Fine

Chapter 20

"... And she totally rejected him. It was pretty brutal. Todd said- ah, there's your boyfriend." Kai stands up to get the door. "Hey, Levi!"

Levi comes in and makes his way over to us with a smile, taking the seat beside me and slipping an arm around my waist. I kiss his cheek, grinning. "Hey there. What took you so long?"

He pecks my temple in return. "Forgot my phone." He sees the TV screen and gives us all a look. "You weren't waiting for me, right?"

Hazel scoffs. "As if your boyfriend would actually allow us to press play without his snuggle-buddy."

I grin a little and curl up to Levi. "You can press play now."

We're having a friends movie night in Kai's room (he has the biggest room and best couch out of our group of friends). Levi and Kai met since they're both on the university's basketball team, and Hazel is his girlfriend who also happens to be in a lot of my classes (we were friends before these group hangouts began).

So far, university has been great. Since Levi and I both went out of town, to the same university, we're able to openly date, which is amazing. My parents are still in the dark about my sexuality, which will hopefully be the case until I finish uni and get a job. It's a lot easier now that they're further away and I'm not constantly having to deal with their homophobic remarks. There's a lot less fear involved, and a lot less hiding (which is the main difference between my current relationship with Levi and the one we had prior to uni).

"Wait! Popcorn!" Kai cries, jumping off the couch and disappearing for a moment before a bag of popcorn comes hurtling through the air towards me. I catch it easily (I'm not a receiver for nothing) and then proceed to catch the three that come directly after it. Thank goodness they're all closed.

Hazel grabs two and I take the others, opening one and holding it out to Levi. He takes a couple pieces and pops them into his mouth as Kai sits down again and grabs the remote to start the movie. I casually take a piece for myself and place it on the tip of my tongue before pulling it into my mouth. I can already see Levi's slight blush as he forces his gaze to the TV. I grin and snuggle closer to him, resting my head on his shoulder and leaning into his chest. He kisses my forehead, and I hum a little before focusing on the movie.

-

"Nate. Nate. Babe, if you fall asleep, I'm not going to have the heart to wake you up."

I groan and lift my head off my desk. Levi is helping me study for an exam I have tomorrow that I'm not particularly excited for. "But I'm tired..."

"Exactly why I wouldn't have the heart to wake you up. So unless you're actually done studying, open your eyes and focus."

"But don't I need to be well-rested for my exam, too?"

"Maybe you should have thought of that before leaving all your studying to the very last minute."

I force my eyes open and give him a pleading look. He bites his lip (a habit he's picked up recently- I think from Hazel).

"Babe, you can't give me that look. I won't be able to make you finish studying if you keep looking at me like that."

I sigh and sit up, leaning back in my chair and yawning. "Fine. Where were we?"

An hour or so later, I have gone through my entire study list. Levi sighs in relief. "Thank goodness. Remind me never to agree to help you study, ever again."

"But you're so helpful," I tell him with a small smirk as I crawl onto my bed where he's sitting and tug on him until he lies down beside me.

"Maybe so, but that was a lot of nagging and arguing and I am never doing that again."