every now and again though so I guess I don't really mind.

"So," He clears his throat. "Shall we make it official?"

"We shall – wait, what?"

Dante smiles. I take a moment to let what he just said settle in my brain.

"Are you asking me what I think you're asking me?" I say slowly, really not being able to believe how well this is going. My heart shouldn't be racing this fast at such a simple question but it is and I just want to figure out what he means.

He nods, the smile never wavering. "I mean it's always risky labelling stuff but I think that's a risk I'd like to take with you. So... in the simplest of terms, Kennedy, do you want to be my girlfriend?"

My heart stutters a bit and I have to look away from him in order to regulate it and not die. That dream about me being with someone who can carry all the groceries in one go? Guess who's on their way to making it a reality!

"Okay. Yeah. I do want to." I say, surprised at how sure of myself I sound. Actually, no I'm not. It's a crime how much I like him so it comes as a relief knowing that he likes me back enough to ask me to be his girlfriend.

His smile gets so big that it looks like it'll break his face in two. Something tells me that the one on my own face pretty much looks the same, if not bigger than his. "So that settles it, right? We're official?" He asks, sounding so happy and it's making my heart burst with joy.

I nod, too vigorously. "There wasn't any flowers or jolly ranchers involved but yeah, I guess we are."

Dante looks down, still smiling. "For a second there I was convinced that you'd say no."

"I'm sitting in your house after meeting your parents, wearing your sweatshirt in mid-March." I explain plainly, feeling relief wash over me. "It'd be pretty strange of me to say no after all of this commitment already,"

He bites his bottom and looks me up and down again. "You do look good in my sweatshirt if I'm allowed to say so,"

Still attempting to contain all of my happiness (though considering how transparent I am, it's probably a useless attempt), I draw a circle in the carpet with my finger. "I could really kiss you right now,"

"Why don't you?" He asks, crawling over to where I'm sitting. 

"Well, your parents and brother could come in at any moment," Dante stops when his face is right in front of mine and I can count all the freckles splattered across his nose. "It might be very risky,"

He lets out a soft chuckle. "I think we'll be okay,"

Then, with the utmost tenderness, he cups my face in his hand and gives me what must be the most satisfying kiss of my life.

word count: 5636

a/n: YOU'VE GOT TO, HOLD HA, SQUEEEEZE HA, DON'T TEASE HA

hope u all enjoyed this way too long chapter and also, thanks for all the support everyone :-)

shout out to @Gloria8787