I woke up surrounded by two firm arms, hugging my waist from behind. I shifted my body to face the person behind me, only to find Daniel sleeping. His round eyes shut and his mouth slightly open in an adorable way. I noticed that his hair was tousled and I resisted the urge to run my hands through it.

"I know you're staring," he mumbled. Wow, his morning voice is sexy.

"Am not." Daniel opened his eyes to look down at me and I quickly closed my eyes and pressed my head onto his hard chest. I felt his chest vibrate with laughter, pulling me closer. I raised my head and placed my finger onto my lips, "shush, I'm sleeping."

Daniel's eyes gleamed and placed a hand onto my cheek and stroked it. I closed my eyes and leaned onto it.

You're probably thinking, where the hell are you Astrid? What happened after the kiss?

Well, after the amazing kiss Daniel and I shared, we left the beach only to find Oliver leaving us behind. Yes, that fucker left us stranded on the beach. Not that I'm complaining, after all, when walking to Daniel's house, we were holding hands, laughing and kissing. And now, both of us are lying on Daniel's bed, with no barrier between us, literally.

"I've been wanting to do this," Daniel softly spoke. "You and I lying in bed together."

"You do realise that we shared the same bed before. Remember the time when you lied to me about-"

Daniel cut me off by placing his lips onto mine causing me to smile, he shifted my body so that he was on top of me, hovering me. With one hand on the bed for stability, Daniel placed the other on my waist, whilst mine were on his bare torso. Talk about some abs. As our lips moved in sync, I noticed that that Daniel's hand began to move my shirt upwards, causing me to stop.

"What, what's wrong?" He asked concerned.

"Nothing it's just..." I bit my lip and began to play with my hands, a tic I have when I get nervous. Daniel must've have realised I was serious as he sat up straight, looking down at me.

"I want to wait till I get married," I whispered, embarrassed.

"Hey," Daniel lowered his body, grabbing one of my hands. "There's nothing to be embarrassed about."

We looked at each other in silence, until Daniel spoke again, "let's get married."

Ok what?

"What the hell?" I exclaimed, startled. I sat up and ran my hands through my short hair. "You can't be serious!"

"I am!" With a grin, he wrapped his arms around my torso, pulling me in. "Let's get married right now."

"You're crazy," I chuckled and I played with his hair. "Absolutely mental."

"Fine then," he sighed with defeat. "But, I bet that by the end of this month, we will have sex."

When I heard the word 'bet' and 'sex' in the same sentence, I froze. Flashbacks from Mateo and Emilia began to reappear, causing me to jump from the bed and hug myself. Daniel must've realised what he said as he cursed under his breath and walked up to me, hugging me.

"I'm sorry," he whispered as he kissed my head. "I wasn't thinking."

I knew that Daniel didn't say it on purpose, so I hugged him back. "It's ok," I whispered back, pulling him down to kiss him.

I could stay like this forever, but, I started to squirm and to avoid the embarrassment, I began to pull away. "What do you think you're doing?" He asked, pulling me closer again.

"I need to go to the bathroom."

"Nope, I'm not letting you go," still hugging me, he dragged me to the bed, throwing us both.

"Donald! I need to pee!"

"Yeah but the last time, you left without a warning," he frowned. Gosh, why is he so cute? "I want to spend the day with you."

"If you want to spend the whole day with me, you are going to have to let me pee. Otherwise, I will pee on you, and I know that you don't want that. Am I right?" I smirked.

He paused for a second to think, "fine, I'm letting you pee, but, if you don't come back in thirty seconds, I will come for you." Chuckling, I escaped from his firm grip and quickly went to the bathroom.

A few seconds later, I washed my hands and came out. Just as I was about to open Daniel's bedroom door to get in, I heard to classical music coming from the kitchen. I knew Daniel lived with his niece, but I didn't know there was somebody else living with them, so, I carefully went down the stairs in order to not make a sound. The closer I got to the kitchen, the louder the music became, and as I made a turn to enter, I saw a man. His back was facing me, as he was cutting something on the board and adding it to the pan, he was wearing a suit, but his jacket was carefully placed on a chair. He turned around and stopped once he saw me, then he turned the music off. He was as tall and Daniel, same green eyes but a few shades darker, nearly black and grey hair. He looked exactly like Daniel, only slightly older.

"Didn't know there were visitors," he chuckled. "Eric, Daniel's father."

He stretched his hand, wanting to shake mine. "Astrid," I shook his hand.

"Well, nice to meet you," he forced a smile as he subtly wiped his hands onto his trousers. Ok, rude.

"Pleasure is mine," I mirrored the exact same smile. We stood there in an awkward silence, trying to avoid each other's gaze.

"I never knew my son had a girlfriend."

I was about to open my mouth to respond, but Daniel cut me off, "she's not my girlfriend."

Daniel came in shirtless and his hair tousled. His expression was cold and distant, and his fists were clenched to each side.

"Really?" Eric mused, he walked up towards me and looked at both Daniel and I. I couldn't stop staring at Daniel, shocked by his words.

"Yeah, really," He looked at his father with a stoic look and then glanced at me. His expression changed, from stoic to sadness and then he looked down, avoiding my stare. "She's not my girlfriend. In fact, she's leaving right now."

I felt as though my heart was ripped out of my chest. Did Daniel actually meant that? Did the kiss mean anything to him? I felt the tears coming out, but I refused to show any weakness.

"Well," I ran a hand through my hair. "I should get going. It's a pleasure meeting you Mr Matthews."

"The pleasure is all mine, but please, call me Eric, Mr Matthews makes me sound old," he lead out a humourless laugh.

I forced a tight smile and turned around to see Daniel, still not looking at me. I held my head high and walked past him, but what he did next startled me; he brushed his hand against mine, holding it for a few seconds. I rushed up to his room, got my stuff and walked out.

By the time I was out of the house, the tears trickled down my cheeks. God I'm an emotional wreck.

You are

Shut up

What? It's the truth.

Besides, you knew Daniel was going to act that way.

No, I didn't.

Whatever, you're still a fool that falls in love with jerks

Shut up!

I felt my phone buzz in my pocket. Picking it up, I frowned to see Daniel's contact on my screen and rejected the call, then, I wiped the tears away and began walking home.

***

I decided to skip school today. No, it's not because of Daniel...ok yes, he is one of the reasons why, but I also have my period and to feel nauseous and throw up every five seconds isn't a lively sight to see.

Trust me.

Oliver went out to take pictures for some of his models, leaving me, in my room with a big jar of Ben & Jerry's and Netflix. Hours passed and I finished my ice cream and the first two seasons of the Office, my phone buzzed again and saw it was Daniel calling me again. In total, I received thirty messages and fifteen calls from Daniel, none of which I responded. Guess karma is a bitch.

My stomach began to rumble around 9pm. Groaning, I left the warm bed and made my way up to the kitchen. As soon as I reached the room, Oliver closed the front door.

"Dear God you look disgusting!" He exclaimed.

"Way to boost my confidence you twat," I gave him the two- finger salute*, causing him to chuckle.

"No seriously," he looked at me with concern. "You look like death, what's going on?"

"Nothing, I'm on my period that's all."

He cringed and kissed my forehead before he left the kitchen. Once he was gone, I walked up to the kitchen and picked out the the leftover pizza from last night.

Last night...

I shook my head and threw the pizza into the bin. I wasn't hungry anymore.

***

Gigi was going on about how Mason took her to the lake as their first official date, but to be honest, I couldn't care less. I know, call me a bad friend I deserve it, but in my defence I was trying to avoid Daniel.

"He accidentally spilled the drink all over him- Hey are you even listening?"

"Yeah, yeah," I dismissed as I glanced through the halls. "He spilled the drink all over himself and probably felt embarrassed." That caused her to sigh.

"What's wrong?" She placed a hand on my shoulder. "You seem...distant?"

"Yeah, its um...my period," ok, probably the lamest excuse ever, but hey, it kinda worked. Gigi chuckled and waved a goodbye as she headed to her chemistry class and I headed towards my biology lesson, which was in the opposite direction. As I shuffled my folder into my bag, I felt a strong grip on my forearm pulling me into an empty classroom.

Oh crap.

Before I had time to recover from what happened, I heard the door being locked and footsteps approaching to me. As soon as I turned around, I saw him standing there with guilt in his eyes.

"What do you want?" I spat as I crossed my arms.

"You didn't reply to my texts or calls," Daniel whispered.

"Well," I thought of a good lie. "I ran out of battery."

"For two days?" He mused.

"What do you want Daniel?" I snapped, but he simply smiled, a full on mouth-open smile. "What?"

"You said Daniel," he blushed.

"Cut the crap, I'm late for biology-"

"The teacher's sick so..." he scratched the back of his neck, a tic I've noticed he did when he was nervous or embarrassed. "I just wanted to say that I'm sorry, I shouldn't have treated you that way and I was a huge jackass."

"You left me in a bad position Daniel." He frowned and avoided my gaze.

"I don't have a strong relationship with my father," he whispered. "Besides, I don't want to talk about it."

"Daniel, we are going to talk about it. He's part of your family and-"

"If you want to get to know me through my family, then let's talk about yours," he snapped. My body froze, completely. No, he didn't just say that. He couldn't have.

"What?" I whispered, tears filling my eyes.

"I said, let's talk about your family. Since you're so interested in-"

"Fine! You want to talk about my family? Alright," I felt heat rising within me, causing Daniel's eyes to widen. "My mother killed herself when I was twelve, me being the person to walk in on her lifeless body. My father without any warning moved us to Spain, where a slutty gold digger awaited alongside with her abusive son, who is the reason why my best friend also killed herself."

"Throughout the years, I was ignored, abused and had to live by strict rules set by my lovely step mother. I did the cleaning, the cooking... one night, I had to walk to the hospital with my appendix fucked up, why? Because the rest of my family went out for a fucking family dinner! The only person I have alongside with me is Oliver, a twenty five year old who acts like a child. So yeah, I come from a fucked up family were no one loves me."

I felt tears staining my cheeks, but I didn't care. I told him how fucked up my family is, but I haven't told him the full story. Not yet.

Daniel stood there, eyes wide, trying to process all the information I just gave him. I thought he was going to leave me here in this classroom, considering the fact that I did not have an easy life or some shit. But no. He didn't. Instead, he pulled me into his chest, arms snaked around me. I didn't resist nor object, in fact, I let the tears stain his shirt whilst I lead out quiet sobs. Once I was calm, I wrapped my arms around his torso, pulling him in. I know that I should push him away and call him names for how he treated me, but having him near me or hugging me when I was feeling down was the best feeling ever.

"I don't buy it," he finally spoke. Puzzled, I backed away looking into his green eyes.

"What?"

"When you said that no one loved you, I don't buy it." My heart began beating at full speed as those words came out of his lips. I wiped the last tear and tucked a strand of my short hair behind my ear. As soon as I dropped my hand, Daniel quickly grabbed it and pulling me closer to him, our faces inches away. "I would never hurt you Astrid. Never. I like you. A whole lot. Seeing you likes this breaks my heart. I don't want my girl to be sad."

Ok, what?

My girl?

My girl?

"Your girl?" I raised my brow at him, with a faint smile.

"Yeah, my girl," he smirked as tucked another strand of my hair behind my ear. "We're a couple now."

I gave him a smug smile and placed a finger onto my chin, pretending to be thinking, "am I allowed to object?"

He slightly lowered his face, his eyes fluttered onto my lips and then back up, staring intently into my eyes, "would you still object if I did this?" He gently pressed his lips against my cheeks, slightly grazing against my skin, leaving a hot trace behind as he reached down to my lips. I closed my eyes and resisted the urge to sigh. I am no weak bitch.

I knew that if I opened my mouth, no words would come out, so, I slightly nodded my head refusing to back down. His hot lips grazed my lips. Holy crap I really want to kiss him.

"Still objecting?" I felt him smirk.

"Yes," I exhaled.

"Well then," he sighs. "You've left me with no choice!"

Before I can react, he cups my face and pulls me in, his lips meeting mine. His soft lips against mine, moving in sync, whilst one of his hands slowly moved to my waist. Without even thinking, my arms snake around his neck, allowing me to maintain the perfect balance as I'm on my tiptoes. Even though I'm 5'8, he's a freaking giant next to me. Kissing him again felt amazing. In fact, better than amazing. Having him near me, hugging me and teasing me always made me feel nervous or excited, maybe even both, and I loved it.

Sadly, our make out session was interrupted by the bell, thank god the class wasn't going to be used by a teacher, but, I had calculus now.

"Daniel," I mumbled as his lips were still pressed against mine. "I need to go."

"Five more minutes," he whined as he began to kiss my neck. Holy fu-

"Daniel you know that those five minutes will turn into twenty."

He lifted his head and gave the cutest crooked smile I've ever seen. "I know. However, because I'm an amazing boyfriend, I'm letting you go." I snorted as he released me from his tight grip. He grabbed his bag and began walking backwards to the door, he must've have realised that he was too close to the door because once he turned around, he walked into the door, causing his bag to fall from his shoulder. I quickly placed my hand onto my mouth but I failed to hide the laughter.

As soon as he picked his bag up and opened the door, he turned around to face me, "You mention this to anyone..."

"Oh my lips are sealed," I joked as I raised my hands as a sign of surrender, causing him to chuckle. He blew me a kiss and ran off to his next subject, leaving me alone, laughing at his childish yet cute behaviour. Once I was calm, I grabbed my bag and left the classroom to my next lesson. Even though my mind was all over the place as it replayed the previous events, a dark thought clouded my mind.

I'm not ready to tell him my past. My addiction. My heavy drinking. My scars.

I'm not ready yet.