Author's Note: Look who updated! Thank you so much for the positive feedback, you guys! They really encouraged me to write. See, I planned to post this after a week of posting my first chapter but I couldn't resist.

Before you go to it though, let me just clear something up. The timeline of the show is pretty much wonky anyway, but for my own reasons, I decided that for this fic, Kirsten is two years younger than Sandy. He is a senior and she is a sophomore.

Also, I was thinking of renaming the fanfic. What do you think? Stolen is a song by Dashboard Confessional which I think fits this fanfic, but, I don't know. I want to change it (?). The title I had in mind was Just One More Kiss. Which do you think is better? Let me know, or suggest something too. I'm so indecisive about stuff like that.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter. Not quite the smut yet, but I promise things heat up in the following chapter.

Disclaimers: Characters clearly not mine, otherwise I would be adopted by Sandy and Kirsten Cohen as well.

STOLEN

In a silver cocktail dress adorned with sequins that gleamed under the lights and paired with extremely high heels, Kirsten's outfit was just right for Larissa's glamorous party. However, as she and Sandy stepped into the coffee shop, it was only then she realized how completely flashy she looked. She looked around hesitantly and observed the café's customers, all in their jeans and comfortable shoes. It made her feel awkward that everyone was staring at her. She wished she had grabbed a coat before they left.

"Sandy." Her new acquaintance looked down at her, and saw just how uneasy she looked. There was something rather adorable about her expression that made Sandy smile though. From the party earlier, he had immediately taken note of how pretty she was. However, seeing her now, not putting up a show for her best friends' party guests and looking vulnerable in this strange new place, seeing her with true emotion on her face made her all the more beautiful to him. She was captivating.

He raised his eyebrows, as if asking her what the matter was. They had barely spoken on the way here, but the silence that had lingered between the two of them was a companionable one. It was odd. Sandy was always noted for being the talkative one, and yet he couldn't find the words to say to this girl he just met.

"I'm kind of overdressed for this place." Kirsten admitted, a light blush creeping to her cheeks. Sandy briefly looked around the café and understood what she meant. Everyone wasn't exactly dressed up for a party, and even though Sandy looked dressier than usual, what he was wearing could still pass for casual.

"You look fine, Kirsten. Does that fact bother you as much?" He inquired.

Kirsten shook her head. "Well, it shouldn't. But being stared at is making me feel uncomfortable."

He nodded, taking her answer into consideration and debating with his thoughts for a moment. At this hour, there was nowhere else he could take her. The local pub was noisy and clearly not what she wanted, as evident from how she wanted to get away from her dormitory in the first place. This coffee shop, his favorite place off-campus, was the only place he could think of.

"Would you feel more comfortable if we sit in a booth?" Sandy suggested, gesturing to a booth that was next to a wall. Not much of her would be seen as opposed to sitting on the stools in the middle of the café. Kirsten followed his gaze, and, seemingly content to the idea, she nodded. It was better over nothing, and it was definitely an improvement over her dorm room at the moment. They made their way over to the dimly-lit corner, and Sandy helped Kirsten take her seat. As he did, his hand touched her forearm briefly. It startled the both of them, making them pause in their movements for a second. Kirsten had always read about these jolts of electricity in romance novels, but she never thought they actually happened. Sandy, on the other hand, was just taken-aback at the frisson between them.

Silence lingered for a moment, before Sandy and Kirsten laughed nervously. "Alright." He cleared his throat in an attempt to break the tension and straightened up, gesturing that he was going to go order their coffees. "You stay right here and I'll order for you. What do you want?"

Having gotten away from the sex-a-thon in her dormitory room and the familiar ambiance of the coffee shop was enough to set Kirsten in a better mood. She smiled brightly at Sandy and looked slightly mischievous, taking him by surprise. "Why don't you surprise me?" She suggested in a light-hearted tone, batting her eyelashes at him. Sandy grinned and decided to play along.

Kirsten watched him as he made his way to the bar. She really was thankful for his company tonight, even if she didn't know him at all. He couldn't be worse than the guys she did know, who would've left her in her dormitory despite Paul and Larissa's trysts. Admittedly, she did feel threatened with Sandy at first. She had never talked to him before, not even during the party, and when he refused to leave, she couldn't help but wonder what his intentions were exactly. Berkeley was so different from Newport, and so were the people. But the longer time she spent with him, she found that Sandy seemed like a genuinely nice guy. He was incredibly good-looking too, and there was something sexy and comforting about his voice that made her want to just close her eyes and hear him talk. For a second, Kirsten wondered if he had a girlfriend. A man like him just couldn't remain single for long. She would never admit it to him out loud, but Sandy Cohen was a catch.

She snapped out of her thoughts (which were getting lustful by the minute) upon seeing him making his way back to her, carrying a tray with two cups. Kirsten caught his eye and gave him an expectant expression. In return, Sandy winked back at her.

"So, where's mine?" She asked the moment he sat down. Sandy looked rather pleased at himself as he plucked out one of the cups and handed it to her. Kirsten took it cautiously and tried to sniff, but with the smells surrounding them, it was hard to distinguish what it was. Still, she didn't take a sip just yet, opting to ask him, "What is it?" instead.

"It's a surprise." Sandy answered mysteriously, taking his own cup from the tray and drinking from it. She shot him a look, trying to get him to answer her question truthfully, but he didn't give in. "You'll have to taste to know for yourself."

Kirsten looked frustrated, obviously not satisfied with his answer. But she let it go. Might as well solve this mystery myself. Maintaining eye-contact with him, she raised the Styrofoam to her lips and savored the flavor of the coffee. Her eyes widened in amazement at the taste that met her tongue. Sandy's grin grew. "Did I surprise you enough?" He asked, obviously pleased at her reaction.

"A vanilla half-caf caramel macchiato?" Kirsten was more than just surprised. She was flabbergasted – how in the world did Sandy know what was her favorite? They've never spoken to each other until tonight (well, early in the morning, as it was already way past midnight), and even then, they hadn't conversed enough to know what the others' favorites were. Once her initial shock went off, a delighted look appeared on her face. "When I told you to surprise me, I didn't expect you would surprise me like this!"

She and Sandy shared a smile. "How did you know?" Kirsten asked curiously, looking serious for a second. Deep inside, Sandy was over the moon that he had managed to impress this girl, but he knew that admitting the truth would change that. Even then, he decided to answer her anyway. He looked sheepish for a second, before he spoke.

"I... well, actually, I talked to the bartender." He confessed, watching as Kirsten's blue eyes drifted momentarily to look at the guy behind the counter. "I told him I was with the prettiest girl in the whole coffee shop and that she wanted me to surprise her." Sandy was about to tell her how badly he wanted to make an impression on her, but he stopped himself at the last minute, afraid that she might think of him differently. "As it turns out, he told me you frequent this place, too, and you always order that." He gestured to her coffee cup, explaining the rest of the story wordlessly.

There was a pregnant pause between them again, and once more, Sandy was afraid that he had said the wrong thing. He watched as Kirsten looked down at her drink and nodded thoughtfully. But Kirsten was, in fact, trying to hide a smile from dancing on her lips. Despite what Sandy predicted, she was actually flattered that he even bothered to find out what drink she liked – even if it was the bartender who offered him that information.

When she finally looked up, despite her vain efforts, there was a huge grin on her face that lifted his spirits. "Wow. I don't know what to say." Kirsten admitted, unable to keep another blush from tinting her cheeks pink. She looked down shyly and distracted herself by taking another sip from her drink.

The conversation was getting awkward for words, although in a nice way that both of them didn't mind. Sandy decided to change the topic and talk about something else. "So, how long have you known Larissa?" He asked instead, fiddling with the rim of his cup. He couldn't help but notice how different Kirsten was from her best friend, if Larissa's behavior earlier had been anything to get by. But while Larissa was clearly the outgoing one, there was something about Kirsten that drew him in. To him, it seemed as if there was so much more about her, and he wanted to find out what it was.

Kirsten scratched behind her ear, a quirky habit she had developed ever since she was young. As her hand moved up to her hair, a ring sparkled under the dim lights, capturing Sandy's attention. He wondered where it came from. "Hmm. Ever since freshman year, I guess. We've been roommates from the beginning." She answered, smiling fondly at the memory.

"What year are you in now?" Sandy asked curiously, leaning forward to rest his elbows on the table.

"Sophomore." It was only then that Kirsten realized Sandy must also be a student at Berkeley. She had never thought of it that way before. She couldn't think of how awkward it would be if she was actually talking to a senior. It wasn't unheard of, but Kirsten didn't belong to the crowd who mingled with the upperclassmen. She wouldn't know how to deal with it.

"You?"

"I'm a senior." The answer she had been dreading. But Sandy didn't seem to mind the difference all that much. He certainly didn't look at her differently, which was all that mattered right now. In fact, his indifference only encouraged her to ask more questions.

"Are you… what are you… after graduation…?" Kirsten asked , unable to form her question properly. He must think she sounded like an idiot by now.

Sandy was amused, but he didn't show it less he offended Kirsten. "I'm going to proceed to law school." He told her, unable to keep the pride off his tone, and that didn't escape her.

It made her smile again. "Good luck?" It was the only thing that she could think of saying, but Sandy seemed to appreciate it. He beamed and thanked her.

"What about you?" He turned the tables on her once more. "What are you taking up right now?" Sandy asked, taking another long swig from his coffee. Surprisingly, the question made Kirsten blush, leaving him to wonder what her answer was.

"I'm majoring in Art History." It sounded worlds away from law, and she couldn't help but feel shy about it. "My dad wanted me to take up business or economics, but Art is my passion." The flush on Kirsten's cheeks deepened after she blurted out the last word. Passion? How cheesy did that sound?

"You're taking up what you really want. That's what matters." He told her in a soft voice, and he was staring at her so intently with those piercing blue eyes that she couldn't look away. She bit her lip and nodded, wondering what made him stare at her like that.

Sandy knew from the beginning that Kirsten was very different from him. He just didn't think up to what extent that difference laid. Obviously, she wasn't on scholarship like he was for his education, and he could hear his mother's voice in his head telling him what a useless degree Art History was.

Noticing how Kirsten suddenly looked uncomfortable, Sandy shook his mother's voice from his thoughts and smiled, hoping to put her at ease. Predictably, she immediately looked relieved, reminding him of the power he had over her, status-wise. He was a senior, she was a sophomore. I've got to be careful with her.

"Does Larissa always… do her parties always end up like this?" Sandy asked, changing the topic again. He and Kirsten chuckled together, remembering the events that led them here in the first place. She sighed dryly and stared at the creamy swirls inside her cup.

"Not always. For the most part, she always ends up going where the party takes her." She paused to contemplate her next words. "I just thought that, when I couldn't find her anywhere tonight, she wasn't inside the dormitory with some guy. I mean, your friend Paul." She corrected herself immediately. "Having… doing… stuff with him." Kirsten finished uncomfortably, realizing how she couldn't just openly talk about it now that she and Sandy were in a public place.

"How long have you known Paul?" She asked further, echoing his similar question about Larissa earlier. Not knowing who he was until tonight, Kirsten concluded that her friend had just hooked up with this Paul at the party. She had to admit it got her a little curious about him and what he was like. Hopefully he wasn't like any of the guys Larissa hooked up with on a regular basis. Kirsten wrinkled her button nose at the thought.

"We grew up together in New York." Sandy responded, clasping his hands together absentmindedly. "He moved here to Berkeley when I was six, and I only saw him again when I got here." Like Kirsten's earlier reminiscence, he smiled fondly at the memory too. "It's like we never stopped being friends all those years we didn't see each other."

"He's a nice guy, isn't he?" Kirsten couldn't help but question. She immediately regretted asking, and rushed to justify herself. "I'm just thinking of my friend." She added hastily, hoping he wasn't offended by her question. Sandy just smiled at that, honestly not knowing what to answer her. Paul was an all-around nice guy, but he was also twenty-two, and that said a lot.

"You're a good friend to Larissa, you know that?" He told her instead, cocking his head to the side.

"Thanks. I don't think she's going to agree with that after I talk to her tomorrow, though."

Sandy raised his massive eyebrows. "Why? What are you going to say to her?"

"I don't know about you." She admitted. "But I really didn't appreciate how she put me in such a position. Not just leaving me to deal with all these people I don't know, but can you imagine what it would be like if they got noisy and there were still people around?"

He nodded thoughtfully. Things like these happening at a college party weren't unheard of, but he could see where she was coming from. After all, he was also in the same jam that Larissa had left her in. "Well, it's college, Kirsten. But, you know, if that had happened, I think it would be interesting." Sandy's piercing blue eyes sparkled as he grinned at her.

Kirsten looked at him questioningly. "What do you mean?"

"I just mean that everyone could've used some loosening up. Your party was too stiff for college students." He said truthfully.

"I see." Kirsten nodded. "But that was kind of the point of the party, actually. Larissa wanted this one to be different than all of the other college parties we've been to. Start off Thanksgiving with a blast." A small smirk appeared on her painted lips. "I guess she succeeded in that, but only you and I were the only ones who stuck around for it."

Sandy laughed for a moment, before he found himself staring once more into those beautiful, sapphire eyes. "It's definitely a party I wouldn't be forgetting in a long time."

Reviews are still sex, if you're wondering. Hint, hint.