Chapter 24

Adrian's POV

1 week later...

"That's right, Frank!!!" Devin yells down at the field, despite him obviously not being able to hear us. We have good seats though, thanks to Kai and Jax buying us second row seats to the Cal at USC game for our bye week. We are lucky to have rich ass friends. I'm pretty rich myself, but not on the same level as Kai or Jax. They are rich rich.

My grandparents are super rich. They are just a couple levels under Kai and Jax, but they are still super rich and multimillionaires. They have at least 15 million dollars.

"Hey, shut the fuck up! Do you have any idea that you're cheering for the wrong team!?" an angry USC fan yells at us.

"Shut the fuck up do you really think we'd be cheering for USC? You're a bunch of clowns, shut the fuck up!" Kai yells at the guy.

"Do you want a beer can to the head?" he asks.

"Do you want a baseball bat to the head? Don't fuck around with us, you don't want this smoke," Jax states. For being ultra rich suburban kids, they are remarkably good at acting hood.

"I can call security on your asses!"

"Shut the fuck up and let us enjoy this game," Kai says, standing up and facing the USC fan. He's fat and has an eternally cooked hairline.

"Are you trying to fight me? I can fight you all at once, don't test me," the fan states.

"Guess what? I go to UCLA," Kai grins.

I look back and the USC fan's mouth falls open before he scowls aggressively at Kai. Kai just stands there laughing and not giving a shit, basically taunting this fatass. I feel like Kai lowkey might be good at fighting people. He has hella confidence and that's like half of fighting people. You have to have the mentality to fight, you can't just back off.

"That's it, buddy, I guess we're both getting kicked out, but I won't be the one in the hospital," the fan says.

"I dare you to punch me. Matter of fact, here, punch right here," Kai says, pointing to his eye.

"Kai, this is not a good idea. It was funny before, but you're going way too far now. What if he actually punches you?" Jax asks.

"I'll be fine bro, don't worry. Remember when I got a black eye at that pool in 5th grade? That didn't hurt that much."

"This is really not a good idea though Kai," Jax says.

"Don't worry."

Kai and this fan proceeded to sloppily fight for 5 minutes, barely laying any real punches on each other. Again, this guy is a complete fatass, and sometimes fat people are super strong. Kai on the other hand, is tall, but he's still relatively skinny. He has a very lean build, and he still looks good, but it makes sense that he's playing receiver because there's no other position he could play.

They both got kicked out, but Kai texted all of us that he's waiting outside the stadium for the game to end. Kai is funny, but that was a terrible decision and he really made himself look like an idiot. It was still kind of funny, lowkey though.

"I'm not really surprised. He's gotten in trouble for fighting before. In 8th grade," Jax says.

"Damn. Why did he like fighting people?" DeShaun asks.

"I don't know. He said it 'makes him feel alive,' which is not really a good thing. We had already been in football for years, we already were taking tough hits, but getting punched in the face is the only thing that wakes him up. I stay being worried about him."

"Yeah," DeShaun replies. "It's kind of pointless."

"For real."

The game ends and the remaining 7 of us walk over to the hall outside of the locker rooms and wait for Frank and Jeremiah. Since Frank was one of Cam's best friends, and since I was also one of Cam's best friends, me and Frank were basically best friends. Jeremiah was more chill with Jason, and Jason obviously dated Aaron, so Jeremiah and Aaron were chill with each other.

"Hey guys," Frank grins as he exits the locker room, dapping up Cam and then going to do the same to Aaron before congratulating them on their relationship and wishing them all the best and hoping for a wedding invite.

"What's up, Adrian, how have you been?" Frank asks, dapping me up.

"I've been good. I don't know if anyone's told you, but I came out at the end of last year. I am gay, and that's not a secret to anyone anymore," I state.

"Nice. I'm proud of you, you're really brave, man. I don't know if I would have the kind of mental power that you have to come out if I were in your shoes."

"Thanks. It's great to see you, again, man," I dap him up again before he goes to talk to Devin.

"You too, bro."

Jeremiah exits the locker room and talks to everyone as well, hugging everyone on the team. He might've been more chill with Cameron, but he was still super cool with everyone else. He was so unproblematic when we were all teammates, he was really cool.

"Hey, Adrian, anything new?" Jeremiah asks me when he gets to me.

"I'm gay, that's one thing."

"Hm. I could tell. I think I kind of could tell. You were always staring at Derek like he was Jesus," Jeremiah states, grinning at me.

"Uh, I don't think that's true," I lie.

"You're right, my bad. I'll see you later."

Once everyone says hi to Jeremiah and Frank we all go outside, where Kai is sleeping on a bench. It's extremely hot outside and it's really sunny too, and he's not sitting in shade. I hope he knows he'll probably get a sunburn from this, but maybe he's okay with that.

"Kai, wake up," Jax kicks his side.

"Damn it! Jesus, I'm sorry I got kicked out of this boring ass game. Cal was favored by 15 points, they won by what, 30? I didn't really want to stay anyways, I'm tired already," Kai says.

"You fought an adult, Kai. That was not a good idea."

"Sorry. I'm sorry, Jax."

"It's fine, just don't do dumb things, okay?"

"Okay. Sorry," Kai says, sitting up.

"Are they gonna kiss?" Devin asks me.

"I don't know, but I wouldn't be too surprised," I reply.

"Same."

"Uh, this feels kind of weird, so we are all leaving now," DeShaun decides.

"Who died and made you president?" Aaron asks, laughing at DeShaun.

"I don't know. What are we gonna do for the rest of the day?" DeShaun asks.

"Me and Adrian were planning on going to the mall, you can come if you want," Derek says.

Thank God he spoke up because being alone around him all week has really fucked with my mind. I'm legitimately going insane. And he's so chill and looks completely normal around my crazy ass. He has no idea how hard I'm falling for him right now.

"I'll go with you guys, that sounds fun," DeShaun says.

"Me and Kai will go with you, we have nothing else to do," Jax says.

"Do I not get a say in this?" Kai questions.

"No, you got kicked out of a football game."

"Fair."

"How about the rest of you?" Derek asks.

"The three of us are having lunch with my mom and Alicia is meeting us there, so we'll be out for a while. We can't go," says Aaron.

"Alright. Then the 5 of us will go to the mall. See you guys later," Jax says.

"Cool. Me and Adrian came here together together, so we'll go in his car. DeShaun, do you need a ride?" Derek asks.

"Yeah, sure. I'll come with you guys," he replies, following me and Derek. Thank God for another buffer, even if it's just for like 10 minutes. I am tweaking the fuck out 24/7 around Derek.

"What were you two planning on getting at the mall?" DeShaun asks as we get in the car.

"I don't know. We're probably just gonna walk around and see if there's stuff we want. We don't need anything, that's for sure," I say.

"Yeah, I feel like that's the case most of the time we go to malls. Just see if there's anything interesting, if not, then we'll just leave," DeShaun says.

"Yeah, exactly."

We get to the mall and wait for Kai and Jax to get here. I don't know what's taking them so long, they got in their car at the same time as the three of us. Maybe they're just bad drivers, but still cautious, so it doesn't matter that much.

5 minutes later Jax pulls into a parking spot, with Kai looking like a pissed off 6 year old. I don't really know what happened, Jax might've just lectured Kai about fighting people. Kai is 18 by the way. I'm sure his parents have given him this lecture before, I don't know why he's really this upset. He should know not to fight, but the 40+ year old should also know even more.

"Cool. Let's go in," Derek says. He turns to me and makes eye contact with me for a second, and then he smiles at me. He smiled at me.

Passing out on the sidewalk right then seemed really easy, but I have to chill the fuck out, so I just smiled back at him before we all walked into the mall. I can't handle this shit anymore, I just need to do something to calm myself down.

"We should get something to eat first," Jax suggests.

"Yeah, for sure. That sounds like a good plan," Derek replies and I nod.

"Kay. Let's go to the food court," Jax says.

The 5 of us all walk to the food court and look around for something to eat. There's a lot of stuff here, it's a pretty nice food court. It's so fucking crowded though. I guess that's what we get for coming to a mall at noon on a Saturday. There are so many disgusting children here that probably shit their pants on the daily. When parents let their kids run around a big building without any supervision, they are not doing their jobs. They have to know where their kid is all the time, and to be honest, I don't want a 4 year old being anywhere near me. Those kids have a lot of germs and I am not gonna stand by and let them spread their nasty preschool germs around a mall.

"Let's get Chick-Fil-A," Kai suggests.

"Yeah, that sounds good," I say.

"I'll pay for your stuff. What do you want?" Derek asks. He's spoiling me and we're not even dating. This is getting kind of crazy at this point, right?

"I'll have two 10 piece orders and fries." I'm hungry, I know it sounds like a lot, but I play football, so it's really not that much.

"Anything to drink?" he asks.

"I'll just have some water."

Derek nods before looking at me weird. "Water? Is this about to be the first time I see you drink water?" he grins.

"No, I drink water damn near every day when we eat lunch and dinner, I don't have pink lemonade with every meal. Besides, half the time I have pink lemonade, you buy it for me without me asking."

"True. Alright, I'll order your stuff and I'll bring you your food when it comes out."

"Cool. Thanks, Derek."

"No problem."

I walk over to a table and sit down, Jax following behind me. He sits down across from me and starts eating his Chick Fil A meal. He ordered immediately when we got in here, he was not going to even think about any other restaurant.

"Did you yell at Kai?" I ask.

He shrugs. "He knew I was going to. His parents are great by the way, they taught him well that he shouldn't be fighting people, yet he still did. It's fine though. He knows it's all love still. I'm just tryna look out for him, you know what I mean?"

"Yeah. I feel that."

"I know I can be immature sometimes, and I might seem like a brain copy of Kai, and I kind of am, but when he does shit like that I get pissed, and since his parents aren't here to scold him, I kind of have to. I don't like doing that. I don't like seeing Kai upset, he's been my best friend forever. But when he does something like that, I do have to lecture him. I didn't yell at him by the way, I just told him that I don't want him doing dumb shit like that. We're college athletes, luckily we're not nationally recognized stars yet, but imagine if that just started circulating around the country? That would be terrible. Luckily, I didn't see anyone recording and I would probably be getting a lot of notifications from my parents and his parents about it if it was online," he rambles.

"I mean, yeah, he probably should be told that fighting isn't good," I agree.

"He should already know that. I just want the best for myself and Kai, and reaching this level is something that really blows my mind. I don't think I've truly processed the fact that we're D1 athletes. All of our dreams from when we were like 6 years old are finally coming true. And we've been completely inseparable for over like 13 or more years. I just don't want one dumb decision ruining his future, and luckily this wasn't a huge incident, it wasn't assault, because they were both fighting, and neither got hurt, but still. It could've been really bad."

"It's good that you're looking out for him though," I point out.

"Yeah. I kind of have to," Jax says, a smile spreading on his face. "Every single day, Kai would be coming over to my house after school and we would just do homework together, play videogames, and talk about our biggest dreams. And we're so close to those dreams. I have to admit, I thought we were falling off from freshman year to junior year. Our quarterback was horrible, the cornerback that was on my side of the field was horrible, and we weren't playing amazing. We were still probably the best players on the team, but still, we probably weren't gonna be recruited. Then we moved and Cameron and Dominique were solid ass players and now we're D1. It's crazy. I need to just put it out there that I really do love Kai. That's why I look after him and try to keep him out of trouble. I don't want his future going down the drain while I still have a solid future."

"You're an amazing friend, Jax. Also, I think you and Kai should be credited at least some for getting the team to stop beefing. You became friends with everyone so fast. Thanks," I say.

"No problem. We just like being nice, I guess. We're good at talking to people."

"Yeah, definitely."

A few minutes later, Derek, DeShaun, and Kai come back with all the food and we eat our food. We talk about whatever, about how DeShaun is going to break up with his girlfriend, which is really sad, and how we have fall break next week. I'm excited because I'm tired. We don't have a game again either, which is fine too. I just have to keep going to the gym everyday, which I can do. That's not gonna be an issue for me.

Once we're all done, we walk through the mall brainlessly and find absolutely nothing to buy. Except for Kai, who bought three things of women's perfume for his 'girlfriend'. He does not have a girlfriend, he told us straight up. But I can't really blame him for buying that, it did kind of smell good and I get where he's coming from. I don't have enough money to buy that perfume and I was not gonna let Derek buy it for me. It gets to a point, if you know what I mean. I already don't love when he feels he needs to buy me food, but expensive women's perfume is excessive.

We all go back to the dorms after, and I drive DeShaun and Derek back with me. Me and Derek are probably just gonna hang out for the rest of the day, which is going to be grueling.

"I'll see you later, DeShaun," Derek says as we pass by his room.

We walk into my room, and it's empty, like it usually is, and we sit down on the couch. He didn't really talk that much to me in the mall outside of telling him my Chick Fil A order and a few times during lunch. He seems tense for some reason.

7 hours later...

Well, me and Derek just finished eating dessert. We walked to an ice cream place, and I paid for myself this time. I was not letting him pay for me again.

We both got mint and chip ice cream. I will not accept any slander of that flavor, it is goated. Mango and coconut flavors are maybe the only two flavors that can come close to it, but mint and chip is so good. Even if it's still kind of overrated, it's still the best. There's a reason it's so popular, and that's because it's the best.

Derek has been tense all day for some reason. He seems uncomfortable, I don't know if he hurt something in his arm or his leg when he was sleeping or sometime over the week when we went to the gym. I really hope he's doing alright, because he really seems like he's not doing well.

Right now we're just sitting on the couch watching TV, like we usually do everyday, and we're just watching more football. Seeing Frank and Jeremiah today was nice, it's been a little while since we saw them.

I feel like Derek can tell I'm looking at him a lot. I keep just glancing over at him, being able to see his beauty for a fraction of a second without it being too suspicious. What if that's why he's being tense? Is it because he knows I like him but he's uncomfortable with that? Does he not want to hang out with me anymore because he can tell I like him?

I'm barely paying attention to the game anymore, I'm kind of panicking in my head, not so bad that I might have a panic attack, but still. I'm kind of worried that he doesn't want to spend time with me anymore.

I've grown so close to him in the last month and a half, and I really appreciate everything he's done for me. He's gotten me through shit that I wouldn't be able to get through alone. He buys me shit without even having to be convinced. He made me a new Instagram account in like 5 minutes, and I use that account all the time. He didn't make it 100% private, so I can still send him videos and shit, but no one can DM me that I don't actively allow.

"Adrian?" Derek asks. Oh God, he's gonna tell me that he knows I like him.

"Yeah?"

"I have a question. You can answer however you want, I don't want this to be weird for you, and I understand your answer either way. You can choose not to answer either, but I just have one request: I don't want this to ruin our friendship," he says.

"Uh, yeah, this won't ruin our friendship," I say skeptically, confused about what he's gonna ask me.

He takes a deep breath. "Promise this won't ruin anything?"

"Yeah. Derek, is everything okay?" I ask.

He takes another long, deep breath.

"Adrian. Can I kiss you?"

"W-what?"

"Nothing. I'm sorry, that was stupid," he says, his hands shooting to his face and covering it.

"Derek, no it's fine. I don't think I heard you right."

"Do you really want me to ask you again?"

"I mean, if you want to," I reply.

"Okay."

Again, he takes a deep breath, before exhaling as well.

"This is really dumb, and I don't know if you would be okay with this, but can I kiss you?"

"If you want to, you can," I reply.

He looks at me and his breathe becomes labored. Is this why he seemed so tense and uncomfortable? Because he wants to fucking kiss me? Derek Peterson, my crush of 4 years, is asking to kiss me right now. I wasn't the one to ask it, he's the one that asked me. This is fucking bonkers.

Does he like me?

Is he actually attracted to me?

"Are you sure?" he asks.

"Uh, I don't mind, I really don't. If you want to kiss me, I would be fine with it."

"Okay. I'm not good at this, by the way."

"I've never kissed someone before, so I don't know what a good kiss is supposed to be like," I answer.

"I'll try my best, but I don't know if it'll be good."

"I don't mind, Derek. A kiss is a kiss."

"Okay."

He stares at me for a moment, his eyes looking directly into mine, before his eyes move down to my lips, staring at them for a decent amount of time.

His hand slowly moves up to my cheek, softly grazing my skin. A wave of electricity shoots through me with this contact. Derek is about to fucking kiss me.

"Is this okay?" he asks.

"Yeah, it's good. Why do you keep asking?"

"Because I want to make sure you're fine with this. It would feel wrong if you didn't want it."

Goddamn he's so fucking sweet and considerate. "It's okay, Derek, don't worry."

"Okay."

His hand is not fully on my cheek, but it's still slightly brushing over my skin. He begins to move closer to me, and he puckers his lips a bit.

I have no idea what to do right now. I have never kissed someone before, like I said, and I have no idea what to do so I try to mirror his face. I pucker my lips a bit, still staring into his eyes.

We're now about 2 inches away from each other, scared to get closer. We're both completely frozen and I am terrified. I have never been kissed, so this is kind of crazy. He's just staring at me right now, and I'm to petrified to take action.

"Adrian, is this wrong?" Derek asks.

"Why?"

"I don't know. I've kissed people before, but I've never been this stressed about it."

"Why are you stressed about it?" I ask.

"I don't know. Should we keep going?"

"If you want to," I reply. I know he only meant a kiss, not going further than a kiss. He would ask 100 times over and over again if we wanted to go further than a kiss.

He moves closer to me, extremely slowly, until my stomach is filled with butterflies to the max. I think he can tell this is scary. His hand finally is solidly on my cheek, brushing it very comfortingly.

"You sure this is okay?" he asks.

"Yes, Derek, it's fi-"

I'm cut off by the sound of the door unlocking, immediately pulling me and Derek away from each other. Devin and Alicia walk in, talking about random bullshit. Hopefully I don't look too flustered by what just happened. Derek was 1 second from kissing me. Me!! He asked to kiss me!!!

"Hey guys," Devin greets us and Alicia waves a bit.

"He forgot to get his computer, we're just gonna grab it and leave," Alicia says.

Devin finds his computer and turns it on, groaning in frustration.

"Babe, what happened?" Alicia asks.

"It's dead."

"Well, find the plug."

"Okay."

"Well, it's getting kind of late, I'm gonna go back to my room and sleep, I'll see you all tomorrow," Derek says, standing up and glancing at me.

"I'll come with you," I say nonchalantly, standing up with him.

Me and Derek walk back to his room, neither of us saying a single word. It's so unbelievably awkward. I don't know what to say. Derek wanted to kiss me. I still can't wrap my head around that, it's just crazy.

"You okay?" I ask Derek.

"Uh, yeah," he answers.

"You sure?"

"Yeah. I'm good."

"Okay," I reply, skeptical of him. I think he might be lying. He damn sure doesn't look like he's doing alright.

We finally make it to his room, and we stop and he looks in my direction, but not really at me.

"I'll uh, I'll see you tomorrow, Adrian," he says, now looking at the ground.

"Yeah, I'll see you tomorrow."

I begin walking back to my room, but turn around when I hear no sound of a door unlocking. He just remains standing there, looking at the floor, looking sad. I hate seeing him like this, but I really haven't seen him like this very much. He looks completely distraught and bothered.

I begin to walk back to him.

"Derek, are you sure you're okay?" I ask.

"I don't know. I think I'm o-"

I cut him off by cupping his face and connecting my lips to his, closing my eyes and hoping he actually wants this.

A/N: AAAAAHHHHHH. My cuties kissed!!! I think this chapter makes sense for their personalities. Derek kept asking for consent, even when Adrian gave it to him over and over, but he just needed to be 100% sure, and then when they got interrupted, I think it was very much like Derek to just give up on kissing Adrian, and then in my opinion, it's more like Adrian to just do something like that randomly. This is a chapter I might come back to and edit to make it more dramatic. Thanks for reading!!!