Amber's pov:

The school bell rings, signaling the end of my last class of the day.

Since I'm not in a rush to get on the bus and grab a good seat, I take my time packing up all my belongings to put in my backpack.

From there, I make my way to my locker, putting away all of my stuff that I don't need and grabbing a few things that I will need for doing my homework later.

Just as I was about done, I feel a few pokes on my shoulder, causing me to turn around and be met with a smiley Damien.

"Wow, you got here quickly." I say, eyeing his backpack and practice bag in hand, already to go.

"I guess I was just excited to see you again." His sudden words catch me by surprise, causing me to freeze in my place.

Taking a quick glance at Damien, I watch as his eyes widen before a blush makes its way onto his cheeks, as if even he was surprised by his own words.

"O-oh... I'm glad." The amount of effort it took to restrain myself from banging my head against the locker was honestly quite insane.

Really Amber?

'I'm glad.'

For being someone who is generally smart, your vocabulary is very...

Limited.

"So sh-should we get going?" Damien asks, rubbing the back of his neck nervously.

Not having faith in where my words would take me, I give him a quick head nod before zipping up my backpack.

Together, we walk side by side down the hallway, which was actual quite difficult because everyone else was going in the opposite direction to get to the busses.

For most of the way there though, it was silent. But not like that awkward silence that makes you feel uneasy, it was more of a comfortable silence.

But I don't know if it was from our last conversation that ended quite strangely or from us having to battle our way through all of the different groups of students.

"Have you thought about any ideas on where you would like to go after practice?" Damien breaks the silence once we find ourselves in an empty hallway.

I think for a few seconds before responding, "Why don't we grab something to eat after? Since your practice is two hours long, I'm sure you will work up an appetite, and it will end around dinner time so it would only make sense."

"That's sounds good, but now that you've mentioned how long our practices actually are, I feel bad for asking you to stay for so long." Damien says, looking at me with a small frown on his face.

I quickly wave my hand in dismiss at his words, not wanting him to feel bad, "I don't mind! I'm used to going to your practices anyways since I would go to support Liam. If I get bored, I can just get a head start on my homework."

"If you insist... I would say that you would also have Ella to talk to since she is almost always at our practices to support Luke, but I'm pretty sure she mentioned today that her mom wanted to take her and Ally shopping or something." Damien says while opening the door to the athletic center of our school for me.

I give him a small "thanks" before making my way to the small set of bleachers that lined the practice room, but I stop once I realize that Damien was still behind me.

"Shouldn't you be heading to the locker room to change?" I giggle, attempting to push him away, but he grabs ahold of my arm and instead pulls me closer.

"There is still some time before practice starts." He reasons, taking me to the bleachers before pulling me down to sit next to him.

It took a lot to keep my "awe's" down because he honestly looked like a small puppy that just wanted some form of attention.

And you know that feeling when you know you just have to fufill their request of attention because then you would just feel guilty for not doing so...

That's what it feels like in moments like these with Damien.

I've said it probably a thousand times, but Damien...

Will. Be. The. Death. Of. Me.

"You know, if my dad catches you sitting here talking to me instead of heading straight to the locker rooms to get dressed, you might not make it out alive for us to hangout afterwards." I joke, poking his cheek that was forming into a small pout on his lips.

"Don't you think I should get a free pass for taking you home safe and sound Friday night?" Damien tries to argue while crossing his arms over his chest.

I giggle, causing him to stomp his foot, as if he was trying to make a point. But it just made him look like a small kid who was told that he wasn't allowed to eat ice cream for dinner.

"That would make sense, but you know how my dad is... boxing, boxing, boxing. I think that takes up half of his brain."

Damien laughs at my words, "And let me guess, the other half is his oh so precious love for his daughter?"

I nod my head, a playful grin on my lips, "I mean... can you blame him? It's hard being a perfect child, it really is."

"I'm sure." He snickers, playfully rolling his eyes.

I nudge him, "By the way, you mentioned seeing your sister earlier, would you like to go after we grab something to eat?"

He nods his head, "I would like that, but I hope I'm not putting a burden on you, making you feel like you have to see my sister-..."

"What?! Of course not! Believe me when I tell you that I love visiting your sister with you. She is so sweet, and I am grateful that I had the chance to become her friend."

My words put a big smile on his face, as his eyes began to slightly glisten, "Have I ever mentioned how amazing you are? Because I feel like I need to start saying it more often."

I look down at my lap from the compliment, feeling my heart skip a beat, "You may have mentioned it a few times."

"And yet that's not enough. But seriously though," he grabs my chin with his hand, tilting my chin up to face him, "I know I've said this phrase over a thousand times, but thank you. If there was a word that held a greater meaning than amazing, that word would only belong to you." He says, softly gazing into my eyes with his hand still gently placed upon my chin.

I felt speechless as I gazed back into his eyes, now realizing how close we were to one another.

I start to feel butterflies in my stomach as he shifts himself closer to me, so that are faces were only a few inches apart.

It was as if I was trapped in his gaze, my mind completely going blank as I couldn't bring myself to look away from such alluring eyes.

We both just stayed completely still while staring at one another, waiting to see which one of us would be the first to say something or pull back.

For a moment of bliss, it felt like we were in our own little bubble, far away from whatever else was happening in the world.

It was just us.

Together.

I watch as his eyes then flick down to my lips, before quickly looking back at me.

Although I understood what was happening, at the same time, I felt lost. And without thinking, I feel myself starting to nervously bite down on my lip, which catches his attention and causes him to look back down at my lips.

But this time, his eyes stay there for a couple seconds before they look back at me, as if asking for permission.

And with my brain on power off and my heart in a fifty meter dash, impulsively I find myself giving him a quick nod of the head.

And with no words said, he brings my face closer to his before slowly leaning in...

Oh my god...

It's happening.

We are about to-...

"Hey, Damien!!!" We both jump back at a sudden voice from across the practice room.

I didn't even have to turn around to know who it was, and frankly, it made my stomach drop.

"H-Hey coach." Damien stutters, standing up quickly while rubbing the back of his neck nervously, which I found was quite a habit of his.

It's kinda cute-...

NOT THE TIME AMBER.

"What are you doing over there, shouldn't you be changing-... oh hi honey!" My dad says, realizing that it was me who he was next to.

Okay Amber... NO NEED to panic.

If he didn't even realize it was me, then maybe he didn't see us almost about to...

Kiss.

...

WE ALMOST KISSED!!!

HOLY-... MOTHER OF... AHHHHHHHH!!!

"I-... uhm... Hi Dad." I wave awkwardly, while trying to smoothly cover my face with my hair, in attempt to hide my red cheeks.

"I didn't know you were staying to watch today, when I asked Liam when I saw him a few minutes ago, he said no."

Another bullet point that will be added to Liam's list of reasons to throw me off a cliff... nice.

"Oh, I guess I forgot to mention it to him. I decided to come to practice since Damien and I are planning to hangout afterwards so I was wondering if-..."

"You already know that's fine by me. And get something to eat while you're out because I'm tired of you eating all of my snacks at home-..."

"Dad!" I whine, covering half of my face with the palm of my hand. He laughs at my embarrassed expression while pointing at Damien and then at the locker room, signaling him to get dressed for practice.

Damien waves goodbye to me before running back to the locker room, following my dads orders.

From there, I make myself comfortable on the bleachers before attempting to watch them practice.

And I say "attempting" because no matter how much I tried to focus on the practice, my mind kept bringing me back to Damien and I almost kissing.

No way... no way that could have been real. I dreamed, and dreamed, and DREAMED of him stealing my first kiss...

But that was okay because I never expected it to ACTUALLY HAPPEN!!!

If my Dad hadn't had came in that exact moment, would we have actually kissed?

Maybe one of us would have moved away last second...

Or maybe not.

Damien has only mentioned us as being close friends, does he actually want something more? And if so... for how long has he wanted us to be more than just friends?

Or was it just an impulsive move since we were so close to one another and it just seemed right in the moment.

But that would have been his first kiss too, and I'm pretty sure people don't just throw away their first kiss like that...

Or maybe it's just me...

Yeah. It's probably just me.

Frustratedly, I put my head in my hands, trying to calm myself down.

I really hope things don't become awkward between us.

I feel like we are in such a good place right now, I would hate it if that one little moment ruined everything.

Gosh, I would give anything to see what was going on through Damien's head. Was he thinking about it? Was it bothering him like it was me?

My eyes drift to Damien laughing with Liam and Luke as they wait for their turn on the mat.

He doesn't seem the tiniest bit of distracted at all, which can either be a good thing...

Or a very, very bad thing.

I look up at the clock on the wall before letting out a sigh...

This is going to be a long practice.