"What are you doing out here all by yourself?" his voice asked from behind me.

I turned around and saw him striding towards me.

"Getting some air," I told Josh.

"Mind if I join you?" he asked. I motioned for him to sit beside me.

It was quiet for a second. We listened to the muffled sound of the music behind us and I watched the ground as the colored lights from inside illuminated it.

"Where's your girlfriend?" I asked josh.

"She isn't my girlfriend," he said quickly, reflexively.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to assume," I told him.

"No," he insisted. "Don't apologize."

I looked over at him to find him looking directly at me. He slipped a hand into his back pocket and pulled out a joint and a lighter.

"You smoke," I observed.

"A little," he agreed nonchalantly. "You want one?" he asked as he offered me a cigarette. I shook my head quickly.

We sat in silence for a moment, before I couldn't hold myself back more.

"You know that shit kills you right?" I told him.

He watched me with an amused look on his face as I kept going without giving him a chance to answer. I looked back in front of us, but continued.

"Smoking nicotine is increasing your pulse and blood pressure. Your sense of smell is reduced. Because nicotine is a stimulant, your brain will release feel-good chemicals or make you want to eat. When you don't satisfy the urge, you will feel anxious and irritable. You will become addicted," I say all in one breath. It sounded like a health video that we would watch in middle school, but my aunt died of lung cancer when I was seven, so you could say that I very, very felt strongly. "Frankly smoking is stupid."

"Did you just call me stupid?" he asked with a smirk.

I looked back at him amused.

"Yes," I snapped back.

Then I had a chance to take in his appearance. The way that his muscles flexed as he leaned on his knees. The way that he held the joint between his ringed fingers. The way that his lips wrapped around the joint delicately. His jawline was so sharp it could cut glass. As I looked at him, I noticed that his right arm was covered in a sleeve of tattoos. How I had missed it before, I had no idea. The only place on the right arm that wasn't inked was his fingers, but on some of his fingers he wore rings, which glinted in the moonlight. His tanned skin looked amazing with the black ink. The only way that i could think he was stupid right now, was stupid hot. Everything about how he looked right now was hot, like almost make me regret yelling at him about smoking, because it made him look so good, hot. Almost.

We sat in silence for a moment as the puff of his smoke blew from his mouth and away from us.

Then I felt a second wind coming on. "You know that you are poisoning the people around you right?" I asked him. He looks back at me patiently. "You're hurting Cooper, and Danny," I informed him. "And Mila," I added.

A flash of something appeared in his eyes as I said Mila's name, like regret or guilt. But it was covered up before I could properly identify it. "I never smoke in front of them," he said quietly, but firmly. "I never smoke in the house, I never smoke around my family, and I never, ever, smoke near Mila."

"But you'll smoke in front of a stranger who just yelled at you about smoking," I said.

"Only because it gets her riled up," he told me in a low voice. I scoffed, but he leaned closer to my ear and continued, "and she looks fucking sexy when she gets riled up."

I could feel the surprise on my face as Josh leaned away. My cheeks felt like they were on fire and my entire body felt hyper aware when he was near me. He chuckled softly at my reaction

"You aren't really a stranger anyways," he said as he blew more smoke from his mouth.

"How so?" I asked. I was glad that my voice portrayed me as calm when my nerves were still on fire.

"I read Cooper's paper," he told me.

"What did you learn?" I asked him.

"You're 21, you have two brothers, your parents are divorced, you lived in Texas until you moved here to go to uni," he told me.

It was all true, except for the divorce part. Well, it wasn't a lie, but my mom had left when I was a baby, I have approximately zero memories of her and Alexander and Noah were too young to remember her truly. But our family was better without her.

"Although, I kind of guessed the Texas thing from your accent," he admitted.

"It was spot on," I told him. "Well now it's not fair that you know about me and I don't know about you."

"What do you want to know?" he asked.

I wanted to know everything about him that he knew about me. "How old are you?" I asked.

"22," he answered.

"Any siblings?" I asked.

"I have a twin sister," he answered. "She went to Berkeley and then graduated early." Then he paused, but somehow I knew not to interrupt. "And a lot of cousins, my mom is Hispanic," he said.

I nodded. That explained his gorgeous deep brown fluffy hair and his tanned complexion. "Can you speak Spanish?" I asked.

"Si," he told me.

"That doesn't mean shit to me, everyone knows that si means yes," I told him.

He laughed and I instantly wanted to bottle that sound and keep it forever. "Bueno, no puedo concentrarme muy bien en este momento, con una mujer tan hermosa sentada frente a mí/Well, I can't focus with such a beautiful woman sitting in front of me," he told me.

Suddenly I found out that bilingual boys were infinitely hotter than any other guy I could possibly like. He spoke to me in Spanish and it was fucking sexy. I felt the intense urge to kiss him, but I held myself back, a tequila shot and a beer might not have been the best idea for my light-weight ass. I wasn't one to go around kissing guys that I barely met either, especially when they were smoking. I knew what he said. I was a Spanish minor and it made me blush. He thought that I was beautiful. He didn't ask me if I knew what it meant though, he assumed that I didn't know, but that was fine I didn't mind.

"Point proven," I conceded.

"What about your dad?" I asked him.

His face hardened instantly, "I don't know and I don't care."

His word was finite. I wasn't going to push him on it because I barely knew him, so we just sat awkwardly for a moment.

"What are you really doing out here?" he asked.

"Parties aren't really my scene," I admit.

"You looked like you were having fun," he told me.

"Watching me, perv?" I asked.

"Maybe," he shrugged innocently.

"I came here with my friend, she lives for this shit, and I would do anything for her, so here I am," I told him.

"The brunette," he said.

"The brunette," I confirmed. There was a pause as he puffed out some more smoke. "What are you doing out here?" I asked. "It's your party."

He chuckled for a second, "This is Cooper's party. If it were up to me, nobody would be here right now."

"Seems like Mila helped you dodge throwing a party every weekend," I told him.

"And I am forever in her debt," he said with a smile.

"Where is Mila?" I asked, suddenly realizing that not even these hockey idiots wouldn't have a rager with a toddler in the house.

"At Danny's mom's," he said."Have you ever smoked before?" he asked me.

"Any start the process of killing myself, no thanks," I said.

"Come on," he said as he waved the cigarette in front of me. "If you take one puff, then I'll stop."

"Forever?" I asked.

"For tonight, smart ass," he told me.

I looked at the cigarette contemplating my options. I sighed and motioned my hand for him to hand me the cigarette.

He handed it to me with a surprised look on his face. I placed the cigarette between my fingers just as I had seen him do. I hesitated only for a moment before I lifted it to my lips.