Tinder - D.JH.

fifteen

(there is a house party going on in my neighbours yard so don't judge any typos i'm trying. to. concentrate. oh my god i just wrote "fiveteen" as the chapter oKAY ANYWAY.)

Dan walks straight up to the counter, seeing as there's barely any people there. "Hi! I'll have two venti caramel macchiatos." he says, pulling his card out of his pocket and swiping it to pay.

"What are we doing?" I ask, crossing my arms.

"Curiosity killed the cat." Dan looks over at me.

"Good. It'll be buried right next to that saying." I sigh, looking around.

"Thanks." Dan ignores me, grabbing both of our drinks, handing one to me.

I wrap my slim maroon-painted fingers around the white cup to warm them up. "Where are we going?" I ask.

"Shut up!" Dan exclaims, giggling as we walk out of the café.

"No." I say back loudly, a smile growing on my face as I ignore the people leering around us.

Dan and I walk to St. James Park, climbing to the top of a steep hill where a huge tree has grown. Dan unzips the bookbag on his back, pulling out a big fuzzy grey blanket. He spreads it out on the ground under the tree and sits cross-legged, taking a drink of his macchiato.

"A picnic." he clarifies, his brown eyebrows raised expectantly.

"A picnic?" I repeat, my eyes scanning over the blanket, the food bag by his side, his crossed legs, the cup in his hands, then to his face. His cute, freckly, dimply face.

"Yes." he says quietly with a perfect smile on his pink chapped lips.

I sit down criss-crossed next to him, tucking stray hair behind my ear with a smile that I could not, for the life of me, get off my face. I sniffle, feeling my nose get pink from the chill in the air. "Dan?" I look up at him.

"Yeah?" he asks, looking down to me.

"I love this." I look to the view of the park below us, grinning as I feel Dan's body heat radiating from only inches away from me.

"Me, too." he says, and when I turn back to look at him, our gazes catch each other and his eyes flicker down to my slightly parted lips. I break the eye contact, smiling down at my legs that are crossed in front of me with a bright red blush on my face that I can blame on the cold. "Lets eat." Dan suggests, amusedly.

"Yeah." I nod and Dan opens the bag, handing me a breakfast burrito.

Dan and I sit, eating. After we're done, I lay down on my back, watching the orange leaves flutter off the tree above me. Dan lays down, too. When he reaches for my hand, I gladly interlock our fingers, a twinkly smile etching its way onto my face.

"It smells like Autumn." Dan says out of the blue, taking a deep breath inward.

"It does." I agree, a red leaf falling into my hair.

"This is my favourite time of year." Dan says, rubbing his thumb in circular motions against the back of my hand.

"Me, too. Everything is so...," I trail off.

"Spoopy." Dan finishes.

"I was gonna say cozy, but spoopy works, too." I chuckle.

Dan turns on his side to face me.

"Maya Coleman." he says.

"Daniel Howell." I say back.

"Would you do me the honour of hugging me?" he asks with a breathy laugh.

"Hugging you?" I ask, amused.

"Yes." he says with no shame.

"Of course." we both sit up and I wrap my arms around his shoulders, he wraps his around my waist.

We both pull back, his hands still resting on my hips. He reaches a hand up to my hair, pulling the leaf out of it that had fallen earlier. I smile as he tosses it to the side. Then, his hands settle under my jaw, on both sides of my neck and our lips connect, sending butterflies through my stomach like a big explosion.

When he deepens the kiss, I can feel my cheeks heating up. I place my hands on his shoulders, too sidetracked to think about how to properly kiss someone.

Dan pulls away, looking into my eyes. I look back at him and run my hand through his wavy brown hair. He bites his bottom lip to suppress a smile.

"That was...," he says breathily.

"Amazing?" I ask, hoping he feels the same way.

"Exactly." he sighs, his dimples deepening.