"Seriously?" I turned at the sound of Maxwell's voice before chuckling a bit and looking back down at the bag of lays I was struggling to open. We were on the bus heading for the nearby mall. I heard Maxwell let out a sigh, and soon his pale hand had found its way to my lap before snatching the bag from me. He tore it open before handing it over to me, and I thanked him before looking away.

Dating Maxwell was both exciting and painful. Exciting because he was opening up to me, and letting me in. And painful because I couldn't stop grinning and it was starting to hurt — no, really. I got to sleep over in his room often, and he came down to visit me in mine as well. He held my hand and kissed me softly on the lips whenever he could, and it wasn't long until everyone figured out that we were an item. Ollie disappeared from the room whenever he was over, giving us privacy. We often goofed around for a while until things got heated. We also went out to the mall a lot. We were heading there right now actually. We were going to get Maxwell some clothes. I had continued to tease him on end about how he dressed, so he had eventually given in and told me I might as well get him a whole new wardrobe, and that was what I was planning to do.

"Lighten up," I said, turning to him. Maxwell had his head against the headrest of the bus's leather seat. He raised one of his full brows at me before shaking his head. "I'm just buying you some clothes, and I'm using my own money," I added, and Maxwell snorted.

The bus dropped us off at the closest stop to the mall. We walked hand in hand for the rest of the way, entering the crowded mall and making a beeline to the site navigation map. I had to hurry up since there was someone behind us waiting, and after looking through the stores I turned and grabbed Maxwell's hand again, pulling him towards the direction of the escalator that went up to Hudson's Bay.

It didn't take long until I was going through racks and handing him clothes. I also paired outfits up for him, making sure they matched before handing then over to him. He was smiling at me, but I saw a glint in his eyes that told me he was a bit overwhelmed, and that what we were doing was way out of his comfort zone. I decided not to think too much about it, turning to him with a cream sweater in my hands before smiling a bit looking away to glance around the store. When I saw that we were the only ones at this side of the store I leaned in and pressed a kiss to his cheek before pulling away.

"Cheer up," I muttered as I watched Maxwell blink at me in surprise. His face then turned bright red, matching the tip of his ears and his red hair. I chuckled, swapping the dress shirts in his hands with the sweater I had in mine. That was another thing I liked, Maxwell was getting flustered more, and it made me feel a little bit less odd for blushing so frequently.

"Try that, it'll go well with your eyes," I said patting the sweater as I watched him nod before heading off in the direction of the brown and black sign that said 'Men.'

"He's acting like a puppy," I said to myself, chuckling before turning back to the rack of clothes. I kept looking through the clothes, and I frowned when I felt someone tap my shoulder. I turned back only to be met face to face with Maxwell's mate from practice. She was looking at me with an odd look. She looked angry.

"Excuse me?" I asked, frowning in confusion as I watched her fold her hands over her small chest. The action made the Aztec style bracelets on her hand giggle. She still didn't say anything, she just stared at me and I awkwardly looked down at the floor, feeling uncomfortable.

"What did you do?" she asked, making me look up at her again with a confused frown. Her big blues eyes that were framed with eyelashes enhanced with mascara stared right at me. "Well? How did you get him to date you? You don't look like much," she said. Her voice was laced with underlying bitterness, and I was thrown off.

"I..." I started before biting my bottom lip and shaking my head. I didn't need to explain myself to her. And did she just insult my looks? Well, I know I'm not much, but I was decent looking. My mums say I'm cute, and I would take their word for it — okay, that sounds weird.

"Why are you asking me?" I asked instead, watching as her frown thinned out a bit and she looked down at the floor. She was in black skinny jeans and a snuggly white long-sleeved top with a grey floral pattern. I watched as she shrugged before sighing.

"I don't know. I thought I had a chance I guess," she sighed, making my eyes go wide when I realized what she meant. Oh. Maxwell had been popular in that way in high school. I didn't know why I was a bit surprised he still was in college.

"Maxwell's a great guy, so good luck I guess?" she said with a small smile before walking over to the other side of the rack. She started going through jean jackets before she looked up at me again. "By the way, sorry about that. I guess I was just angry for a bit. I don't know, you've known him longer than I have so I don't really have a place to complain," she laughed, smiling again before she looked away and continued going through the rack.

I felt uncomfortable, so I just grabbed a few things and headed for the changing room to find Maxwell.

"Max—woah, sorry," I said, backing away from the stall he was changing att. I heard him laugh before the door came open again. We were the only ones inside the changing room.

"You've seen me naked, and now you're freaking out because I'm shirtless?" he asked in a mocking tone before laughing. I didn't say anything in return, I just shrugged. Yes, I had seen Maxwell naked. His chest was just as freckled as his face. His chest was nice to touch, and so was his hair—

Snap out of it. I told myself, blinking as I wedged the pair of jeans and tops properly under my arm. He was the only one in the whole changing room, so I just walked over to the stall with the legs peeping from below. I let myself look into the stall, and I found Maxwell wearing his school sweater again, an indication that he'd already tried out the cream sweater I had handed to him.

"Did you like it?" I asked, watching as his head went out from the top before he nodded.

"Yeah, if you like it, I like it. I mean, you're the person I'm trying to impress," he chuckled, smiling before his eyes moved to the clothes I was holding under my arm. "Do you want me to try those out too?" he asked with a raised brow, making me nod. He sighed, making to take off the sweater again and I laughed.

"You better compensate me in some way," he whined as he took the clothes from me before heading for a corner of the stall. "This is hard."

"I'll kiss you," I said, and his eyes went wide with clear interest. My face grew warm at the sight of the large smile on his face. I couldn't get used to saying things like that out loud, even though we kissed, and more all the time now.

"Like last night?" he asked, and my face grew even warmer. I might as well be a goddamn glow at this point.

"Yeah, like last night," I said, and Maxwell started changing at the speed of lightning. We weren't talking about a regular kiss. It was a kiss that went down a bit further than usual.

"I saw that girl from your practice today. She was looking at jackets." I made sure to leave the part about her being snarky with me. I had a doubt that Maxwell even knew she liked him. Or maybe he did? I wasn't sure.

"Madison?" Maxwell asked as he jumped into the pair of blue skinny jeans I had given him. I took a peep at his gray boxers but looked away with a nod in reply to his question.

"I guess," I mouthed with a shrug. I hadn't caught her name that day, that's if it was even mentioned. I let my eyes wander back to Maxwell after a while of staring at the wooden floorboards. He was now zipping up the jeans, and when he was done he turned from side to side, looking at himself in the stall's mirror.

"How does it look?" he asked as he turned to me, stretching his hands out even though I was supposed to be looking at just the jeans.

"Great." He smiled at my answer before moving to try out the rest of the clothes I'd brought over with me. I noticed the floor of the stall was now covered with clothes. Wow, that's a lot. I thought, but I didn't really mind. Things were on sale today anyway. When he was done I paid and we left the store with two bags. We headed to the food court before leaving for the bus stop when we grabbed something to eat. We then got on the next bus that was heading for our university station and read together on his phone on the way there.

I rested my head on Maxwell's shoulder, feeling his shoulder rise and fall with his breathing. I let myself look at his freckled face and brown eyes that were focused on the screen of his phone. I looked over at his screen too, reading the rest of the page for Maxwell scrolled to the next. We were reading Forever by Judy Blume. Occasionally, Maxwell would stop reading to rest his head on top of mine as he talked, and my heart would race every time. Heck, I still couldn't believe that we were dating. And having him be affectionate with me — in public, was more than I could ever ask for.

There was something wonderful about doing the most mundane things with Maxwell. In the small moments we shared I didn't overthink things. I didn't overthink the fact that Maxwell's dad might not be okay with us being together. I didn't overthink the fact that some of my floormates were acting a little odd after they figured things out, or the fact that some girls like Madison just seemed angry with me for existing, and I didn't overthink about the probability that what we had right now might be a brief, and eventually discarded relationship.