I don't own the TiMER or anything about it. Most of the story is mine though. So enjoy!

Ch 11 re-write done! 5/22/22

My breathing was staggered and my heart was racing a million miles a minute. The way he was looking at me was different than a normal look, I couldn't put a word to it, but I was sure it wasn't innocent. My mind jumped to the fact that he was eight years older. There was a huge possibility that he had done this before. Whatever "this" was, I wasn't sure, but I was sure it wasn't the first time he's found himself in this situation. And I wasn't sure how to take that.

As he closed the gap between my face and his I backed up. This wasn't right. It didn't feel right… it felt dirty. I couldn't do this here and now. I didn't mean for it to be insinuated that I wanted to do this.

"Is everything okay?" Andy asked. I shrugged. "I didn't mean to- I mean- if that felt- I don't-"

"No stop," I insisted. "You're fine. It's just- I don't know what I'm doing. I'm trying to go on instinct here, and I just feel like this isn't right. At least, not right now."

I expected Andy to get frustrated or angry or hurt a little, but instead, he smiled. "I understand. And that is perfectly okay. Whatever is best for you, I want to provide that. Besides, we haven't finished touring your house. It'd be a shame to miss the rest of this beautiful house, and I also have to kick your tail in soccer before it gets dark out."

I smiled and embraced him in a hug. If this was how the whole soul-mate thing works, I was fine with that. I felt better about it. He wasn't mad or anything. It was okay.

I led him out of my room, keeping a loose hold on his hand, and continued the tour.

"So before turning the corner here we have my mom's office. Nothing exciting there. And now if we turn the corner here we will lead into the kitchen, and then well, here's the dining room, and back now to the front door. The house is a weird square thing, with my mom's office in the center, so that's a quick tour, any questions?" I concluded with a smile.

"Just one," he started. "How do we get to your backyard you boasted about earlier?"

I giggled and took off through the living room to the back doors. On the back porch I picked up my lucky soccer ball and ran down the few steps leading to the yard. When I was about five I received portable soccer goals and they pretty much permanently stayed in their spots in the backyard. They got a lot of usage between practices with teammates on our free time, practices with my dad, practices with Spencer, and solo time. Sometimes I would blow off steam by kicking around the ball.

"First to ten?" I suggested.

"That'll be a short game," Andy boasted and high fived me.

It was anything but short however. Andy didn't take it easy on me and he was quick. He blocked my attempts at scoring with little difficulties. But I gave it right back to him. I wasn't trying to prove anything, but I wasn't going to let him slide with anything. I was playing rougher than normal, but only because he threw an elbow two minutes in. He was pulling dirty tricks left and right as if he could only win by doing so.

Twenty minutes in it was only 6-5, Andy ahead. We were both breathing heavy and I was sweating like crazy. Real attractive, I was sure, but I didn't care too much. It was my ball and I dribbled around trying to fake him before making a risky move and kicking the ball between him. He wasn't expecting it and I spun around him, kicking it into the goal while he was turning around.

"6-6," I gritted, picking up the ball and throwing it to him. He caught it with a thud and grinned.

"I'm only warming up," I breathed and put the ball down.

It only took a minute at most for me to take the ball from him and score. I raised an eyebrow as he grunted and took the ball from me. 7-6. My lead.

I skimmed by him almost scoring again and kicked the ball away. He was quicker than me (I'm claiming due to his height) and easily got the ball back.

Trying to claim the ball back I accidentally tripped him.

"I should get a penalty kick for that one," he claimed.

"Sure, but that won't help you, I've played goalie before," I announced and took position in the goal.

He set the ball and took a deep breath. His foot movement was quick, but I saw where the ball was going before his foot made contact and jumped to the right corner in time to catch the ball. He growled but shrugged and let me set for my ball. I faked him out with one move and scored within thirty seconds of possession. 8-6.

Andy was getting really heated at this point. I could tell that competition brought out a side of him I had not seen before. He full on pressed forward and got around me using a size tactic. I faltered, thinking he was going to charge me, and stepped to the side. Unfortunately it was enough to let him score. 8-7.

There was no way I was going to let him win this. It was my house, my ball, my play.

I dribbled hard right and charged in the opposite direction of Andy, trying to use the same tactic he used on me. Unfortunately he didn't buy it and chuckled. But in the time he thought he outsmarted me I kicked back the other way and found my opening. I shot the ball in making 9-7. I only needed one more goal.

Andy set for his ball and dribbled in slowly. I wasn't sure why the sudden change in pace, but I watched him carefully. He dribbled the ball in a small zigzag formation and spun slowly, showing precision with the ball, keeping it right between his feet. He had control of the ball that was certain. It was enough control that made me question what he was even doing as a high school soccer coach.

I smirked at him and decided to defensively press him into making a quick decision with the ball. I got right up to him and marked him closely. This seemed to amuse him and he met my gaze with a sparkle in his eye. I tackled at the ball but Andy kicked it back just in time and sprinted backwards to catch up with it.

Before he could completely catch up with it, I was beside him and ready to steal the ball. I kicked it away from him and dashed to get there before him. He may be quicker in general, but I was at the advantage of being closer. I stopped the ball and let both of us catch our breaths.

This was it. I could end the game here. I could win it. He was running out of steam, and while I was tiring as well, I was running on adrenaline.

I feinted to the right and tore off to the left, coming really close to the goal. Andy sped up and tried to check the ball. Instead he caught my foot as well as the ball and tripped me up. I tumbled to the ground, grabbing him on the way down. The ground came in contact with my side, but not bad enough to really hurt.

Andy had flopped beside me and was laughing a little. I turned his way with a glare.

"You totally did that on purpose," I jokingly accused.

"Yes, because I wanted to charge you to the ground, completely," he joked back, laughing. I pushed him softly.

I was so tired I didn't want to stand up. I had almost won too. But the ground was soft at the moment and the exhaustion was starting to catch up with me. I was simply out of breath. Glancing at Andy, I could tell he was feeling the same way. Sweat was dripping off his face and his chest was rising and falling quickly.

"What?" he asked after a second.

"Just looking at you," I claimed with a smile.

"Oh yeah?" he asked, rolling to his side to face me. I nodded. Even as sweaty as he was, he still looked really cute. I could have stared at him like this all day. In this moment everything felt right. He felt right, I felt right, it was just… right.

His pocket started ringing, interrupting our gaze. I sat up and looked at him. He didn't seem to notice that his phone was ringing at first, but at my abrupt change in height he was brought back to reality it seemed and pulled his phone out of his pocket.

As soon as he looked at the screen his face fell. "Shit," he muttered. Without saying a word he stood and answered the phone. "What? Don't worry about it. Because I don't have to be. There's probably something you can-" he stopped and looked at me. He made a silent sorry and walked away. I couldn't hear what he was saying but I could tell it wasn't a happy conversation.

When he ended the conversation and walked back to where I was sitting, he almost seemed like a different person.

"Is everything-"

"I'm fine," he muttered. I took that as I don't want to talk about it.

I just nodded and picked the grass around my feet. It was an awkward thing to be around, and I didn't really know what to say to make him feel better. He wasn't telling me something, and I didn't know him well enough to figure out what it was. When I really thought about it, I didn't know this guy very well at all. Yeah he was my soul-mate, but I didn't know who Andy was.

He plopped down next to me and took my hand. "I'm serious. I'm fine. I'm sorry that ruined, well you know," he admitted and turned a little pink.

"I don't know who you are," I spit out without thinking.

"What?" he asked, obviously taken aback. I was taken aback that I had said it.

"Besides the fact that you're named after a president, you teach P.E. and you're a soccer coach, and you're 22, I don't know who you are," I clarified, hoping it came out better the second time.

He nodded. "Ah, I get that. Yeah, I don't suppose we've really taken any time to talk about each other. How about we move inside, and I'll tell you everything you want to know."

I looked around and realized it was starting to get dark out. We had been out for a really long time. Andy helped me up and we made our way into my house hand in hand.

He sat on my couch first and motioned to the space beside him.

"Um, would you like something to drink?" I questioned.

"If you have Gatorade that would be great, if not, water works perfectly fine," he replied with a smile.

I chuckled at him questioning if me, a soccer player, had Gatorade. "What flavor, red, blue, purple, or orange?"

His smile widened. "I'll take a red."

As I entered the kitchen it suddenly hit me that I hadn't told Lexi I wasn't coming over for dinner. She was bound to know that by now, but I still felt bad that I left her without an answer.

I pulled out my phone and shot her a text quickly. Sorry didn't tell you earlier, Andy and I are hanging out. I said.

It was as if she was expecting me to text her because her reply was almost instantaneous. Good for you! You two better be careful, if he doesn't wrap it don't tap it!

I felt my face redden and put my phone back in my pocket. I wasn't about to respond to that, it would only fuel her more.

When I returned to the living room Andy was playing with his phone but immediately put it down and smiled at me when he saw me.

"I know it's cliché to have oranges with soccer but I'm a fan of the fruit, so I brought you one too," I said, tossing him his orange and Gatorade. If I was casual about it all then there would be no place for awkward moments… right?

We sat in silence for a moment and ate the oranges before Andy spoke up.

"So what do you want to know?" he asked confidently. After the sketchy phone conversation and the weird thing between Collin and him, I wasn't sure how he could be so confident. He was bound to know that I was going to ask him about that. But I didn't want to make things awkward just yet. I could get to that later.

"Tell me about your family," I started with. That was innocent enough.

He went on to tell me that he had two siblings, a brother and a sister, both older than him. And that he was the only person in his family to have a TiMER. He said that his sister and husband had died in a car crash a couple of years back. He talked about his childhood in an area where he didn't know that TiMERs even existed until high school. And how he thought they were ridiculous at first but only because that's what his parents told him.

"If you came from a place that is so anti-TiMER, why did you get one?" I interrupted.

His smile turned into a grimace. "I've told you how I got once in college right?" he started. I nodded. "Well when I got to Sarthe University I was immersed in a world unlike I had ever seen. I walked into that cliché small-town-boy meets big time city/university. I had a full ride playing soccer and it was my dream to be a physical therapist or work with athletes. And this university offered me that. But it also offered the exact opposite morals and beliefs that I had grown up with. Almost everyone at Sarthe had a TiMER. Of course, most were blinking, and it seemed most women at Sarthe could smell when a guy arrived without a TiMER. I was bothered by it though, because I was so focused on my schoolwork and soccer. But, being on the varsity team drew a lot of attention to me and it was hard to dodge everyone nagging at me to get a TiMER. My sophomore year I was dating this girl who had a blinking TiMER. I was skeptic that she was going to force me to get a TiMER but she insisted she just wanted someone to have fun with until her soul mate came around. Yeah, that's terrible thinking, but I was also thinking maybe I could convince her that the TiMER wasn't everything. And for a while I believed I had won. She rarely brought up the TiMER and things couldn't be better. But of course before every storm there is calm. We were… hanging out one day and she told me it would be over if I didn't get a TiMER. I had been dating her for almost two years, we were soon to graduate, and I knew she was scared of the future. I knew she wanted me to be her soul mate. So I agreed. I skipped a soccer game, one that I knew had scouts for the pros at, to get a TiMER."

He was silent for a while after that. He didn't have to say the rest. We both knew how the story ended.

"Did you want your TiMER to match hers?" I quietly asked. I was a little afraid of the answer.

"Does it matter?" He asked back. I shrugged. Truthfully I guess it didn't, because our TiMERs said it didn't, but I knew he didn't want to hear that. He put a hand on my arm. "I don't know what I wanted, but it doesn't matter to me because I now know."

I smiled and felt my face redden.

"I think it's my turn for a question," he said after a moment, his confident aura returned. "What's the deal with Spencer and you?"

He was hitting a hard question, but I probably deserved it after the question I had just asked. "We grew up together," I answered, knowing that wasn't going to cut it.

"Right, because replying that you wished he could be your soul mate- even if it was in the heat of the moment is something we all say about childhood friends," he retorted. I couldn't tell if there was a hint of jealousy here or not, but there was an edge to his voice.

"I don't know- he's always been there for me. He's been the one to catch me when I fall, stand up for me when I cower, and he was- well our moms thought for sure we were going to be soul mates. His is still blinking. I've always thought of him as a brother until a couple of weeks before my birthday. He started acting weird around me and I probably started acting weird around him and then for my birthday he gave me this necklace and then told me later it was supposed to be a soul mate gift but he wouldn't let me give it back to him. And then we- well you saw him stand up for me against Brandon," I spit out really fast. I wasn't sure if he had caught it all or not because he just stared at me for a moment.

"Why do I feel like there's more to the story?" he asked with a smirk.

"Because there's always more to a story than the narration," I responded.

"So you developed a crush on him," Andy started. I shrugged. "Don't shrug at me, I know what a crush looks like. But then it turns out he isn't the one for you so you stop crushing on him? You still wear the necklace he gave you."

"Well-"

"See, there IS more to it. Come on, it's not like I'm going to be angry, I just want to understand," he remarked.

"Fine. So right before midnight on the day we met Spencer and I were sitting on my bed because I couldn't sleep. Our windows are right beside each other so he can climb in easily and I told him to come over. He was only wearing boxers and well he was starting to look less like the little boy I grew up with. I nervously asked what I was supposed to do once I met my soul mate and was scared about kissing- well because I had never done that before. And well, Spencer hadn't either and next thing I know we are kissing in my bed."

We were silent for a good minute. I ate the last little bit of my orange and didn't look at Andy. I broke my promise with Spencer. Now on top of answering about why I closed my blinds on him I had to tell him I told Andy about the kiss. He wasn't going to be happy with me.

Andy chuckled. "That's all?" he asked, seeming amused.

"What did you expect?" I asked back.

"Well when you started off saying he was only in boxers my mind went to another place," he admitted. My mouth fell open.

"You perv!" I exclaimed, hitting him with a pillow. "A few of us are still innocent here."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Andy laughed.

"Like I don't know what hanging out is supposed to mean," I jokingly accused.

"Oh, thought I was censoring it enough for you," he jabbed back with a smile.

"I'm fourteen, not five," I said, sticking out my tongue.

He got quiet and looked down at his Gatorade bottle. The smile on his face was gone. Had I done something?

"It's getting kind of late, maybe I should go," Andy said coldly after a moment.

"Why?" I asked.

"Won't your dad be getting back soon?" he replied with his own question.

"No, when my dad means he won't be back till late he means well after midnight. You don't have to go just yet. Besides, we could at least eat something before you go, my dad left me money for ordering food," I pleaded. Why on earth was I even pleading in the first place? I didn't feel like I had done anything.

"I don't know if-"

"What did I do?" I interrupted.

"What?"

"All of a sudden you just want to leave. Did I do something?"

"No, it's not that," he stated, not looking me in the eye. "It's just… you're fourteen, I'm twenty-two. That's a big age difference. Sometimes when we're talking I forget about that because you don't seem that young. But then I remember you are, and it feels wrong. I feel a little bit like a pedophile."

"A what?" I asked.

"An adult who is sexually attracted to children," he replied.

"So you think I'm a child and you're also sexually attracted to me?" I carefully asked. I didn't want him to bolt away, but I needed clarification.

"Like I said, there are times where I forget how young you are. You act a lot older. It's not for me to define whether or not you're a child. And I'm not going to lie, there have been a couple of times that you do take my breath away, but never in some sick or perverted way. I know I don't really know you all that well, but I care about you. And I'm not sexually attracted to your body or anything… no offense," he admitted.

"Then you aren't a pedophile," I responded, reaching out to touch his cheek. His eyes met mine for the first time since the conversation turned directions. The spark that I constantly saw in them still shone through.

He came forward and wrapped me in a hug. His arms were securely around me and I nuzzled my face into his neck. It was a warm hug, a safe hug, but above all it was the best hug I'd ever had. That sounded so cliché but it was true.

He whispered something incoherent. "Come again," I replied softly.

"I'm really hungry," he said a little louder. I chuckled and broke from the hug.

"Pizza?" I asked. He nodded and pulled out his phone to order.

While he was ordering I rested my head on his chest. He was leaning against the arm of the couch and didn't even flinch when I touched him. He was so warm and smelled wonderful. I know I had noticed that before, but that didn't mean it changed any.

We stayed like that for a while, Andy absentmindedly rubbing his hand on my back and me against his chest. There was a lot going on but at the moment none of it seemed relevant. I didn't want to think about what my mom had up her sleeve or what Spencer was going to say when we talked next or even what Collin was brooding about. I was here with Andy and nothing else mattered. I felt myself slowly sinking into a sappy cliché, but with everything else considered, having a small amount of cliché was nice.

After we ate pizza I decided to crack into a few more questions. "Can I ask you something that I've been curious about?" I started.

"Isn't that what we've been talking about?" he questioned.

"Well yeah- but this is- well, you might not want to answer this one." I started again. Andy nudged me to continue. "Okay, here goes: What's the deal with you and Collin?"

Andy seemed to be taken aback. "Ah, I was wondering when that would come up. Can you promise not to judge me too harshly?"

I nodded. "I would never judge you."

"Okay. Well. Collin is my nephew. He is my sister's kid. After his parents died, he was living with my mom. He lived with my mom up until my senior year of college. My mom fell ill and my brother couldn't take Collin. I was living in an apartment that had space for him and said I'd take him. The kid is trouble. He's never liked me and has tried pleading with my brother to take him and but it never works. Collin knows I keep trying too, but I'm not going to lie; I don't like the kid as much as he doesn't like me. I've never done anything against him but he hates me for everything I do. It's bad enough I have to take care of him without him telling me how much of a terrible job I do. How anyone expects me to take care of a sixteen year old kid is beyond me, but it's what I've been dealt with. I'm worried he'll use you against me, or something. The kid has it out for me. I really wish you wouldn't talk to him."

His nephew? Collin was his nephew? I didn't know what to say. There really wasn't anything I could say. Why did Collin hate him so much? Andy didn't seem like he was bad or anything. But Collin sure thought so. Was Collin going to ever tell me that? Well, it didn't seem likely now with him not talking to me, but he had opportunity before to tell me. But so did Andy. I knew Andy was telling me all that he knew, but I felt like there was more to the story. Did I really want to find out if there was more? That would mean talking to Collin again, who very obviously didn't want to talk to me.

[cue dramatic music] So what do you guys think? Do you HATE that I keep almost having them kiss? What about knowing a little more about Andy's past? And woah the thing with Collin right?!

As always, tell me what you think. And it's okay if you are brutal, I can take it.

Until next time!