Andre sat on a low wall near the front entrance of the school and, for once, he was alone. School had let out and I still had time to kill before my mom came to pick me up. Her shift at the birthing center went longer than expected. I hopped up on the wall next to him and he slammed his notebook shut. "Hey, I didn't hear you come up."

"Clearly." A piece of paper stuck out of the notebook and I couldn't help but grab it.

"Wait!" He snatched the paper back, but I already saw what was on it.

"Why are you hiding your algebra homework?" I asked, brows raised.

Since the movie night, Andre and I had been messaging back and forth. A lot. Like, I-might've-slept-through-my-alarm-every-morning-that-week a lot. It started after Romeo took me home once we finished his mom's garage.

I was the last one he dropped off, which meant we were alone in his car for ten minutes. Awkward wasn't a strong enough word. The silence in that car was suffocating. We usually had endless things to talk about. That was the first time I had nothing.

Well, that was a lie. There was one thing I wanted to ask him, but I was afraid it'd make things between us even worse.

"Are you going to the game on Thursday?" Romeo asked, breaking the silence just as he pulled up in front of my house.

"That's the plan." It was Nia's last basketball game of the season and the dance team was performing. Even though I wasn't into sports, both Nia and Indy would've murdered me if I didn't come out to support.

"Will you need a ride?" He asked his steering wheel instead of me.

"I--"

"Unless you're riding with Andre." He looked up at me then.

Nia couldn't be right. Romeo couldn't be jealous right now. There had to be another reason he's been acting weird. "Do you have a problem with Andre?"

He scratched his brow. "Nope. Why?"

Ugh. He was so frustrating. "You're really gonna pretend things haven't been...off since I started talking to him?"

A muscle in his jaw twitched as he drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. "Actually, yeah," he said, glancing at me. "Nia's been weirdly nice to me, lately. She wasn't even mad I didn't show up to movie night."

He couldn't be serious.

"I think she's getting desperate," he continued, leaning back in his seat. "Us being the last singles in the group. You two were whispering all day. Is she secretly in love with me?"

Whatever. If he couldn't have a mature conversation about it, I wasn't wasting my time.

He caught my arm before I left the car. "Hold on," he said, releasing me when I sat back down. "I'll save you a seat. For both of you."

I didn't know what game he was playing. That left a pit in my stomach because I could always read him. After I got up to my room, I wanted to talk to someone less complicated.

Andre was less complicated.

It started with me asking him if he wanted to go to the game and ended around two in the morning when I fell asleep during our back and forth about Percy Jackson. I'd only ever seen the movies and he wanted me to read the books.

Now Andre picked up his backpack from between his feet and threw his notebook inside. "It's chemistry, actually. And it's not homework."

"You do chemistry for fun?"

He gave me a sidelong glance, chewing his bottom lip. "You can't laugh."

That only made me even more curious. "What is it?"

He sucked in a breath, not releasing it until the notebook he put away was in my hands. I hadn't noticed before, but the notebook was pretty beat up. The red cover had a crease from too many folds. Some of the pages puffed out from being wet.

Across the cover in black marker read: .

My eyes flicked up to him. "You wrote a book?"

"Trying to," he said, picking at his cuticles. "I've been working on it since fourth grade."

I flipped to the first page, a family tree for his main character, DeAndre. Very close to Andre. I smiled at that, picturing him writing himself into a fantasy world.

"Those are just the notes," he told me as I continued to flip through hand-drawn maps and house layouts and sketches of dragon-like creatures. "The actual story is on a flash drive."

"Is this what you want to do?" I asked, turning the notebook sideways to get a better look at one of the drawings. "Instead of football, I mean."

He shrugged. "I don't know about that. I can't write as good as I play."

"Is that what people have told you?" I handed the notebook back and he dropped it into his backpack.

"Well, I never actually let anybody read it," he admitted, ducking his head. "You're kinda the first person I even told this to."

My chest swelled with warmth. "Then how do you know it's not good? You could have written the next bestseller."

He shook his head, a shy smile on his face. "No."

"Yes!" I said, bumping his shoulder with mine. "One day, a guy could be texting a girl about how amazing your books are in the middle of the night."

He laughed. "Sorry about that. Those books kind of changed my life, though."

"Why don't you tell your parents you're more interested in writing than football?"

"It's not that easy," he said, watching the stop and go traffic in front of the school.

I knew all too well how hard it was to talk to parents about things. Still, I asked, "Why not?"

He turned back to me, nose scrunched as he thought about it. "You got any plans right now?"

"Not until the game. Why?"

He hopped off the wall, slinging his backpack over his shoulder. "Because the only way I can answer your question is to show you."

I got off the wall, following him to his car while I let my mom know I found a ride. "Show me what?"

Andre lived in an apartment complex right down the street from me. There was a gate that he told me had been broken since they moved in. The complex was huge, with lots of buildings and trees and pathways. It was like a maze.

He parked, climbing a flight of stairs before reaching his front door. He had his keys out, but before he opened the door, he turned to me. "What I'm about to show you doesn't leave this house. And no photos."

I nodded, my curiosity through the roof.

He unlocked the door, letting out a breath before pushing it open.

The first thing I saw was green. Lots and lots of green. The couch, the doormat, the dining chairs--all green. With hints of gold here and there. Emerald and gold were our school colors. A fact I didn't realize until I saw the Valle Vista High banner hung up high on the wall.

The house was like a shrine to Andre's football career. There were dozens of photos of him in his football gear either on the field or posing with a football. Shiny trophies were dispersed around the small living room. I turned in a slow circle, taking everything in--and there was a lot to take in. My shock wore off when a life-sized cutout of Andre scared the crap out of me.

"Yeah," the actual Andre laughed from behind me. "Imagine walking in here in the middle of the night and seeing the silhouette of that."

"But...why?" I said, heart still pounding from the scare.

"My parents don't half-ass anything."

I smiled, remembering that I thought something similar about him the other day. Now I knew where he got from.

Then it hit me why he brought me here, why he thought I had to see it for myself. His parents loved that he was Valle Vista's biggest football star. Their entire house was proof of how much they supported him. If he told them he wanted something different, they'd be crushed.

I was constantly worried about disappointing my mom. Or I used to be. She definitely wouldn't approve of me being alone with a boy at his house. It was getting harder and harder to keep her wants in mind when mine were so different.

"I'll be the first in my family to go to college," he said, looking solemn. "And that's because of football. I can't pass up an opportunity like that."

That day at my house, he talked about the pressure he felt with football and senior year. It made sense now. "Maybe you can still squeeze in a creative writing class," I said, sounding hopeful.

Honestly, I didn't know anything about college or scholarships. My mom never went and she didn't push me to go. The thought of signing up for four more years of school wasn't appealing. Especially when I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. Maybe somewhere down the line I would go. But not straight out of high school.

His mouth lifted a little at the corners. "Yeah. Maybe."

I turned back to the cutout of him. He was in his uniform, mean-mugging the camera with his arms crossed over his chest. The image didn't match the Andre I've gotten to know over the last few days. "I know you said no photos--"

Before I even got my phone out of my pocket, he snatched it away. "Exactly."

"Just one," I said, laughing as I tried to get my phone back. Why were his arms so long? "I won't show anyone. Promise."

He held my phone over his head, chuckling as I stood on my tiptoes to reach, gripping his shirt for balance. When his free arm circled around my waist, I realized how close we were. Close enough to count each of his unfairly long eyelashes. His hand splayed across my lower back, his rings cold on my skin where my shirt rose up.

It was like we were in the closet again. My heartbeat was rapid in my chest, my face warm, a slight terror pulsing through me at the thought of having my first kiss. I think I preferred being blind folded.

He moved his hand from my back to my cheek, a soft smile on his lips. "You come here often?"

I snorted at him repeating what I'd said in the closet. Did that mean he was thinking about it too?

"Tangy!"

Both our heads whipped in the direction of the hallway. Instead of a human, a ball of orange came speeding around the corner. Andre and I jumped apart before the cat crashed into our legs. His sister came following it, just as the cat slipped under the couch.

Andre and I shared a look. I imagined he was thinking the same as me: Why did we keep getting interrupted?

"It was just a fly!" She said, throwing her arms up. Then she saw me. "Oh, hi."

"Hi."

Her gaze bounced between me and her brother. A grin crept across her face like she just solved an impossible puzzle. "Are you Daya?" she asked. Her brother went stiff.

"Yes, I am."

She nodded knowingly. "So, you're the reason my brother stays up all night giggling?"

My eyes shot up at Andre.

"I don't giggle," he said in a deeper voice than usual.

"He does. It's annoying," his sister insisted. "I'm Jazmine, by the way."

"Don't you have a cat to save?"

"You just want me to leave so you can keep making out with your girlfriend."

"She's not--" He stopped when he realized his sister was no longer listening, her head under the couch as she tried to coax the cat out of hiding.

His shoulders rose and fell helplessly. "I should probably take you home to get ready for the game."

Jazmine stood suddenly. "Wait," she said, grabbing a floral print backpack from the couch. She pulled out a card from the side pocket and handed it to me. "If you ever need some customized shoes, call me."

I glanced down at her shoes--classic white Nike Forces. The parts over the toe and on the side were painted to look like lined paper with doodles of hearts and stars all over. The laces had beads to spell out her name. They were definitely cute.

"And since you're my brother's girlfriend, you qualify for the friends and family discount."

"Thanks, but your brother and I aren't together." The basketball game would only be our second date. No labels had been discussed. How did one even bring up the subject? What label would I want?

Before my mind went spiraling, Jazmine took my hand and pressed the card into my palm. "You will be."

Andre shook his head at his sister. As we walked back to his car, I couldn't help but wonder if she was right.