Page 35 of The List of Things

“You don’t sound full of yourself. Your stats this year were absolutely insane Bell, and besides that. You threw a perfect touchdown pass every single game. Your year to year stability within the team is what keeps the group together I think. Since your freshman year, you’ve outshined every…” I trail off when my eyes catch his.

They are lit up, bright like a Christmas tree.

“Sorry,” I stop myself, feeling my cheeks heat up.

So I’m a football fangirl. I like to know my shit when it comes to the team I’ve looked up to since I was a sophomore in high school.

“You’re so adorable when you talk football stats to me. You know more about my stats than I do, don’t you?”

I shrug in response to his question, “I just like to keep up with it. I kept up with you guys, all the important players, watching for injuries, or tendencies so when I hopefully work with you guys I’ll already be ahead.”

I tell him the truth, knowing I’ve been to every game since freshman year, and watched the ones on TV that were away games.

“You’ve always wanted to come here? To Seattle Pike?” He asks, and I shrug.

“Since my dad and I bonded over football so much growing up, and my mom was a fan too, they got my tickets to see a game back when I was in high school. I fell in love with the campus, and the energy within our stadium. It was all I could think about for weeks, and I knew I wanted to come here. I got a scholarship, and it paid for almost everything so here I am. Younger me would be proud,” I smile to myself, and Bellamy is smiling as well.

“Your love for the sport makes you so much hotter,” He ruins the cute moment between us, and I roll my eyes, my smile not leaving my face.

“You’re gross,” I laugh, finishing off my food, and pushing it in front of me.

I like his so called gross banter though, it makes my stomach heat up. I’ll never tell him that though.

“I’m charming, not gross… Now we move on to dessert,” He tells me, stealing my plate from in front of me the second I’m finished.

“Hey! I can clean off my plate myself,” I tell him, hating the thought of someone cleaning up after me.

“How do you feel about brownies?” He asks me, ignoring my protests with my plate in his hand.

“Brownies sound delightful. Why don’t you get the stuff to make them while I clean off our plates?” I ask him, and surprisingly, he doesn’t argue.

He passes by me, his skin brushing mine, making every hair on my body stand up. I wish I had control of myself. I obviously have enough considering I haven’t started taking his clothes off yet, but still. My body doesn’t know what’s going on. Neither do I if I’m honest.

There’s so much desire built up, and I have no idea what’s going on inside his head.Does he have the same reaction? Does he want me, or does he just want to complete the list?

“Why did you want to do this with me?” I ask, moving the sponge over the plates, hand cleaning them instead of putting them in the dishwasher right away, distracting myself, but also being thorough.

“The list?” He asks from behind me.

“Yeah,” My eyes are on the dish, not him.

“I don’t know. You’re fun to be around, and it gives me good ideas for the future I guess... And you’ve tutored me all semester, and I never got to repay you for helping me pass.”

I smirk to myself, knowing he can’t see my face right now.

“You know the student center pays me to tutor you, right?”

“That’s them, not me.”

“Well, I would’ve taken payment in cash, check, Venmo, or Paypal,” I joke.

“Payment in orgasms is better, don’t you think?”

I choke on quite literally nothing. The air in my lungs ceases to exist at the statement I didn’t expect to come from him.

“That’s a pretty confident statement,” I finally turn around to face him.

He’s standing there, his back turned to me. He’s in the process of getting everything situated to make brownies.

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