Today I did something I normally don't do. I looked at my stats to see how many are reading the stories that I've published and I can tell you my mind is officially blown to bits. What started with 89 views on the first chapter is at a constant 2000 views per day now and I can't even wrap my head around how fast this has been found and how well received this is. Thank you so much for the love you've been giving me.

I keep finding typos and I am planning to have some sort of swear jar for those. It has to stop, seriously! xD

Also I changed my Twitter handle to the name I originally wanted and that became available in the meantime, so if you wanna follow there, too, you can find me at ItsDanniiHey - we can do polls as to what I should write next. I have a couple of oneshot ideas ...

Eleven.

'Oh. Oh, right, yeah, well um, Lee's leaving to grab some food with the guys, but he said if you wanted to go straight home then I have to give you a ride. And considering you still look like some kind of Picasso...'

I left the consequences of her using public transportation to get home to her own vivid imagination. I was pretty certain she'd attract a lot of attention with the paint still making her look like an art experiment gone wrong, her hair knotted together by clumps of paint and her blouse that was pretty much ruined, too, apart from being ... well, wet.

She had flecks of pink paint splattered over her collarbone and my glance danced over her delicate skin, she was still folding her arms across her chest trying to cover her bra and somehow the situation had a certain intimacy to it that I could not quite pinpoint. After all, we were in a somewhat public space, hell, we were at school and yet it felt like it was just the two of us. I was just glad no teacher was making their rounds to find me in the girls' locker room to be quite honest. That would totally get my benched for the next game, if not worse ...

'Yeah, tell Lee to go ahead,' Elle's words brought me back into the here and now and I blinked rapidly. I was pretty sure I should not tell Elle that Lee had actually already left so I went with it and said, 'Sure. How long are you going to be?'

She shrugged her shoulders.

'I don't know. Since you're taking me straight home, I can shower there so ...'

With that she pulled on her still pretty damp blouse and tried to button up hastily which only resulted in her needing longer and her cheeks turning a lovely tomato color again. Once she had all the buttons done correctly, she swung her bag over her shoulder and commanded, 'let's go!'

A part of me was debating whether or not to say 'Yes ma'am' and to salute to her, but that may have made her snap so I stored that idea for later. I could not help but grin though which made Elle shoot me an exasparated look. We walked in silence for a bit, making our way toward the parking lot until I could not stand the silence any longer. Plus, I was curious. Very.

'How's the booth coming along?'

She looked at me warily which naturally I caught. It made me shrug. It was true that I did not want to work her and Lee's kissing booth but that didn't mean I could not ask about their progress, right?

'What? I can't talk to you?'

I felt just a tiny bit insulted and my anger rose a little when she raised her eyebrows sceptically at me.

'Whatever. So are you going to answer me, or not?' I was pretty certain my tone made clear that I was actually interested in getting an answer.

After a few seconds she made the decision to answer my question, 'It's going ok. We still have stuff to do before Friday but I am sure we'll manage - that means as long as Lee doesn't start painting me instead of the letters again.'

I chuckled, 'Well you made a good piece of Impressionism, I'll give you that.'

She halted in her tracks, surprising me with her sudden stop of forward movement and I realized mere moments later, having to walk back a few steps to be eye to eye with her again. She raised her eyebrows at me when she realized that it had taken me a little while to detect that she'd stopped.

'What?'

'I think that was a compliment. Noah Flynn just gave someone a compliment. Contact the newspapers, somebody!' she said, the last part with a sarcastic undertone and a litte louder as if she hoped someone would hear her and do said thing. I could not help but laugh and she smirked back and carried on walking next to me again.

'Are you going to come to the carnival?' she asked.

'Yeah,' I said truthfully but explained, 'I kind of have to. It's one of those things all of the teachers 'encourage' to show 'school spirit' and shit.' I was pretty sure that she caught that hadn't it been for the teacher's pressure I would probably have skipped the carnival, easily.

'Thinking of stopping by the kissing booth?'

She was not giving up on this one. I was still not willing to set any foot close to this obnoxious concoxion of a stupid idea so I showed her my disapproval and my answer by raising an eyebrow as high as I could.

'Why are you asking, Shelly?' I asked her, using her dreaded nickname to make sure she got the point.

'All the girls, especially the ones working the booth, are asking me to persuade you to stop by. The chance to kiss Noah Flynn is just too exciting a prospect for some.' Interesting, but what about her, would she think it'd be an exciting prospect? Would I excite her? I decided to pressure her a little bit and added in a wide smirk to see what would happen.

'Ah. You're not asking for yourself, then?'

She was doing a supreme job of concealing any reaction to my question, I had to give her that. She seemed to be a little nervous and worked up as far as I could tell but I could be dead wrong. It took her a little bit to answer and then she said, 'No definitely not,' which sounded to me as if she didn't think I'd do it if she asked me specifially to do it for her. Was it that hard to admit that it could be an exciting prospect for her, too?

'Well, I'm not making any promises. You can tell them I might stop by the booth, though, when they ask again. And knowing me, they will ask again.'

'You're so full of yourself,' she muttered and shook her head. I wouldn't say full of myself, I would call it realistic ... I had gotten my keys out and I noticed Elle was looking for my car and furrowed her brows when she didn't see it.

'Where's your car?'

'I didn't bring it today,' I said, matter-of-factly and I think I saw her get a little paler as she realized something...

'So ... how'd you get here?' She asked, testing her hypothesis.

'I took my bike.'

She groaned audibly and lagged behind a little bit. I was pretty certain she hadn't been on a motorcyle and, two, was sure she was scared of it. I wasn't a reckless driver, though, and especially with an additional someone on my bike there was no way I wouldn't be 110% careful.

'If I die, it's all your fault.'

Here we go.

'You're not gonna die, Elle. Here, you can even have the helmet.'

'You only have one helmet?' But then, what if ...' her voice trailed off and I interrupted what ever self-destuctive thought she might have had immediately, 'I'll be fine, I haven't crashed this thing yet.'

'But what if you fall off? What if you crash? You're supposed to wear this helmet for a reason! Do you have some kind of underlying death wish?' The longer she talked, the more hysterical she sounded and I was partially convinced that her fear for my well-being was quite adorable.

'Worried about me, Shelly?' I teased her and her eyes narrowed at me. She was annoyed at my smirking as I tossed the helmet gently from hand to hand. She eventually snatched it off me.

'You don't have to be scared of the bike, Shelly,' I told her and stroke over the red paint gently and lovingly, 'It won't bite!'

'Maybe not,' she retorted and added quietly, 'but you might!'

She thought I hadn't heard her muttering the last words under her breath but I had heard her and I chuckled. She blushed again and looked away from me and the bike. I tucked my bag into the hollow space underneath the seat and then stretched my hands out toward her to receive her bag, too. She hesitated at first but then handed it over to me. I put her bag in on top of mine, closed the seat and observed her trying to put on the helmet. She fumbled with the straps and as funny as it looked, it wasn't going to be safe if she kept it like she had it on now.

'Here,' venturing out to help her, I brushed over her hands which still helplessly fumbled with the straps and fixed the helmet for her. I made sure it was as safe as possible and checked the back as well. I brushed over the skin on her neck just lightly to see if it fit snugly which it did. My heart started pounding a little faster as I touched her. The fact that I had just stolen a touch excited me. She excited me. Somehow it was like bees round a honey pot, I helplessly drifted back to her. I wasn't sure when this started but I was certain I didn't want it to stop anytime soon. Even if she didn't lo... like me back, this was all worth it.

'Don't look so scared, please,' I said and smiled at her. I slid onto my bike and I could feel her caution as she slipped onto the bike behind me. I reached behind me and found her hands. She flinched lightly but then accepted my touch as I guided her arms and pulled them around my waist. She noticeably stiffened and I tried to calm her down, 'Just relax, Elle.'

I kicked my bike and it came to life and roared, its powerful engine expecting to be used and abused. We hadn't even moved yet and already Elle got scared and squeezed me very tightly around my waist. She pulled herself as close as she could get and this had my heart pound even faster. This was the closest we had ever gotten if you didn't count me holding her hair up when she puked her guts out. I had to admit, both instances weren't quite romantic considering how scared Elle was right now.

I laughed everything off and then we were off.

Eventually we arrived at Elle's house and I yanked the bike around and it came to a sudden yet smooth stop outside her building. Her arms were still curled tighly around my waist and I did notice just how close she really was to me. When she didn't move for another thirty seconds, I slowly and gently peeled her hands away and that made her realize we'd actually stopped.

She slid off the bike and looked quite funny doing it but I didn't dare laughing. Riding a bike for the first time turned your legs into wobbly portions of Jell-O just because you're not used to the movement and the new and awkward position. Her shaky hands once again fumbled with the helmet. I came to her rescue once again and pulled it off her head in one swift motion.

'Your hair's all static,' I determined and reached up to ruffle it further. That was fun. She didn't think so, though, because she scowled and tried to smooth her hair out but to no avail. It was just to messed up.

'Oh come on,' I said, catching her exasparated look, 'don't tell me you didn't enjoy that.'

'I hated it,' she said and it sounded like the truth.

'You didn't love the wind in your hair or the freedom or the sheer speed of it?'

She shook her head. Vigorously.

'Not a chance. I hated it.

'Even cuddling up to me?' I just had to ask, smirking at her cockily, 'don't tell me you didn't enjoy that!'

'Noah, that was the scariest thing I've ever done in my entire life. I don't care how hot you are, I hated every second of that!'

Did I just hear what she said or ...

'You think I'm hot?' I could not help but smile widely at her confession and she blushed again, clearly embarrassed as to what just slipped out of her mouth. It was adorable how she got so shy all of the sudden.

'Oh shut up! It's not like you don't know you are,' she said, trying to deflect from the fact that SHE thought so.

'True,' I grinned, 'but it's nice to hear you admit it.' It was, now I had the knowledge I needed ... she was indeed into me and the intensifying blush on her cheeks was the ultimate confirmation for THAT.

'You're such a jerk, you know that?' Elle insulted me but she had a small smile on her face which quickly faded, 'And I'm never getting on that bike ever again in my life!'

I just could not resist and since she was all adroable, I had to say, 'but I'm a hot jerk, right?'

'Shut up already. Just get my bag out, please.'

I rolled my eyes at her. I was sure she liked me but I would have loved to flirt with her a little bit more, to be quite honest. Because I was pretty sure that's what we've been doing. I opened the seat and handed her the bag.

Curtly she said 'thank you' and marched toward her front door.

'Oh, Elle?'

'What?' she sighed in response, sounding exasparated, and shot me one of her do-not-annoy-me-anymore looks.

'You have ... a little paint,' I grinned as my glance wandered from her face to her collarbone and back, '... Just there.' And I showed her which side of her face I meant by touching my left cheek in slow motion. She glared at me, wordlessly, turned around, went inside and then slammed the door shut. I put my helmet on and kicked my motorcycle back to life and drove home, a huge smile plastered on my face for the entire duration of the ride.

I arrived home roughly ten minutes later to see that Lee had not returned from his outing but I saw that my mother was in from work already.

'Hey Mom,' I shouted when entering the house.

'Hey honey,' she responded, clearly knowing how much I hated the endearment. I just tolerated it for her sake, really. Anything that made me look harmless ... just no.

'What's for dinner?' I asked and slumped down onto one of the barstools at the kitchen counter.

'Oh I have a very venturesome idea, why don't you cook tonight, Mr. Oh-So-Demanding-Soon-To-Be-Self-Fed-Colleage-Student?'

'Ha-ha!' I said and stuck my tongue out.

She shot me an amused look, then she looked past my face and onto my shirt and gave me a quizzical look.

'You got some paint on your shirt, there, Noah,' she said.

'I do?' I retorted, playing innocent.

'Yeah,' she pointed at my right shoulder and my waist, 'there ... and there.'

'Oh,' was all I managed to say. To make matters worse, Lee came in that exact moment and said, 'Oh, did Elle rub off on you?'

'Elle?' my mom looked from Lee to me and right back to Lee again, obviosuly confused as to what was going on.

'Yeah,' Lee said, 'I went out with a couple of guys to grab something to eat so Elle had no one to drive her home and we had a ... um ... accident at woodwork.'

'Accident?'

'Let's just call it an accident for now,' Lee laughed, 'Elle basically was covered in a ton of different paint colors.'

'Lee Flynn, what did you do?' My mom sighed and Lee just shrugged his shoulders. 'And you made Elle go on Noah's motorcycle? She hates that thing!'

I shrugged my shoulders.

'She thought it wasn't so bad,' I lied and Lee caught on to it immediately.

'Liar, liar, pants on fire,' he said and smirked, 'Elle is terrified of that thing. I don't even know how you managed it to get her onto it so I humbly pay tribute to you!'

'Ha-ha!'

'I mean it, you got the independent Elle Evans who doesn't want to be told what to do onto your motorbike ...' Lee teased me and I suddenly realized that Elle had done something that she was truly terrified of ... for me.

'Now,' my mother said, catching me off guard, 'what are you cooking for us tonight, Noah?'