Amber's pov:

"Damien... Damien... DAMIEN NO!!!" I squeal, hugging my phone closer to my chest as Damien's arms wrapped around me, trying to get his hands on the small device that was clasped between my hands.

"Amber I saw you sneaking a picture of me when Julie shoved my hair into two pony tails, GIVE ME IT!!" He tries to say it in a serous way, but his boyish grin and cute laugh went against him as he then picked me up by the waist, still trying to open my hands to retrieve the phone.

"Neverrrrrr." I laugh, while lightly blushing at the closeness of our bodies. Mine pushed against his as he was too distracted trying to pull my hands away from my phone.

I could get used to this...

If only he didn't think of me as just a close friend though.

It's been three days since we saw his sister, and the friendship between us just completely sky rocketed.

It's almost like the awkwardness between us that was once there just disappeared.

I think we could both tell that we were comfortable with one another, even if it was not directly said or brought up in conversation.

I could even talk, joke around, and laugh with him instead of becoming a blushing, stuttering mess.

...

Well, that's until he decides to do stuff like wrap his arms around me, not understanding what effect that feeling has on me.

I mean, how could I forget all the years I've been crushing on him, and now here we are, his arms wrapped around me...

As Friends.

"Amber~... please give me the phone, I will be extra nice to you..." I couldn't see him, but I could almost FEEL his puppy eyes as my heart melted at the sound of his soft baby voice that he was trying to persuade me with.

And it almost worked, I was almost persuaded.

But I wanted, no NEEDED that picture of him with two pig tails.

It's probably the cutest thing I've ever seen.

"Why do you need to see it~..." I mimic his baby tone, giggling at his loud sigh.

"Because... no reason~..." Again his tone of voice causes my heart to clench, wanting to just give him the phone.

Must. Resist. The. Force.

Darth Vader who?

"But you will delete it... and then I will have nothing to put as your contact picture."

...

He freezes as I realize my mistake.

"Oops, maybe I shouldn't have said that out loud-..."

"CONTACT PICTURE!!!" He quickly drops me out of his hold by accident as I take it as my chance to run.

As soon as he realizes my escape, he takes off in a full sprint after me as I run towards the boxing arena where everyone else was.

Before this, it was just another practice for Damien, Luke, and Liam, with all of us girls tagging along.

Then it shifted to them having a break and Julie wanting to put two pigtails in Damien's hair.

Taking the opportunity, I snuck a picture of the final result, but Damien seemed to have caught on to my tactics and when I said that I had use the bathroom...

Which was actually me wanting to sneak away and put in the picture of Damien as his new contact picture without anyone noticing...

He followed me and caught me in the act.

Now fast forward, here I am realizing that I am not so in shape and there was a sprinting Damien a couple feet after me.

Looking for a shield, I go to the first person I see, which happened to be Ella, and hide behind her as she laughs at seeing Damien trying to get me.

"Amber!!! That's not fair!! No human body shields allowed!!" He whines, trying to reach around Ella to grab me without hurting her.

Because he knew, I knew, and literally everyone knew that even one scratch on Ella would have woken the beast in Luke.

It's not so pretty.

But I heard from Ella that Julie is the one who actually has it worse, but I've never really met Ashton so I couldn't picture it well enough.

"Hah! You can't get me!" I stick out my tongue as I see a glint in his eyes at the challenge.

Maybe not the best choice of words...

"Haha... actually, I take that back-..." but before I could even blink, Damien successfully reached around Ella and wrapped me in his arms once again and picked me up, taking us to where our friend group was huddled together, watching us with bright smiles on their faces as they laughed at the scene before them.

Which now, I am actually quite confident to say as "our friend group" which is definitely different to what I was thinking three days ago.

Damien has kept his word and invited Liam and I to his lunch table, and we've both grown pretty attached to all of them.

They took us in their friend group which I was surprised about, but very grateful.

It's always been just me and Liam, and I honestly thought it would always just be that for the rest of highschool.

But never have I seen people who were more than excited to add us as part of their friend group.

Although we still have yet to meet Ashton, Jake, and Zander, Julie said not to really worry about it because they will be more than happy to become friends with us.

And if they don't agree, quoting her, 'I will dress them as lettuce and feed them to the snails. It will be a very slow but painful death.'

I've been honestly kinda scared of Julie ever since.

"Do we even want to know what happened in the five minutes that you two disappeared on us?" Luke smirks, before it turns into a painful wince as Ella hits him in the arm.

Like being deers caught in head lights, we both shake our heads no as Damien lets go of his arms around me, but he still keeps me close to him.

"What do YOU mean?! Of course I WANT to know what-..." Gianna's words were quickly muffled as Julie and Liam both throw their hands over Gianna's mouth while they laugh awkwardly.

Damien and I look at each other with confused glances as we both shrug.

I mean... it's Gianna, Julie, and Liam for crying out loud...

Is there a clear explanation for anything that they do?

We've just stopped trying to understand at some point.

"So how about we all go and do something after your guys' practice? Coach said that practice is ending almost an hour early, why don't we do something with that time?" Julie mentions, as we all shake our heads simultaneously at her words.

"I heard that new cafe just opened a few days ago, how about we all go check it out?" Ally asks, all of us agreeing to that idea.

"Sounds like a plan, I just hope coach doesn't work us up to a sweat since we are getting out an hour early." Luke says, taking a water bottle out of his bag and beginning to drink it.

"I hope so to, you STINK when he works you hard." Luke chokes on his water at Ella's words as he begins to glare at her while we all laugh at his reaction.

"Excuse me!! It is the body's NATURAL way of cooling off... that is diaphoresis for you... as in at least my suldoriferous glands are working... thank you very much." He says back, crossing his arms in a childish way before joining in with everyone's laughter at his strange words.

"Well someone has been studying for their science test tomorrow." Julie says, as he rolls his eyes at her words.

"Someone," He nudges Ella, "has been forcing me to study with her."

"Hey! This doesn't just only benefit me you dummy, you should be thanking me, thank you very much." She repeats his words.

He begins to comment back, but a hand on my back soon distracts me as I look up at Damien to see him grinning back down at me.

"You must think my friend group is insane after being with us for the last couple of days." He cheekily says as I shake my head at his words.

"Trust me," I glance at Liam who seemed to be too engaged in their conversation to notice, "I think I've had a fair share on what insane really is, this is nothing."

He chuckles at my words as he starts to play with the bottom of my t-shirt, the feeling of his fingers accidentally brushing against my skin sends shivers down my spine.

"I've always just had the same group of people in my life. Before Julie, well actually, before all the girls came, it's was just me, Ashton, Zander, Luke, and Jake. It's what I was just used to, plus, I was too shy to make friends with anyone else so it was what I just felt comfortable with. So not going to lie, when Julie started hanging out with us, it felt pretty weird, but later she became more like family and kinda became a sister to me."

He glances as Julie and smiles, as do I, but then I started to ponder on his words.

"You seemed to have started talking to me pretty well though, remember when we first met and you helped me with the concession stand?"

He looks back at me, smiling at the memory, "That feels like so long ago, but I guess I am way better than what I used to be, I feel more confident now."

"I see, especially as a boxer now." I nudge him playfully as his cheeks turn the slightest shade of pink by my words.

"What do you mean?"

I again nudge him, "You know what I mean! You've always been pretty good at boxing but now you are like boom, boom, whoosh, SMACK." He laughs at my words that corresponded with me punching the air dramatically like I was the one in the boxing match.

"Yeah because everytime it is my turn to go in, it's just like boom, boom, whoosh, SMACK!"

"What do YOU mean? That's EXACTLY what goes down."

"And how are you so sure?" He challenges.

"Because I'm the coaches daughter, I was basically BORN with boxing knowledge, I think you're just jealous."

"Okay Miss. Know it all, I challenge you to a boxing match in the near future."

"Deal, but I would advise you to bring a change of underwear, you might pee yourself after you realize how good I am."

"I don't think-.."

"Okay guys!!! Back on the mats. I think your fifteen minute break was enough for you to last until the end of practice, let's go!" I hear the voice of my dad shout as Damien's words were cut off.

He gives me an apologetic smile as he runs off with Luke and Liam to the mats while us girls head to the benches to watch.

But as soon as we sat there, I could feel all their eyes on me as I give them a confused look.

"What?"

"So...." Ella was the first one to draw out.

"So..." I repeat her, confusion laced between my words.

"What did ever happen when you two disappeared for a solid five minutes... you seemed pretty... close..." Julie draws out suspiciously, as a blush rises to my cheeks.

"Close? Pfft... whaaaat? No... nothing happened."

"Really?" Ally asks.

"Yeah-..."

"THEN WHY WAS HIS HANDS WRAPPED AROUND-..." And for the second time today, Gianna's words were cut off as now it was all three of them who slapped a hand over her mouth.

"SHUSH WOMAN we were getting to that!!" Ella says, shaking her head.

"Ohhhhhhhh... my bad."

Instead of being embarrassed by their words, I actually found it quite finally on how curious they were about Damien and I.

It's been like that for the last three days.

Everytime Damien and I even TALKED alone together, they were right on us like an animal pouncing on its prey.

Newsflash guess who the prey were?

"Nothing, really, I promise. He was just trying to take my phone away from me and his arms somehow landed around... my waist..."

As the words slowly left my mouth, I soon realized that maybe it does sound a little more than it actually is.

His arms were around my waist.

...

HIS ARMS WERE AROUND MY FREAKING WAIST AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

"You guys are literally so cute, I can't." Ally whines as they all shake their heads instantly.

Okay, so this time I actually blushed at their words.

But luckily, a whistle was there to break up the conversation before anything got too far and I would have probably ended up spilling my big crush on him.

But something told me that they already knew.

...

LIAM!!!!