He pulled away with a content smile. "You don't know how long I've waited to do that."

My first kiss was stolen like that. I traced my slightly swollen lips as my cheeks flushed pink in embarrassment.

"Are you blushing Cali?" he smirked.

"Everyone blushes," I responded defensively.

"But not everyone looks as cute as you when they blush," he threw a random compliment at me.

I couldn't help but blush again. "Shhhh!" I hushed. "There's a lot of people here, are you trying to make me die of embarrassment!?"

"Don't worry, your knight in shining armor will come and save you before that happens," he joked.

I started to cover my face with my hands to hide myself when he caught my hands midway and pulled them away from my face.

"I'll stop making fun of you now. I need to tell you something really important. Listen carefully, alright?"

"Okay," I agreed, waiting for him to continue.

He cleared his throat and began to speak. "I don't know when I started feeling this way. I just know that one day I started enjoying our daily arguments. I started caring about whether you were happy and whether you were getting enough sleep. And then you said you wanted to leave, that's when I discovered that I wanted you to stay. I was confused, unsure of what was going on at first but now I know. I'm afraid I have fallen for you Cali. Be my girlfriend, won't you?" He opened up his arms and waited for my reply.

Oh my gosh I can't believe that this was happening.This all felt so unreal. He just confessed! To me! Who could've imagined that this would happen in my life?

"Isn't this too fast? We've met for like a month or so?" I asked.

"Its never too fast for love. If I don't confess my feelings now, what if I can't say I later? We don't know what our future will hold, but I know that I want you to be in my future."

What he said as true. Just when I was about to run over into his arms, I thought of a major problem. "What about your parents?" I thought back to what happened earlier today, in his apartment. Both his parents were furious, his mother looked as if she was about to erupt from anger when she saw me.

"Don't worry about them, I'll take care of it," he ensured. "All you-" he pressed his index finger on the tip of my nose and went on, "-have to do is stay by my side." He grinned goofily, flashing his dimples at me.

Although I wasn't so convinced by what he said, I still went ahead and wrapped my arms around him. It felt nice and safe being held in his arms. I snuggled against his chest cheerfully and he chuckled.

"I'm guessing that's a yes then?"

I nodded my head without a second of hesitance.

"Let's go home then, we had enough fun here today," he announced. He held onto my hand and we headed to the parking lot.

Halfway there I realized that I was no longer holding the giant teddy bear he gave me earlier.

"Wait, where's the bear?" I asked. I totally forgotten about it. Where did I put it? Was it at the table where we ate? Or where we stood when he kissed me? Urgh, I can't remember!

"What bear?"

"The one you gave me," I pouted. "I'll go back and look for it."

"It's probably gone by now. I'll get you one that looks exactly the same another time."

" But it's a souvenir from our first date-"

"We'll have more dates in the future, don't worry. What matters is that we're together now."

I smiled in agreement and we continued walking towards the parking lot.

His apartment was dim and quiet when we came in. I flicked on the lights and I was so relieved to see that his parents were no longer there. Facing their fury already once today, I was beyond ready from facing them again. I mean, it'll happen sometime in the future anyways, it's bound to happen. I'll just try my best to stall it for as long as I can. Despite the fact that we just started dating, the fear of losing him was already there and I knew that once I meet with his parents, we'll never be together again.

"Go wash up," he spoke up, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"What about you?" I asked. "You smell like you need a shower too." I pinched my nose and made a face.

"Oh yeah?" He came up from behind me and held onto me. "How about now?" he breathed over my shoulder. "How about now, huh?" His breathing was tickling my neck so I squirmed and demanded for him to cut it out.

"Hmm... I might consider stopping if you give me a kiss on the cheek," he proposed.

"Stop playing around." I tried to get out of his grasp but his strength overpowered mine.

"You won't be going anywhere until I get that kiss." He tightened his arms around me.

"Then you won't be going anywhere either cause I'm not giving you that kiss."

"Oh so is this how you're going to be?" he asked.

"Let's see who's gonna win this time."

We stayed in that position for the next 15 minutes, neither one of us giving in. Another 5 minutes passed when he spoke up. "I'll be the loser this time," he said before giving me a quick peck on the neck then running for his room.

"Christian!!!" I exclaimed on the top of my lungs. That was not what was supposed to happen. "You cheater!!" I chased him but he got behind his door faster than me. "That's my consolation prize Ms. Cali!" he yelled through the door with a hearty laugh.

I banged on his locked door for a couple of minutes before giving up when I heard his water running inside. He'll be getting a knuckle sandwich later, you just wait for it.

After showering and changing into an oversized sky blue tee and a pair of tights, I went out into the kitchen for a glass of milk. As I poured the white fluid into an empty glass, Christian came out of his room with partially wet hair in a black t-shirt and basketball shorts.

"Get me a glass too," he pointed at the milk I was pouring. "Thanks."

I opened the cabinet and took out another glass before pouring milk into it. "Here." I slided the glass across the counter, toward him. I picked up my glass of milk and took a seat beside him by the counter.

"Wanna sleep with me tonight?" he asked right as I took a sip of milk causing me to choke in surprise.

"W-what did you say?" I asked in alarm between coughs.

He lightly patted my back until the coughs were gone. "What did you say?" I repeated.

"It's not what you're thinking right now. I didn't know you had such a dirty mind," he smirked.

I slapped him on the shoulder and waited for him to explain what he had meant.

"Let's sleep beside each other. Sharing one bed. And if you get nightmares or if anything happens, I'll be there to protect you," he explained. "I won't do anything, I promise."

"You better not," I warned. "Don't forget that I know some taekwondo moves."

"Finish your milk and go brush your teeth. Then we're going to sleep. I'm tired."

We finished our milk and left them in the sink before splitting up to our bathrooms to brush up. When I was done, I walked into his room and found him already lying on the bed. He was on the left side so I got the right side. I quietly got under the blankets and used his extra pillows to draw a line between us. I closed my eyes and soon I fell asleep.