How it Began

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"Al, you wanna come to my place?" FP asks as he comes up to her locker.

"Oh, I'd love to but I'm going over to Hal's place to work on the paper."

"You're going over there?" She nods. "Evelyn is actually going to let you in her house?"

Alice laughs. "If she doesn't I'll just have to crawl in a window."

"Well if you're done early you should come over."

"Yeah, I will." She smiles at him leans up on her tip toes to kiss his cheek. "I'll see you later."

"Yeah. Love you!" He calls before she's too far away.

She turns around briefly. "Love you too."

She walks out to the parking lot and sees Hal talking to a few of his friends by his car. He sees her coming and smiles, waving her over. "Hey, you ready?"

"Yep, whenever you are." She ignores the judging looks his Northside friends give her as she stands there.

"I'll see you guys tomorrow." He dismisses his friends and rushes past Alice to open up the passenger door, gesturing for her to get in.

She smiles and gets in, he closes the door for her. What a gentleman, she think to herself.

"I hope I didn't take you away from any plans by asking you to come work on the paper with me."

"No, not at all, don't worry." She gives his hand a reassuring squeeze and watches as his cheeks turn pink.

They drive to his house in an awkward silence and when they pull into his driveway she follows close behind him as they walk into his house. "What's the chance of us sneaking pst your mom without her seeing me?" Hal laughs as he unlocks the front door. "I'm serious, she hates me."

"Don't worry, she's not here." He pushes open the door and gestures for her to walk in.

"Where are we working?"

"My room. Follow me." She follows him upstairs, looking around in amazement. The Cooper house is so nice, not that she's surprised, and compared to her soupcan of a trailer it's a palace.

Hal's room is spotless, not a single thing is out of place. His bed looks like it's never been slept in, it's made so neatly, it all just looks so... perfect.

"Sit wherever you want, make yourself comfortable."

She perched herself on the edge of his bed, not wanting to mess up anything. He takes a seat at his desk and pulls out his notebook.

They work in silence, just the sounds of their pens scribbling away puncture the quietness.

"I'm done that article if you want to look over it?" Alice tells him and he turns around with a smile. He sits beside her on his bed and takes her notebook from her. He reads over it and she anxiously awaits his thoughts on it. "Well?"

"It's really good."

"Really?" She lets out the breath she didn't she was holding.

"Yeah, it's amazing actually. You got a real talent, Alice."

"Well I have a great partner to help me." She nudges him and he smiles at her.

"I'm happy to help. We make a good team."

"We really do."

They stare at each other for a moment, both of them not knowing what exactly to do. "Maybe I should get back to my article."

She clears her thirst awkwardly and nods. "Yeah, maybe you should."

"Unless, um... unless you have something else for me to look over."

She flips through her notebook, eagerly looking for something, anything to show him to keep him beside her just a little longer.

He leans closer and she feels goosebumps rise on her skin as his warm breath tickles her neck. He's so close to her she partly forgets how to breathe. She turns her head to look at him and his eyes drift down to her lips. "Oh fuck it." She takes his face in her hands and kisses him, he immediately kisses her back, his hands coming up to wrap in her hair.

She bites softly at his bottom lip and he opens his mouth a little to let her deepen the kiss. He wraps his arm around her back and pulls her closer, pleasantly surprised when she straddles his lap.

"This is so wrong." He mutters against her lips, instantly gluing them back together after he says it.

"Then why does it feel so right?" She's damn near breathless as she says it.

He doesn't think of much else except for her and how her lips feel against his, how they feel as they travel down to his neck. But he also thinks of how utterly fucked he is because he knows he's falling hard for her.