I hadn't felt this much excitement in a long time. The last time I felt this way was last year when my team won the state championship. Since then, nothing had been worthy of this feeling until now.

I stood in front of my mirror, pulling my Bruins jersey down. This would be my first Bruins game. My mother had never let me go, despite me telling her it was all I wanted for Christmas or my birthday. She didn't want me going into the city without her and there was no way she was going to sit through a game that I wasn't playing in.

A commotion downstairs let me know that the guys had arrived. I quickly grabbed my phone and wallet before heading downstairs where Dad, Mindy, and Ava sat in the living room and the guys, including Josh, stood in front of them.

Fox immediately spotted me and sent me one of his heart stopping smiles.

"Ready to go?" he asked me, causing the rest of the guys to notice me as well.

I enthusiastically nodded, walking over to the group.

"Hey, man," Ryan greeted me, slapping his hand down on my shoulder. "Happy birthday."

Due to the excitement of my first Bruins game, I nearly forgot that today was my actual birthday.

Dad stood up from the couch and buried me in his arms, causing the guys to poke fun at me.

"Happy birthday," Dad said, kissing the top of my head. "I can't believe my baby boy is eighteen now."

"Okay Dad," I said, trying to pull away from him.

Fox chuckled at my expense and walked over to me, tossing his arm around my shoulder. His touch was electric, like it had been for the last few days. Part of me felt like I should pull away, but the stronger part wanted to stay right under his arm.

"You ready to get going?" he asked.

I nodded.

"You boys be careful," Dad instructed, looking toward all of us.

"Let us know when you get there," Mindy added, nodding in agreement.

With that, the eight of us headed out to the cars, me getting in the passenger's seat of Fox's while Alex and Ian sat in the back. Josh took his car with Ryan, Jude, and Liam.

I couldn't keep the smile off my face as Fox pulled away from the curb and drove out of the neighborhood, Josh following closely behind.

"You excited?" Fox asked, looking at me out of the corner of his eye.

"Is it that obvious?"

"You're practically bouncing in your seat," Fox pointed out.

I let out an embarrassed chuckle. "I guess you could say I'm excited."

Fox's lips quirked up into a small smile and my eyes rested on the side of his face. I couldn't get over his smile.

"So you've never been to a B's game?" Alex suddenly asked, poking his head between Fox and me from the backseat.

My eyes averted from Fox and to Alex before I cleared my throat.

"No, I haven't," I said, causing Alex to give me a strange look.

"Weird. I'd have thought your Dad would've taken you. He's taken Josh," Alex nonchalantly replied, causing a squeezing pain in my chest.

I knew my father must've taken Josh before, but it still didn't hurt any less to realize Josh had gotten that bonding experience with Dad and I hadn't.

"Alex," Fox snapped in a warning tone.

I sighed. "My mom had a way of making sure I could never do anything fun," I admitted.

"Man, that sucks," Alex said. "Hey," he poked my shoulder.

"Hm?"

"Are you finally boinking Trevor?" Alex asked, "Fox said he saw you kissing him."

I turned my eyes back to Fox and my face hardened into a glare. His jaw was clenched and his eyes narrowed as he stared at the road in front of him.

"How often are you going to ask me that?" I asked Alex in an annoyed tone, my glare still set on Fox.

Alex shrugged. "Every so often until you tell me you are."

"Well, I'm not," I said, crossing my arms over my chest and looking straight ahead.

"Okay, I'll ask again in a few days," Alex replied, moving back to the back seat.

"You're so annoying," Ian told him.

Alex just shrugged again and smiled. "It's my specialty."

"And I wasn't kissing him," I clarified, looking toward Fox. He still looked tense, like he wanted to be talking about anything but this.

Fox scoffed and looked at me briefly with an annoyed, incredulous expression before turning his eyes back to the road.

"I saw you," Fox responded, almost angrily.

"I wasn't kissing his lips!" I nearly shouted.

"Woah, kinky," Alex added with a chuckle to which I turned around to shoot him a deadly glare before turning back to Fox.

Ian let out a loud groan. "Does it even fucking matter?"

"No, it doesn't," I said in a final tone, signaling I was done with this conversation.

Fox turned the radio up and the two of us rode the rest of the way to Boston in silence while Alex and Ian spoke in the backseat.

I couldn't get over how much Fox confused me. At one moment, he was doing nice things for me and I was swooning over him, but then at another he was inexplicably angry for no reason. At this moment, he was quietly steaming in his seat like a flame and if I got too close I would get burned.

Eventually we made it to the arena and Fox parked in the parking garage, Josh parking next to him.

"The traffic wasn't too bad," Josh commented as we all got out of the cars.

Fox just nodded and hummed in agreement, walking ahead of the group. I shook my head at him in annoyance as the rest of us followed him toward the arena.

I caught up to him just before we stopped to wait in line to enter.

"What's up with you?" I asked him quietly so that the rest of the guys wouldn't hear.

"Nothing," he muttered, trying to sound nonchalant but failing.

"Look, I don't know what your problem is, but can we deal with it later? Can we just

have a good time?"

Fox looked at me with a soft expression. "Yeah, we can do that."

"So we can talk about it later?" I asked.

"Yes, we can talk about it later," Fox replied as the line started moving forward.

I smiled widely at him to which he returned and the two of us led the rest of the guys into the building to get our tickets scanned. Once we were inside, I followed Fox to the seats.

"How did you get eight seats together?" I asked as I sat down beside him.

"My dad's company owns the row. When they don't use the tickets, they sell them," he answered.

I was surprised at how good the seats were. We were in the lower section with a perfect view of the ice.

"I hope it wasn't too much money," I said to him with my eyebrows raised.

Fox shrugged. "Don't worry about it. Wanna go get something to drink?"

I thought about it for a moment before nodding and standing up with Fox. He let the others know that we would be back before leading me out of the row and to the concessions. The line was pretty long considering people wanted to get their food and drinks before the game actually started.

Fox stood slightly in front of me with his hands in his pockets.

"Thanks for doing this by the way," I started, breaking the silence between the two of us, "I would've been happy with just a card."

Fox turned to me, quirking his lips up in slight smile and giving me an amused look.

"What kind of friend would I be if I just gave you a card for your birthday?"

A friend that didn't make my heart flutter, that was for sure.

When Fox and I got to the front of the line, he insisted on paying for my drink and I was too much at a loss for words to argue with him. He was making this feel like too much of a date for my heart to handle it.

As soon as we got back to our seats, Alex was complaining.

"You didn't get me anything?" he whined.

"Get it yourself," Fox replied, sitting back down in his seat. I sat back down beside him and slipped on my water.

"Everyone get up," Ryan commanded, standing up. "We have to take a picture in front of the ice for this momentous occasion."

Fox groaned, but stood up anyway after putting his drink in the cup holder. He motioned for me to follow him as the eight of us walked down the stairs toward the ice. Ryan handed his phone off to some woman and asked her to take a picture of us, which she seemed more than happy to do.

"Elijah in the middle," Jude said, waving me over.

Fox followed me and stood on my left while I stood between him and Ryan. I tensed slightly when Fox threw his arm around my shoulder, but relaxed when Ryan also put his arm around me. I gave a small smile for the picture and the woman seemed to take a few before handing the phone back to Ryan. He thanked her and we went back to our seats.

"We should start your instagram back up, Ellis," Ryan suggested, leaning over Jude and extending his arm across Alex to show me the picture.

I was pleasantly surprised with how the picture came out. We actually looked like a proper group of friends and I didn't stick out as the only one that didn't belong. I couldn't help but let my gaze linger on Fox with his arm around me.

The game turned out to be really fun and the Bruins actually won. During one of the intermissions, Ryan took my phone and downloaded instagram, forced me to log into it, then posted the picture of us from earlier without a caption, tagging each of the guys in it. He proceeded to follow himself and the other guys from my account.

"There," Ryan said, giving my phone back. "Now I can tag you in stuff and send you memes."

I probably wouldn't open instagram after today, but I nodded and let him believe I would.

After the game ended, Fox and Josh drove us all back to the house. Once we arrived, I said goodbye to Alex and Ian and waited for the two of them to get out of the car before addressing Fox.

"Can you come in for a few minutes?" I asked him. He gave me a strange look but nodded anyway, turning the car off.

Josh didn't say anything when he saw Fox following me up to the house but he gave me a wary glance. Ever since he found out about my feelings toward Fox he had been strange about the two of us together.

"Hey boys! How was the game?" Dad greeted as soon as we walked in. "Sorry to say I didn't see you guys on TV."

I laughed. "It was great."

"We're going to head out in a little bit for your birthday dinner," Dad told me. "You can come with us if you'd like, Fox."

I just looked to Fox with an apprehensive expression. We both knew that depended on how this conversation between us went.

"By the way thanks for organizing this, Fox," Dad said appreciatively, referencing the game.

Fox just shrugged. "It was no problem."

"Fox, can I talk to you before we leave?" I asked, bringing his attention toward me.

I notice Josh send me a wary glance, almost as if telling me not to, but I wasn't one to listen to Josh so I ignored him.

"Sure," Fox answered before following me up the stairs to my room.

Once we were both inside I poked my head out to make sure Josh wasn't going to come up here and eavesdrop before tightly shutting the door.

Fox stood in the middle of my room with his hands in his pockets, the look on his face telling me he was waiting for me to start speaking. Truth be told, I wasn't even sure where I wanted to begin.

"So about what happened in the car earlier. About Trevor..." I started.

Fox scoffed, crossing his arms over his chest. "Are we really going to do this right now?"

My eyes narrowed and I took a step closer to him.

"You said we could talk about this later," I told him, pointing at his chest.

"Yeah, but I thought later meant not today," Fox replied.

"Why would I say later if I meant a different day?" I asked, my voice going higher as my anger rose.

"Maybe I was just hoping that's what you meant," he admitted.

I felt my eye twitch in annoyance as I stared at Fox in disbelief. I took a deep breath, deciding not to argue with him about this. I'd rather talk about what we were here to to talk about.

I sighed. "What's going on with you?"

"I really don't know what you're talking about," Fox replied, causing me to bite the inside of my cheek to stop myself from blowing up at him.

"Yes you do," I tried to convince him. "You got mad the other night when you saw me with Trevor and then you went and told the guys that I was kissing him."

"I wasn't mad," he muttered, looking down at the floor.

"Yes you were," I told him. "And you were mad about it today when Alex brought it up."

Fox looked up and stared at me with a blank expression. His eyes looked around the room for a few moments and zeroed in on where I hung the painting Trevor had given me. He let out a sigh before looking back at me.

"I just don't like the idea of you two together," Fox confessed with a serious expression.

"We're not together," I hissed, trying to keep my voice down.

"But it seems like you will be," he countered.

"Why do you even care about my love life?" I spat. "I don't put my nose into yours."

Fox scoffed. "I don't even have a love life."

"Oh you don't? You and Claudia seem to be getting closer and closer," I argued, Fox's eyes widening.

"What?" he hissed. "You think I'm with Claudia? Seriously?"

"No... yes," I sighed, "I don't know."

Fox's expression softened and he took a step closer to me. "Well, I'm not."

"Okay, fine. I believe you. Now, will you believe me when I say that I'm not with Trevor?" I asked him with raised eyebrows.

Fox sighed. "You may not be with him now, but I can see it coming."

He wasn't doing much to stop my blood from boiling. I hated how he thought he had me all figured out, how he could never take my word for anything.

"And why does that even matter?" I nearly screeched. I wasn't worried much about the volume of my tone anymore. I was pissed off and I didn't care who knew it.

"Quiet down, Elijah," Fox said quietly, holding his hands out in front of him.

"Just tell me why, Fox! I'm sick of—"

I couldn't get the rest of the words out of my mouth before Fox took two strides and cupped my cheeks in his hands, placing his lips over mine. This wasn't the first time I'd kissed Fox, but this time was undeniably different. Before, I didn't know him, but now he was one of my favorite people.

His lips moved slowly over mine, almost like he was apprehensive and worried I was about to shove him away from me. I began to respond to his lips, quickening the pace a bit as I ran my fingers through his hair. When Fox realized I was enjoying the kiss, he quickened the pace as well and pushed me back so that I was leaning up against my door.

There was a familiarity about the kiss that comforted me, yet it was foreign. The kiss pushed a rush of adrenaline into my mouth and down my throat until there was heat in my stomach that went on and pulsed through my veins. It was a feeling so foreign, so unfamiliar, that it seemed out of reach, unattainable and out of reality.

Fox was the one to pull away first. He was breathless, his swollen lips separated only slightly as he searched for my reaction on my face.

"I don't want you to like Trevor," Fox told me, trying to catch his breath, "because I want you to like me."

I wordlessly stared at him. After my emotions toward Fox had been confusing me for days on end, he was the one admitting his feelings. It was relieving to know that I wasn't the only one with these feelings.

"You don't have to like me back or whatever, and I'm sorry I'm a jealous fuck when it comes to you and Trevor—"

I didn't let him finish. Instead, I grabbed his face and brought his lips back to mine. Fox's natural confidence seemed to take over since I had initiated this kiss. He smirked into the kiss, bringing his hand up to cup my jaw.

"Elijah! We have to get going!" Dad called out from the bottom of the stairs.

I placed my hand on the center of Fox's chest and pushed him away from me. The two of us just stared at each other with wide eyes for a few moments before I turned around to open the door.

Fox grabbed my hand before I could, turning me around to face him.

"What does this mean?" he asked me in a hushed tone.

"I don't know," I admitted, staring at the intensity in his eyes.

"I guess we'll talk about it later?" he suggested with a coy smile to which I returned.

I nodded in agreement before the two of us left my room and headed downstairs. My family was waiting for me in the living room, staring at Fox and I as we descended the stairs.

"You're welcome to come with us, Fox," Mindy said kindly, my father nodding in agreement.

"I have to head home, but thank you," Fox politely declined. "Happy birthday, Elijah."

Fox left the house with a small smile and I couldn't help but watch him with one of my own as he went. Josh cleared his throat to grab my attention when he noticed me staring at Fox, but I didn't let him bother me. He had no idea what had just happened between us. If he did, who knows what he would think.

**