Chapter 5

I can't believe what he's done. There are lit candles and rose petals everywhere, strategically placed. There's even a heart made of rose petals on his bed. There's two balloons, one on either side of his bed that say 'happy' and 'birthday'. He even has his own playlist of love songs playing quietly. Ethan walks over to me, holding a huge bouquet of at least a hundred sunflowers. He's dressed in a suit, and styled his hair. He looks so good.

"Happy birthday Nova." He smiles and gives me a kiss.

"You did all this...for me?" I look around in shock. Tears start falling from my eyes.

Never in my life has someone put so much effort into me. I feel so overwhelmed, my heart is so full right now. I can't believe he's done this. For me. Of all people. I don't deserve this at all.

He puts the sunflowers down on the bed and hugs me tightly.

"Of course. I got a lot of the stuff yesterday, and my brothers helped me by blowing up the balloons while we were at the beach. I had them put everything into a different room so I can set up when we got here. Do you like it?" He uses one hand to wipe my tears away.

"Ethan..." I sniffle, trying to stop the tears from coming. "I love it. You're so sweet. Why would you do this? I don't deserve any of it." He pulls away from my embrace.

"I hate to see you cry." He wipes my tears again before leaning down to kiss both of my eyelids. "Don't cry anymore okay? You're so beautiful, even when you cry. But I don't want to see you sad. Of course you deserve this. You deserve more than this. You're so sweet, caring, loving, funny," he kisses me in between each compliment.

"I want to give you more than you could ever imagine." He pulls me towards the bed where we sit down.

"Here," he hands me the flowers. I've never seen so many sunflowers in a bouquet. I've seen the bouquets of 100 roses, but never sunflowers. They're so beautiful.

"I was going to get you roses, but I thought that's too cheesy. I called every flower shop in the area until I found one that could put it together." He put so much effort into this...into me...I don't see why.

I place the flowers on his nightstand and quickly make my way back over to him. I wrap my arms around his shoulders and kiss him. I'm so lucky. I think to myself. How could things have gotten so much better within such a short amount of time, from meeting just one person? I've never been able to picture myself with anybody in the future. Whenever I imagined getting my dream job, buying a house, and having a family, a man was never in that dream. But as of recently, I can slowly see a figure coming into my life. I may be getting ahead of myself here, but I really hope it's Ethan.

"I want to give you your presents now." He says softly as he pulls away from our kiss.

"You don't have to give me anything else." I laugh. "You've given me so much already." Ethan kisses my forehead before reaching under his bed.

He pulls out the bag that I seen him reach for earlier in his trunk. It's a silver bag, tied with a bow on top.

"I haven't even given you anything but flowers." He laughs, handing the bag to me. "I hope you like it." His expression turns nervous.

I smile and sit back down, pulling the loose end of the ribbon that made up the bow. It comes undone and I reach into the bag without looking. I pull out a long, small, black box. A jewelry one, to be exact. I open it up to see a silver chain with a diamond encrusted "E" hanging on it. I gasp softly and run my finger over it. Are they real? I don't wear much jewelry, so I can't tell. I guess I'll just see if it turns my neck green. But regardless if it's real or not, it's beautiful. I absolutely love it.

"It's so pretty..." I say breathlessly. I look up at Ethan, grinning.

"I actually," Ethan reaches over to his nightstand and pulls out a similar box to mine. "have the same one. But what an 'N' on it." He smiles. Matching necklaces, how cute.

"Can you help me put it on? I can't even wait." I ask and hand the necklace to him, turning my back towards the guy.

He puts the necklace around my neck and gently clips it on. I turn back around to face him, grabbing the letter hanging from my neck. At this point, I'm grinning like a madman.

"Thank you so much. I love it, it's beautiful." I throw myself at him, embracing him in my arms. He hugs me back and I feel him kiss the top of my head.

"You're welcome. I'm glad you like it. Put mine on for me, please?" I nod and clip the necklace around his neck. His is more of a chain, actually, with the same way my letter is, but with an N.

How cute. We're wearing each other's initial.

"I'm never taking this off." We both say at the same time, laughing.

"Okay, there's one more thing in there." Ethan tells me.

I reach in the bag again, feeling for whatever it is. I feel a small velvety box, and pull it out. I tilt my head. Is it earrings?

Ethan gently takes the box from my hands. He turns the opening towards me and what I see in there makes me freeze. Rings?! What the hell is going on? It's obviously not a wedding ring. They're silver bands, each containing half a heart encrusted in it. They sit side by side each other in the box, making the heart complete.

"Nova," Ethan starts. "I know this kinda seems like I'm proposing to you, but I promise that I'm not. So you can stop looking scared." He laughs.

"When I seen these, it reminded me of you. I'm not sure if you feel the same way, but whenever I'm not with you, I feel incomplete. The month we didn't see each other after we first met, I felt like you took a small part of me. I tried asking around if anybody knew you, but school hadn't started yet so it was impossible. I thought I wasn't going to see you again. I thought of the chances of coming across you again, in this big school where there are thousands of other girls. Those chances were slim, I told myself. I was ready to give up, then I saw you in my Bio class. I was so excited. What were the chances? And then, come to find out, we have most of our classes together." He takes one of my hands with his free one.

"I don't know if you believe in God, and if you don't, this might sound cheesy. But I truly believe God sent you to me. I wasn't in the best of headspaces when I met you. But I think God sent his best angel to help heal me and help me grow. And that's you. Since I met you, I've been the happiest I've been in my entire life. I'm so happy you've been the first of many things for me. My first kiss, my first girlfriend, my first sense of happiness, and I want you to be the first for many more things to come. I'm so grateful you came into my life, I hope and pray every night that you stay here with me. "

I don't even realize that I'm crying, until he reaches up to wipe my tears away.

"I bought these rings to always have a reminder that we'll be there for each other. That we are each other's other half. I know that I'm not perfect, and I'm not well versed with other people, but I promise to try my best. For you." He lets out a shaky breath.

He slips one of the rings onto my fourth finger, on my right hand. I look at it in awe. He puts the other ring on the same finger of his. I extend my arm, to look at the ring from afar.

"Thank you so much Ethan. I love it. I..." I shake my head in shock. "Thank you for everything you've done for me. You're so good to me." I hug him tightly.

"You deserve way more." He says as he hugs me back.

"I was thinking, because the guys aren't home, and probably won't be home tonight- at least not before 3am, we can watch a few movies together? Just hang out or something." Ethan trails his hands up and down my spine as he talks.

"I think I have a better idea. If it's okay with you." I look up at him, smirking.

"Oh? What's better than watching movies with my best girl?" He laughs.

I don't know where this sudden confidence comes from. But I gently push Ethan down onto the bed and get on top of him. I straddle either side of his waist. He looks up at me, shocked.

My cheeks heat up as I put my hands on his chest, leaning down to kiss him. He kisses me passionately, and places his hands on my waist. I run my hands down his chest before slipping them under his shirt  and feeling his bare skin. My fingers tread lightly, tracing the pattern of his abs. I feel Ethan's tongue swipe against my bottom lip and I open my mouth, allowing him access. I can feel the hesitation in Ethan's hands, so I guide them around my body, allowing him to explore wherever he wants to.

"I love your plan. This is definitely better than watching a movie." He mumbles against my lips and I laugh. He pulls away from the kiss and his eyes meet mine. He smiles softly, cupping one of my cheeks with his hand. I love when he does that. I feel so safe.

"You're so perfect." He whispers, barely audible. I blush and look away. He grabs my face gently, turning my head so I'm forced to look at him again.

"Do you know what I love about you?" He asks, his smile soft and inviting. I shake my head, giving a nervous laugh.

I squeal as he puts his arm over me and flips us over, his legs on either side of my waist now. He puts a hand on either side of my face, his necklace dangling in front of me. He's so handsome.

"I love," he starts, an unknown glint in his eyes. "your eyes." He leans down and I close my eyes, he kisses each of my eyelids. My eyes open back up when he pulls away.

"Your lips," he gives me a loving kiss, lingering just for a moment extra. "your hair," he kisses the top of my head. "the rich color of your skin," he kisses both of my cheeks. He trails to the side of my face "your ears," he bites and licks the bottom of my earlobes where my ear piercing is.

I giggle at that. He sits up and looks at me, laughing.

"I also love," he pecks my lips again, then leaves a trail of kisses down to my neck. "how tender your skin is right here." He kisses a certain place on my neck, then leaves a hickey.

"I love how soft your hands are." He grabs my right hand and stops, looking at the ring that lays on my finger. He bends down and places a soft kiss on my hand. My heart flutters. How romantic can this guy be?

"And these are just the physical things. If I were to list every single thing I love about you, we'd be sitting here for a week straight." He laces his fingers with mine.

My face gets heated. I'm speechless.

"I want to kiss every single inch of you. Taste you in places nobody else is allowed to taste, but me. You're mine. Do you understand that?" He suddenly sounds so possessive. The way he's demanding things right now is really doing something to me.

"I'm yours." I whisper right before he clashes his lips onto mine again.

He untangles our hands and pulls away from the kiss, hurriedly taking off his suit jacket and shirt, all in one motion. I flip us over so I'm on top of him again. He stares up at me, almost in awe.

"You're so handsome." I say to him, taking in the sight. "So handsome." I repeat, leaning down to kiss him.

I put my hand on his cheek, feeling the warmth in them. We make out for a while before I feel him fiddling with the bottom of my shirt. I pull away from the kiss to look into his eyes.

"Take it off." I whisper. His eyes widen slightly, and his cheeks turn red once again.

"W-what?" He stutters, as if he can't quite believe what he's hearing.

"If you want to," I place my hands on his, which rest at the bottom of my shirt. "you can take it off."

"Are you okay with it?" He looks at me, seemingly happy. I nod my head, laughing. I give him a quick peck on the lips as a form of encouragement.

I raise my arms over my head, and in one swift motion, he lifts the shirt off of me. I place my hands over my chest. I know I literally just told him to take my shirt off. But I forgot I didn't have a bra since I changed into his clothes. The cold air hits my bare skin and I shiver. Ethan grabs my hands, slowly lowering them, now having a full display of my upper body. He lets out a breath I didn't know he was holding.

"Wow..." he stares at me. He has to do something. I'm feeling a little embarrassed just sitting here, tits out while he does nothing.

He gently flips me over so he's once again on top. He pins my arms down on either side of my body, a hungry look in his eyes.

"You really are ethereal." He whispers.

It's safe to say that neither of us are getting much sleep tonight.

~~

A loud alarm wakes me up from my sleep. I groan, wondering why I have an alarm set for a Sunday. I lay lazily in bed, not wanting to get up. I try to move my arm to reach for where the sound is coming from but I feel something restricting me. My eyes fly open in panic.

My eyes are met by skin. I blink a couple times, still out of my senses from the deep sleep I was in. I lift my head up, seeing Ethan sleeping peacefully. I completely forgot I never went home. I sneak my hand out of his embrace and reach over to his night stand, hitting the 'dismiss' button to stop the alarm. I lay there, watching how peaceful Ethan looks. His eyes slowly open and meet mine. My cheeks heat up because I was literally just staring at him. He leans up and gives me a kiss.

"Good morning. How long have you been watching me?" He grins.

"I-I wasn't watching you. I just turned off the alarm and you woke up when I looked back at you..." I bite my lip, embarrassed.

"Hmm, sure." He leans up and kisses me again.

He pulls me back down against him and I bury my face in his neck. I'm so tired. We didn't go to sleep until 4 in the morning. And it's barely 10 now.

I move my body to be a little bit more comfortable, and I hear Ethan groan.

"Don't do that." He says and I blush. He pulled me on top of him last night before we fell asleep.

We didn't even bother to put any clothes back on last night, so we're both naked, stacked ontop of each other.

"Sorry." I say shyly, hearing Ethan laugh.

"I want to wake up to you like this every morning." He whispers, kissing the top of my head.

"You want to wake up to me naked every morning?" I laugh tiredly.

"Mmm, yes. That sounds nice, doesn't it?" Ethan laughs in sync with me.

"Eh." I shrug and Ethan playfully slaps my ass. "Okay, I'm kidding. It does sound nice." He grins up at me.

"I need to take a shower. But I'm so tired. I also need to go back to my dorm. The girls are probably wondering where I am." I yawn.

"Call them." Ethan says. I look up at him like he's crazy.

"Pfft. Yeah right. Lorena thinks that we fuck every 2 seconds. Imagine what her reaction would be now that we actually did." I scoff. Ethan quickly flips us, pinning both my arms on either side of my head.

"Don't ever say that again." He says sternly then leans down to kiss me. "I will never fuck you. Our love is so much more than that." He laughs against my lips. I blush as he lets go of me, opting to lay beside me instead.

He pulls me up so my head rests on his chest. I grab my phone off of his nightstand and pull his cover over us. I dial Lorenas number to FaceTime her. I position the phone so she would be able to see me and Ethan. She picks up almost immediately.

"WHERE THE FUCK HAVE YOU-oh." Ethan and I start laughing. We see Lorena cover her eyes then peek through her fingers.

"YALL FUCKED. AGAIN. AND YOU'RE STILL NAKED??? WHERE IS THE DECENCY TO PUT CLOTHES ON BEFORE YOU CALL? ETHAN I AM GOING TO MURDER YOU! YOU DEFLOWERED MY POOR INNOCENT FRIEND." Lorena screams.

"What the hell is going on?" I hear Callie say in the background then she comes in front of the camera. Her eyes widen and she quickly walks away.

"CALLIE DOESN'T EVEN WANT TO SEE YOU GUYS LIKE THAT. YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED." Lorena just goes off.

"You can literally only see my shoulders and part of his chest." I roll my eyes.

"Lorena, you owe me $40." Callie's voice drifts through the background. "I win the bet." My eyes widen.

"You guys betted on us?!" I stare at Lorena's guilty face through the phone.

"Yeah..." she says shyly. "Callie said you were gonna have birthday sex. I said you wouldn't because I didn't think either of you had the balls to. I'm never taking your side again." Lorena scoffs.

"I'm a poor college student and now I have to give away $40. And it's all your fault." She says dramatically. "By the way, can I borrow $40?" I laugh.

"Hell no! Next time don't make bets on my relationship." I shake my head, grinning.

"You guys are crazy." Ethan mumbles, shaking his head in laughter.

"Ethan, don't take what I said lightly. I will murder you for making my best friend not innocent anymore. And making me lose $40." Lorena points at him through the screen.

"Yeah yeah, okayyy." He chuckles.

"I will also murder you if you ever break her heart! Don't ever break her heart!!!" Callie comes into view again. Ethan puts both his hands up in surrender.

"I won't. I promise. You have my word." Ethan laughs.

"Okay, we have to go. We're gonna have sex again bye!" Ethan takes the phone from me and hangs up quickly before they can have any sort of reaction.

I gasp and look at him, shocked. We both laugh and I lay back down against him.

"You're silly." I chuckle, putting my phone back on his nightstand.

"No," he says, getting on top of me. "I'm serious." He grins and kisses me.

Yeah, he wasn't joking....

~~~~

"I really need to go home." I whisper, playing with Ethan's hair. It's now 5pm. We've been...busy...almost all day.

We went out for lunch for about an hour, before coming back to his house and, well, you know.

"I don't want you to leave..." Ethan wraps his arms tighter around me.

"We haven't done any homework all day. Do you want us both to fail our classes?" I laugh.

I really don't want to leave. But it's getting later and later and although we've been very productive all day, it hasn't been in any way that will benefit my education.

"I have connections throughout the school. I'll tell your teachers to make you exempt from turning in this weeks assignments." He rubs my back. "Actually, I really like that idea. Then we can go on dates everyday."

"I know your uncle is a professor, but can you really do that..?" I frown. "Who else do you know?" I laugh.

"Don't worry about it." I look up at him to see he's grinning. I roll my eyes, smiling.

"Don't do that though. Your family and whoever else you know is going to think I'm only dating you to use you." I say. "And I don't want anyone to think that."

"Nobody is going to think that. They'll just think we're lazy." He laughs but I frown.

"That's not good either." I note and get out of his embrace, standing up from the bed.

I stretch my limbs and Ethan watches me the entire time. I self consciously try to cover my naked body, blushing. Ethan gets up from the bed as well and walks over to me, no shame at all being naked in front of me. He pulls me to his chest into a tight hug.

"Don't feel embarrassed in front of me. You're so beautiful." He kisses the top of my head and I feel my heart melt. I'm so lucky so have this man.

He walks away from me and towards his closet. He grabs a t shirt, boxers, sweatpants, and a sweater before walking back over to me.

"Put your hands up." He tells me and I do. For the first time today, he puts clothes on me.

He slips the sweater over my head and pulls it down my body. It's so comfortable. He goes to the bathroom and grabs my clothes from yesterday. He washed them while we were out today. He grabs my shorts and bends down, slipping my legs into each hole and pulling them up my body, buttoning them at the top.

"You know I can dress myself, right?" I laugh.

"I know." He winks at me before getting dressed in his sweatpants and T-shirt.

"Shall I walk you to your dorm now?" He extends his arm out to me. I loop my arm through his.

"You shall." I laugh and we walk out his room.

Once we get downstairs, a few of the guys who also live there are in the living room. They're all talking, but stop when they see us. A few of them whistle at Ethan.

"Huh, so that's why you haven't been out your room all day. You two were were studying hands-on anatomy." One of the guys looks over at me and winks.

"You going that exotic for your first time? You're bold brother!" Another guy shouts and they all come up to smack Ethan on the back.

I feel extremely uncomfortable now, especially because of the last guys comment.

How disgusting. I think to myself.

"This is my girlfriend, Nova." Ethan introduces, and suddenly everybody's attention is on me.

"Girlfriend? Man, I was going to ask if I can have a piece of that ass too. You know, sharing is caring." At that, a few of the guys cheer and I mentally gag.

"Say some dumb ass shit like that again." Ethan says, his voice suddenly low and stern. "And I promise I will beat the shit out of you. Let's go. We're leaving." He pulls me out the door forcefully.

Thank god. I was not feeling safe in there anymore. Ethan walks fast, holding onto my arm tightly. His legs are a lot longer than mine, and I can't keep up with him. Not to mention it hurts to walk this fast. He stares off in the distance, seething.

"Ethan slow down." I say, but he ignores me.

"Ethan." I repeat, trying to make him at least loosen his grasp on me. Yet, he still ignores me.

"Ethan you're hurting me!" I yell. He suddenly stops, and I crash into him.

He looks at me worriedly and grabs my face in both his hands. I rub the part of my arm where he previously held me.

"Oh my god, are you okay?" He hugs me. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I didn't realize I was holding you so tightly. I'm so sorry baby. I was just so angry." I push him off of me, I was already annoyed at the fact that his stupid roommates made nasty comments, and the fact that he wouldn't listen to me made me angrier.

"It's fine." I grumble out. "You don't have to walk me to my dorm. I'll go by myself." I start walking off, a slight limp in my step.

"Hey, no. I'm sorry. Please let me walk you home. I was irritated at what they were saying, especially Dean. I didn't mean to hurt you." He gently grabs my hand. "Why are you limping?" He frowns. I roll my eyes and huff out a breath.

"Why do you think Ethan? I'm sore." I say, annoyed. I know he didn't mean to hurt me on purpose, but what the hell? He can't just zone out like that and not listen to what I'm saying.

"Oh." He says simply and I look at him. He's blushing. "I'm really sorry though. I feel horrible for hurting you. I promise to never do it again. I never meant to hurt you. I'll never hurt you again." He hugs me.

I sigh, hugging him back.

"I know you didn't mean to hurt me." I mumble into his chest. "But you need to be careful. And stop apologizing, it's fine. At least I'll die from my injuries happy." I laugh.

"Don't say that. I don't want to imagine you gone." He kisses the top of my head.

He pulls away from our hug and turns around, bending over. I look at him confused. He reaches around and pats his back when I don't do anything.

"Hop on, I'm going to give you a piggyback ride to your dorm." He says and I laugh at that.

"Are you serious?" I ask quizzically.

"100%. You're sore, you shouldn't have to walk." He says. "My queen, your chariot awaits!"

I burst out laughing at that. I hesitantly put my arms around his neck, and hop up on his back. Can this man even lift me? He's skinny...

To my surprise, he stands up tall, supporting my weight by holding onto my legs. I wrap my legs around his waist and move my arms under his, so I don't choke him. I hug his chest as he makes his way over to the girls' dorm.

"You're strong." I prop my head up on his shoulder. He doesn't even seem out of breath.

"Did you think I wouldn't be able to carry you?" He laughs at that. "Do you think I'm weak?"

"No..." my voice trails off, sounding unconvincing.

"Hey!" He feigns the hurt in his voice...I think... "I work out every day. I can carry 100 of you. You weigh nothing to me." He says matter of factly.

"I believe you." I kiss his cheek and squeeze his bicep, laughing.

"Mhm. Sure." He laughs with me.

We reach my dorm in no time, I pull out my key from my shorts. He grabs my hands and holds them, pouting. There's girls in the hall, talking and hanging out with each other. Some of them stare at us, weirdly.

"We're going on a date tomorrow, okay? Right after your last class, I'll meet you outside the classroom. Alright?" He raises an eyebrow. "And you better not take these off." He points to my necklace and ring on my finger.

"Okay, and I won't. I'll never take them off!" I laugh.

"Good." He smiles at me.

He leans down and gives me a gentle kiss on my lips, I pull away quickly after because there are already people staring at us. He snakes his arms around my waist and stares into my eyes.

"Maybe I should spend the night here. Or maybe you should just grab clothes and spend the night at mine." He mumbles, leaning his forehead against my own.

"Hmm, no. You won't let me sleep." I laugh, putting my arms around his shoulders.

I don't know what comes over me. Maybe I'm feeling a little confident, or maybe I just got a little too emotionally attached to this man after last night. But I lean in and peck his lips once more and whisper something that I'll soon regret.

"I love you." The words come out of my mouth without thinking.

I feel his entire body tense up, and I instantly know I made a mistake. I quickly pull away from him and see shock is written all over his face. Once I come to my senses and realize he isn't going to say it back, embarrassment washes over my entire body and I quickly enter my dorm, shutting the door in his face.

Geez, how am I going to face him again?

THIS IS REALLY LONG IM SORRY ILL TRY TO KEEP THE CHAPTERS BETWEEN 3,500 and 4,500 WORDS IF THATS NOT TOO MUCH