I jumped up in bed, gripping the pillow that was just thrown at my head, breathing hard and fast.

"Dude, wake up!"

I felt the mattress bouncing up and down as my eyes shot up at an energetic Jack, standing on my bed, hopping all around.

I sighed and let my breathing slow.

I glared up at Jack and swung the pillow at his legs, causing him to fall over.

"What the hell man, you scared the shit out of me!" I said, running my hands through my hair.

"You were tossing and turning and mumbling in your sleep. Plus, it's like 11:00 AM." Jack shrugged.

"Well you didn't have to chuck a pillow at my face, you could've just called out my name or something." I answered.

"Kellin, my best friend, my wingman, I think you know by now that I am anything but subtle." Jack said, putting his hand over his heart.

I rolled my eyes and smiled at him. He was right about that, that's for sure. I grabbed my phone from the nightstand and clicked it on. I had a text from Jenna and then a few more from our friend group. None from Vic yet.

"So....did you two get all hot and heavy in the locker rooms after the game last night?" Jack asked, wiggling his eyebrows.

"No Jack, that would be awfully hard to do considering Vic's leg is in a sling." I answered.

"Ehhh I've gotten around a situation like that before." Jack grinned.

My eyes widened before I quickly rolled them into the back of my skull.

"Too much info, Jack." I said.

"Hey, I can't help it that I've been fortunate enough to live a very cultured life so far." Jack smiled.

I looked down at my hands, pulling at a loose string in my comforter blanket, twisting it around and around my index finger awkwardly. Or maybe it was more in an envious fashion.

I felt like a little kid sometimes around Jack. He was light years ahead of me in terms of dating and sexual experience. I wouldn't ever be comfortable enough with myself to ever experience half of the things Jack has experienced.

Sensing my sudden quietness, I heard Jack pipe up again, speaking softer this time.

"Is Vic going to be okay?" Jack asked.

"He'll be alright but I could tell that he was in a lot of pain." I answered.

"He um... he asked me to hangout with him today." I added quietly.

I peeked up slowly to see Jack's reaction. His eyes were huge and he was smiling ear to ear.

"I knew it! What did I say? I said he wouldn't be able to resist you in that uniform. Wait, why are you still wearing it?" Jack exclaimed.

I felt my cheeks heat up as I quickly hopped off my bed, grabbing a towel from my chair and heading for the door.

"I'm going to go take a shower." I muttered, brushing past Jack.

"Uh uh uh, not so fast!" Jack said, putting his hand on the door, closing it.

"Why are you still wearing your cheerleading uniform?" Jack asked again.

"Because Vic said he liked me in it and I didn't want to take it off last night when I got home." I answered quickly, mumbling the words so fast they all blended together.

Jack nodded and twisted the knob on our front door, swinging it open and motioning for me to leave.

"That's all I needed to hear." He spoke triumphantly.

I rolled my eyes and flipped Jack off, closing the door behind me as I headed towards the bathrooms.

I stepped into the shower stall, feeling the cold powdered blue tiles underneath my feet. I turned the shaky knob, letting a spurt of freezing water spray my face before it quickly turned warm.

I stood still letting the water trickle down my shivering body for a moment. I kept my head down, the streams matting down my dark hair.

Texting Vic and talking to Vic were two completely different things. I was an utter bundle of nerves last night talking to him in the locker room. Over the phone it was like I had known him my entire life, I was able to be myself behind the screen. But the second you put me in front of those big, gorgeous brown eyes all bets were off.

It was like I was a little kid in the school yard again, terrified to talk to that pretty girl all the boys wanted to talk to. Except back then, I pretended that I liked that pretty girl and it was still nerve wracking.

Now with Vic, I finally knew that feeling all of the boys in my school felt growing up when they wanted to talk to a girl. I felt sick to my stomach, on the verge of tears, defeated and afraid, but one hundred percent lovesick and wanting to endure every minute of agony and fear for another second next to Vic.

I shook the thoughts from my brain. Vic just wanted to hangout with me as friends. Yeah, that was it. We had talked all week as friends so surely all he wanted to do was hangout with me as friends. Since that's what I was, Vic's friend.

Why he wanted to hangout with me, I'd probably never know. But I was going to take Jack's advice and finally try to stop this habit of self-deprecating thoughts. I couldn't control how people reacted or what they said to me, or how they perceived me, so what was the point in getting hung up on trivial things?

I took a deep breath and stood up straight. Grabbing my bottle of shampoo I poured a small dollop into the palm of my hand and quickly massaged it into my scalp. Watching the soapy bubbles slide down my skin, swirling into the drain.

I turned off the water and quickly wrapped my towel around myself, the cold air in the bathroom seeping into the shower stall. After drying myself off, I grabbed my change of clothes from the little bench seated right outside the shower curtain.

I pulled my dark grey A Day To Remember hoodie over my head. It was one of my absolute favorites because I bought it two sizes bigger so the sleeves fell past my hands, making me feel super cozy.

I knew Vic loved this band too, and part of me chose to wear it today because I wanted him to notice.

I shimmied into my tight black skinny jeans with the holes in the knees and shoved my feet into my red slip-on Vans.

My feet padded down our carpeted dorm hallway, towards Jack and mine's room. I closed the door behind me and walked over to my bed, grabbing my phone.

I had two texts from Vic. I bit my lip and felt a tickle in the pit of my stomach as I opened the messages.

Vic: Morning Kellin! :)

Vic: I'm going to order some food for lunch so do you want to come over around 12:30?

I smiled to myself and started typing out my response.

Me: That sounds great! How's your leg feeling this morning?

Vic: It hurts a lot but I'm surviving. The most annoying part though is it takes me forever to get anywhere lol. All I can do is hobble.

Me: I'm sorry :( Have you been elevating it?

Vic: Huh? Was I supposed to be doing that?

Me: You're lucky I'm coming over

Vic: I know.

I smiled as I shook my head at Vic's text, checking the time before shoving my phone into my back pocket. It was 11:50 AM, which meant I had about a half an hour before I was supposed to meet Vic at his dorm.

I can't believe Vic wasn't even elevating his foot. I decided that I was going to go get some supplies from the campus store to help Vic out.

I grabbed my wallet, dorm keycard, and my black distressed jean jacket, before waving bye to Jack and heading outside.

I skipped down the front steps of our dorm building and started down the cobblestone sidewalk. The sun was shining today, casting a warm glow against me as the cold November air whipped against my cheeks.

I continued along, the campus was pretty quiet this morning. In college terms, it was still way too early on a Saturday for people to be out.

I walked up to the campus store, grabbing a little shopping basket on my way in. I started meandering through the aisles, grabbing a couple necessities off the shelves.

Vic needed a heating pad for sure, and a reusable ice pack. Some chips, gummy bears, and oreos too. As I was heading to the checkout I noticed a bin of stuffed animals and decided on a golden retriever puppy one.

I paid for all of my items and checked my phone on the way out. 12:20 PM. Perfect. By the time I got back over to our dorm I'd be right on time.

As I walked up to our dorm, I fumbled for my keycard when the door swung open revealing Alex.

"Oh hey dude!" Alex exclaimed.

"Hey Alex! Where are you headed?" I asked.

"I'm going to the grocery store to get Jack flowers, actually. I thought I'd surprise him and take him on a date." Alex said, blushing slightly.

"Oh my god, Alex! Jack is going to absolutely love that!" I said in response.

"Yeah I thought today would be the perfect opportunity to get off campus for a little while." Alex spoke.

"For sure, it's the perfect fall day. Jack will flip!" I smiled.

"What about you? What're you up to today?" Alex asked.

"O-oh. I'm actually headed to your room. To hangout with Vic." I answered shyly.

"Huh. That makes so much sense now." Alex said, furrowing his eyebrows.

"What makes so much sense?" I asked curiously.

"Why Vic was so weird about constantly asking me what I was doing today. It seemed like he wanted to get me out of the room." Alex answered, grinning at me.

"Uh..." I said, my voice trailing off.

"Well anyways, have fun today! I'll see you two later." Alex said, his smile never leaving his face as he patted me on my back and headed down the sidewalk.

I suddenly felt extremely nervous. Was Alex insinuating this was a date? No. No way. I shook it off and continued inside our dorm building, making my way up two flights of stairs to the top floor where the soccer team lived.

I pulled my phone out to double check Vic's text telling me what dorm was his.

Standing in front of room #54 I felt my stomach drop. I took in a deep, sharp breath and let my eyes flutter close for a moment. There was a little dry erase board on the door where a bunch of Vic and Alex's friends left notes.

I curled my hand into a small fist and tapped lightly three times on the dark wooden door. I shuffled a little and shoved my hands into the front pocket of my hoodie.

"It's open!" Vic called out from inside the room.

I turned the knob and walked in meeting a smiley Vic sitting on his bed, his back pressed against the wall.

"Hey there!" I said. I stood still in the doorway, returning Vic's smile.

"Kellin! Hi. Don't just stand there, make yourself at home. Mi casa es su casa." Vic spoke, motioning for me to join him on his bed.

"Right, duh." I laughed nervously.

I took off my jean jacket and draped it gently on the back of Vic's desk chair before slowly pulling myself up on the end of his bed. I stayed towards the end, trying to make a normal, friendly distance between us.

"Hey! We're wearing the same hoodie!" Vic exclaimed, pointing towards the matching ADTR hoodie I was also wearing.

"Oh my god! I wore it because of our last conversation about ADTR." I answered, mentally face palming myself. God Kellin, how much of a nerd can you be?

"That's literally why I wore mine too." Vic deadpanned me.

I felt my cheeks turn a bright shade of pink as I bit my lip, looking down at my lap.

"What did you bring?" Vic asked, nodding towards the plastic bag in my hand.

"Oh! Well you said that you weren't even elevating your foot, so I assumed you probably didn't have the required items for when you're incapacitated." I answered, smiling up at him.

I watched Vic's face light up, his eyebrow arching, "And what might those be?"

I rolled over so I was sitting on my knees before reaching over his lap to grab one of his navy blue pillows. Vic stayed still as I hovered over his legs, my arms on one side, my knees on the other.

I quickly grabbed the pillow and sat back.

"Lift please." I said, motioning towards his injured leg.

Vic slowly lifted his right leg up as I shoved the pillow underneath it. I gently guided his leg back down onto the fluffy pillow, noticing him wince slightly.

"There. Keeping your leg elevated helps the blood circulate better in your veins, so there will be less pain and less swelling." I instructed him.

Vic nodded and watched me intensely and curiously.

"And what's in the bag?" He asked.

I dumped the contents of the bag onto the bed.

"The heating pad and the ice pack are also great for pain, especially when your leg starts to throb." I answered.

"It's actually throbbing right now." Vic said.

"I guess I came at the right time then." I smiled at Vic.

I hopped off the bed and bent behind Vic's nightstand, plugging in the heating pad. I turned on the warmth controls and set it to "Medium" before gently placing a thin sheet over Vic's leg since he was wearing shorts. I laid the heating pad on top of the sheet so the heat wouldn't be too much.

"Thanks, Kellin. You really didn't have to do all of this." Vic spoke.

I shrugged at him, "I know but you helped me... that one time.. and uh, it was nothing, really."

I watched Vic's lip press firmly together and I could tell from the look in his eyes that he wanted to say something, thankfully, he didn't.

"Well I bought us pizza! Technically Mike went out and got all of the supplies for me since I can't exactly drive. But I gave him a list. Sodas are in the fridge." Vic said, smiling proudly.

I giggled at him, "Let me get us some slices. You stay put."

"Aye aye Doctor." Vic spoke, saluting me as I got off the bed.

I walked across the room to the desk where the pizza box was situated and plopped some slices on two paper plates.

Vic's side of the room was littered in band posters just like mine, I noticed the Kurt Cobain poster just like Mike had mentioned and smiled to myself. He also had posters of famous soccer players and a huge flag of the Mexico National Soccer Team pinned up above the headboard of his bed.

Probably my favorite and most surprising thing about Vic's room was the strands of blue twinkle lights strung up near the ceiling around his bed.

I grabbed two cans of Coke from the fridge and walked back over to the bed, handing Vic a paper plate of pizza.

"I really like the lights." I motioned towards the blue strands.

Vic blushed slightly and reached down in between the bed and the wall, flicking them on. A deep, cool blue color casted over the room as Vic turned off the lamp that was on his bedside table.

"Blue's my favorite color and my mom would always keep white twinkle lights up all year, even when it wasn't Christmas. When I got to college I knew I wanted to hang lights up in my dorm as a little reminder of home." Vic spoke.

"You know, I would never have guessed you were such a cute softy based off of our first time meeting." I heard myself admit, instantly regretting how lame and creepy I sounded.

You're supposed to just be his friend, Kellin. Ugh.

But Vic didn't look weirded out, not at all. He was smiling even bigger than he had been, if that was even possible.

"Oh yes, at the Halloween party when you were dressed up as Kurt Cobain." Vic grinned at me, his eyes darkened just a bit before returning to their normal warm glow.

I laughed awkwardly and moved a piece of hair from my eyes.

"Yeah my best friend Jenna kind of forced me to. Hey at least I didn't go in just my underwear." I teased.

I watched Vic roll his eyes as he shook his head.

"Yeah... that was ridiculous." Vic scoffed, taking a bite from his pizza.

"Not a fan of your date?" I heard myself ask.

"Psh no. The guys had always bugged me, trying to get me to hook up with Amanda, but she isn't my type." Vic shrugged.

I felt my mouth twitch up into a smile by Vic's answer. He wasn't into Amanda. Jack was right. Of course Jack was right.

"Anyways, I believe you made me a promise that night." Vic said suggestively.

I felt my face scrunch up in confusion.

"I did?" I asked.

"Mhm. You promised me to a private concert. Nirvana unplugged, if I remember correctly." Vic grinned.

"Oh... I don't know about that..." My voice trailed.

"Hey now, are you really going to deny a person with a busted leg?" Vic teased and pushed me playfully.

I felt warmth spread throughout me when I felt Vic's hand on my shoulder.

"There isn't even any music." I answered dismissively.

"Well if you hand me that guitar over there, I can provide the tunes." Vic pointed across the room where an acoustic guitar sat.

"You play guitar?" I asked.

"Yeah, I sing too. It's no big deal. Mike and I had tried starting numerous bands during High School."

"Fine. I'll sing for you but you have to promise me that you won't laugh." I looked Vic right in the eyes.

"You're adorable when you do that serious face, did you know that?" Vic said.

"Uh let me go get your guitar." I said quickly, jumping off the bed. Not wanting to respond to Vic's comment.

I placed my palms against my jeans, rubbing the sweat off of them as I picked up Vic's guitar. I turned around facing Vic again and walked back over to the bed, handing him the guitar and taking my place back on the end of the bed.

Vic sat up more, scooting closer to me as he adjusted the position of his leg so he could play the guitar. I watched him as his hand moved up and down the frets smoothly. His face looked so peaceful as he strummed lightly, tuning some of the strings.

"Alright, what do you want to sing?" Vic asked, looking right into my eyes.

"Um.. well since we're both wearing A Day To Remember hoodies how about... Another Song About The Weekend, the acoustic version of course." I answered softly.

I had never let anyone hear me sing. Not even my best friend from high school, Gabe. I can't believe I was about to do this.

"Dude, that song is legendary! Great pick." Vic smiled and started strumming.

I bit my lip and looked up at him. There was no way I could do this while looking at him. I decided to close my eyes and heard myself start to sing softly.

"They keep playing sad songs on the radio

And I feel like I'm so alone

On this fifteen hour drive

And all the while I tell myself to just believe

'Cause nobody can give so much and never get anything"

I felt my nerves drift away a bit as I continued. My hand tapping along on my thigh in sync with Vic's guitar.

"Everyone I used to know

Says they don't know what I've become

But I'm still the same, not much has changed

I still know where I came from"

My throat caught a bit in my throat as I sang the verse. I was taken by surprise when I heard Vic start to join in. His voice was beautiful. It was deeper than mine but had this mesmerizing twang to it when he sang certain words. He harmonized with me perfectly.

I lifted my head up a bit and opened my eyes meeting Vic's, by the way he was looking at me I could've guessed that he hadn't looked away from me this whole time.

We began the chorus and I held Vic's gaze.

"I fell asleep with the lights on

And I can see that you're the first one in a long time

That had some faith in me

(Have faith in me)

Tell my friends we won't be long

The Florida sun begs me to come back home

And it feels like I'm ready for anything

If you can wait for me

If you can wait for me."

Vic stopped playing and we both just stared at each other for a minute in silence.

"Kellin. Your voice. It's...it's addictingly beautiful." Vic said softly.

"I was just about to say the same about yours." I said.

"Mine is nowhere near as amazing as yours." Vic said, placing the guitar down gently.

I coughed a little, not knowing what to say next. I think Vic noticed my embarrassment because he quickly changed the subject.

"Uh anyways, do you want to watch a movie?" He asked.

"I'd love that! What do ya got?" I answered, crossing my legs.

"Have you ever seen Back To The Future?" Vic said.

"No I haven't actually." I answered honestly.

"Oh man, I have a feeling you're going to love it. And it's a trilogy!" Vic exclaimed excitedly.

He pulled up the movie on his laptop and set it down on the end of the bed, motioning for me to come and sit next to him, against the headboard.

I crawled along the bed and reached for the ice pack, moving the heating pad from Vic's leg and replacing it with the ice.

I leaned back hesitantly and turned towards Vic who was holding a bowl of popped corn. Our shoulders and legs were just barely touching as Vic set the bowl on top of our legs, before pulling a blanket over us.

Vic pressed play and the movie began. I was so engrossed in the film that I didn't even notice that Vic placed his head against my shoulder.

I looked at him and he smiled back up at me huge. I noticed that he had one tooth that was a little bigger than the others and it made him even more charming if that was even possible.

I bit my lip and looked back at the movie.

I felt Vic snake his hand into mine gently, rubbing his thumb over my skin slowly, giving it a small squeeze.

My heart leapt so fast I thought I was going to pass out.

I intertwined our fingers while Vic repositioned himself so his arm was around me, allowing me to melt against his chest.

I couldn't believe this was happening.

I turned my attention back to the screen as I rested my cheek against Vic's warm chest. I could feel his heart racing through his shirt and I counted his heartbeats as I let myself fall asleep. 

________________Author's Note__________________________

This chapter was really fun to write. Also I highly suggest listening to the ADTR song mentioned in this chapter if you've never heard it, it gives me all the feels.

What're your thoughts on this one?

Also, do you have a fav ADTR song and if so, what is it?

I hope everyone is doing okay and staying safe if you're currently in quarantine! 

-Cassidy