Cole chuckled.

"Look at you, breaking the rules. I will give a quote though, I guess just ask a question and I'll figure out a good comment for the paper" he grinned again as he took in and appreciated the sweater on her form. Why did he have to be attracted to this girl that he had no chance with?

"It looks really nice on you! Super cute! Oh and off the record, the guys are planning an after party. I'm not usually one for stuff like that, but well, because of this" he flipped the game-winning puck in his hand "I'm kinda expected to make an appearance, wanna go?"

"Thanks!" Alex said, slightly blushing at the compliment. Then he invited her to the party, "Sure, that would be fun! I haven't been to a party in a while. Actually this would be my first college party."

She looked at the puck, her eyebrows raising. "Oh snap! That's the puck isn't it? You gotta keep that forever!"

"Yeah same" he scratched the side of his head an laughed nervously. When she asked about the puck he held it up to show the tape around the edge "Yeah, its sort of a tradition in hockey for a team to keep pucks from games or goals where certain milestones are reached. This one's for me though, I guess, so yeah, I'm gonna keep it on the desk in my dorm I think"

They hashed out a plan for Cole to pick her up once he got the details of the party. He gave her a pretty generic quote about how amazing it was to redeem himself after his big mistake and how happy he was to score his first goal.

After that, they split up. Cole went back to his dorm to shower and get ready. He placed the puck in it's spot on his desk, smiled at it one more time and proceeded to get ready.

A few hours later, now sporting a team t-shirt, jeans, and a little bit of hair gel, he knocked on Alex's door.
"Hey, it's me, ready to go?"

Alex brightened up, familiar with the tradition. "Oh yeah! They do that in baseball too! If you can get the milestone ball back then its yours!"

And then they separated. Alex went back to her dorm as excited as can be. She decided not to dress too fancy. It was a victory celebration after all. In the end, she decided to stick to jeans and a long-sleeve that fell off her shoulders. As for makeup, she generally preferred darker colors versus pale or pastel ones. Her smokey eye was dark and well-blended and her lips were a cherry red.

Alex heard the knock and felt her heart jump. In truth, she wasn't sure if this was a date or not, but she sure was treating it like one. Alex grabbed her purse and opened the door.

"You look great!" she complimented, looking him up and down.

He lead her to the outside and they walked to the party. They made small talk, but nothing too significant. She slowly began to wonder if this wasn't actually a date.

He was awestruck when he saw her. She looked amazing. Almost like she was going on a date..... but that was impossible.... right?
"You look great too!"

They chatted a little bit as they made their way over to the arena. The members of the team had (basically) full access to the place 24/7, so it was pretty easy for them to use a few of the lounges as the site for a party. The minute they walked in, Cole's heart nervously pounding the whole way there, the room exploded with cheers as members of the team raced over to welcome them. Immediately drinks were placed in both of their hands, Greg stood on a chair and declared to the gathered assembly.

"The guest of honor has arrived! You all make sure that he and his lovely lady friend here have a drink on them at all times, this party wouldn't have happened without him!"

He clapped Cross on the back and congratulated him again. Not wanting to disappoint the audience, he took a healthy chug from the drink. Everyone cheered again, then music kicked in, people started to disperse, while some others started closing in to greet Cole and Alex. He quickly turned to her and leaned in to speak.
"You don't have to drink if you don't want to. I'm not sure how you feel about it or if you've ever done anything like this, but, just stay close and we can keep each other out of trouble, alright?"

Alex enjoyed seeing everyone so happy and celebrating. Cole seemed incredibly happy- this party was for him, after all. She blushed heavily as soon as his teammate called her his "lovely lady friend." Maybe he spoke about her to his teammates?

It surprised Alex to have a drink in her hand so quickly. "I've drank before, not much though," Alex admitted, "But I'm not against it either. I'll keep my eye on ya!" She gave him a silly, flirty wink and took a sip out of her red Solo cup. It was some beer she didn't recognize. In all honesty, she wasn't a beer person, but she didn't want to be rude either, so as they partied she drank. Whoever was running the party was doing a great job because the second her cup was empty someone was always rushing over to hand her a new one. If she didn't know better, she would have thought that she was the one who made the goal.

The music playing was really good. She became especially excited when they began to play reggaeton music. Alex jumped up, loosened by all of the alcohol, and pulled gently on Cole's hand. "Hey, we should dance! C'mon!"

The drinks flowed fast and heavy, but it was nothing Cole couldn't handle, though he still tried to keep pace with Alex. In between chatting with her and the various members of the team and other people around who wanted to talk to him, it was all a little overwhelming to be honest. He was almost relived when Alex started tugging him out to dance, he handed both of their almost-empty cups off to one of the others and followed along with her. The bravado of the alcohol faded hard as he realized he had no clue how to dance to this kind of music.

"You, uhh, you're gonna have to show me the steps I'm afraid" he chuckled, shaking his shoulders slightly to the beat, hoping he didn't look like a complete moron.

"Oh no worries!" Alex laughed, "I'll lead you and once you get comfortable you can lead." She took his hand and placed it on her hip, then her hand on his shoulder. She grabbed his hand and stood very close to him. "Alright, dancing to this is like a two-step," she explained, "When I move forward, you move backwards. When I move backwards, you move forward. Ready?" And she began to dance slowly, allowing him to learn and stumble on the way.

As soon as she saw him getting the hang of it, she continued, "Alright, now move your hips! Don't worry about being perfect, no one really cares." And with that, Alex began moving her hips with the steps. "You're doing great!"

He started to catch on to how it worked and smiled as she encouraged him.

"I've got a great teacher" he said with a grin. Slowly he eased into leading the dance. He didn't really know what to do with his hands, he moved his hips just as she was doing and moved a little closer.

Alex allowed herself to move in closer and even might have subconsciously pulled him in too. She couldn't really tell due to her intoxication but she was having a great time dancing. Her emotions were rarely hidden and anyone in the room could see the pure elation coming off of her in waves.

The song started to come to an end and Alex cheered. "Cole you did great! Are you sure you've never danced to Latina music before?"

"Pretty sure yeah" he chuckled "Like I said, I had a great teacher!"

It wasn't entirely truthful, his ex-girlfriend once promised to take him dancing and he'd done a little bit of practice in preparation, but they were having a good time, no need to bring up the past now. Cole was going crazy inside, he wanted to kiss her, or at least tell her how he felt about her, but he knew it was a losing battle, so he'd settle for another dance. A new song started up. He grinned and nudged his head a bit "care for another? I could use a bit more practice"

"Another dance? With you? I must be a really lucky girl," Alex said as the next song began to play. Overall she was a confident woman, the alcohol aided this just a tad. Eventually the reggaetón switched into cumbia. Alex smiled even wider as the pace of the music picked up. She became lost in the dance, moving happily to the music that was Los Angeles and its people. She made sure, however to keep Cole in step as best as she could as she danced and sang along to the music. She didn't sound great by any means, but it was clear that she was enjoying herself.

He couldn’t tell if she was being sarcastic or not but he just chuckled and went along with her anyway. This next song was a little faster and Alex started singing. Cole didn’t understand a word of the Spanish lyrics but the way they rolled out of her mouth, even though they were slightly slurred, sounded great to him.

He did his best to keep up with her, the beer definitely stoking his confidence and comfort with the situation. Eventually his hand ended up on her hip, and she didn’t seem to mind, so he kept it there.

When the song ended, they chuckled nervously as they walked off for another drink. A few minutes later Sam made his way across to where they were standing.
“Hey man” he said “I told the guys to put on something you’ll probably recognize, hope you like it.”

Not long after the Arkells “11:11” started playing. They were a Canadian band from the Toronto area, so yeah, Cole knew it pretty well.
“Hey” he said, turning to Alex “now this is something a little more my speed, you wanna dance?”

"Sure!" Alex said, ready to get back to the dancefloor. At this point she would dance to anything. Usually it didn't take much to get her out dancing anyway, but with the drink mixed in it would take no effort at all. She allowed Cole to lead her back to the dancefloor.

The song wasn't as fast as the songs that played in Spanish, but Alex enjoyed the dancing nonetheless. She looked up at Cole and listened to the lyrics. It got her thinking. Why wouldn't he kiss her? Was she imagining everything? Was she imagining the way he spoke to her? Was she imagining the way his eyes explored her body when he thought she wasn't looking? Alex let out a soft sigh. It couldn't be her imagination, but what kept him from making a move?

He had fun dancing with her. In any normal situation, he would have moved in for a kiss, but given that she wasn't into him, he settled for just dancing close and started to sing the lyrics during the last couple rounds of the chorus, as awful as it sounded coming from him, the alcohol had shed all inhibitions.

"You made a wish at 11:11.. I held your hips at 12:34.."

He could swear he saw her sigh for a split second. Something seemed to be bugging her, but he wasn't sure what.

"There was a kiss just waiting to happen" he sang along, just going with the flow and raising their hands up above their heads to spin her.

Alex laughed and giggled as Cole spun her. He pulled her and their bodies naturally fell together. Time slowed and finally stopped. Alex looked up to Cole, her heart skipping a beat.

Before she knew it, she reached up and locked her lips with Cole's. Her hands gently grabbed his head and pulled him down a bit for easier access. She put her heart- and drunk confidence- into the kiss.

Alex took him completely by surprise by kissing him and pulling him in closer. He was completely overwhelmed and suddenly flooded with questions, but he pushed all that aside and just went with it. No way was he passing up this chance to kiss her. He leaned down a little further to make sure she had full access then kissed her back, opening his mouth slightly as he gave into it.

The song faded and another started but they didn't separate. They were locked in an embrace, making out passionately. Her hands were still holding his face. Meanwhile, his had landed on her hips again, and slowly roamed a little, exploring her body, which was tightly pressed against his own.

One of Alex's hands moved slowly from Cole's face to his chest as she gripped his shirt lightly. It was easy to tell he exercised, she could feel the muscle. Although it wasn't incredibly large, his chest was firm, solid. Her other hand found its way to the back of neck as she gently caressed him.

If anyone were to ask, she wouldn't be able to tell them how long they were like this. It felt like an eternity before they finally pulled back, both in desperate need of air.

"Uh, sorry?" Alex said, though she was anything but. She knew Cole had to have enjoyed that. He was pressed up to her and she could easily feel something she hadn't felt before harden against her body. She separated slightly, but also wasn't objected to more.

Cole blinked a few times, uncertain of what to say or do next as they pulled apart. He was flooded with questions again, but tried to play it cool.

"Uh, don't.. don't be." he said, half-laughing nervously "Thank you... Uhh, another drink maybe? I certainly need one."
He led her back over to the drink table, his pants undeniably, uncomfortably tighter now. Around them, the party carried on, seemingly completely unaware of the incredible event that just happened.

"Oh, uh, sure!" Alex laughed, just as nervous. She followed him politely back to the drink table, deciding to grab punch instead of anything with alcohol. Lord knew she didn't need any more alcohol in her system.

They never returned to the dancefloor to party. Instead they stuck on the sidelines and had awkward conversations. Before long, they made their way back to the campus dorms.

~~~~~

Later in the week, about three days after the party, Alex and Cole sat together in one of the empty benches at the courtyard. It was calm and quiet, a perfect place for students looking to study. The California sun left them warm and cozy.

Alex pointed at the picture of a cell in the biology textbook. "Alright, see this bean shape with squiggles? This is the mitochondria. Mitochondria is the powerhouse of a cell. They break down the food we eat into ATP which is energy. They use- What?"