As we drive through the streets of Portland at dizzying speeds, I realise this is going to be the first actual public date me and Seth have been on. Like, in the city, one where we have no fear of being seen together. On the contrary, I rather feel like showing off.

I know a lot of girls are extremely jealous of me for getting Seth, but after what Seth has done for me I think they assume that if they're nasty to me Seth will never even look at them again.

I'm pretty sure if Seth and I broke up a lot of the people who now talk to me would go back to not talking to me. Probably not back to bullying, but definitely back to ignoring.

Fingers crossed Seth and I don't break, mostly because I don't want to lose him. I don't really care about the popularity he's given me now. I care that by doing that he's shown that he cares about me.

"Why are you so quiet all of a sudden?"

I shrug before realising he can't see me as he's in front of me.

"I don't know. How was Nate's party yesterday?"

"Not the best. I wasn't there for long, anyway. I only went because I'd promised him. I wanted you to come because you've never been to one of his parties before."

"There will be other times." I say. "And better ones, I'm sure."

"Definitely."

After a good fifteen minutes he pulls over in front of one of the entrances to Washington Park. I climb off and hand him my helmet.

"Are you hungry?" He asks.

"A bit."

"Good." He answers, pulling the keys out of the ignition and storing the helmets. "Follow me."

Well, I don't follow him. He takes my hand and I walk next to him. "It's sometimes struck me how we don't know each other that well." He says suddenly.

"That's not really true."

"Where was I born?"

"Uh..." I splutter, going red. "Uh, in... somewhere in Oregon?"

"See?" He says, also laughing. "I was born here, in Portland."

"That's depressing." I say without thinking. Then I go red again. "God, sorry, I didn't mean it like that." He looks crushed. "No, no, no, I didn't mean it to sound like that, sorry."

"It's true, what you said. It is depressing." He sighs. "I mean, I've never been out of the States, and you're from London. London. I'm from a stupid town in the middle of nowhere with population seven hundred thousand."

"No, Seth, that's not true. Portland's a nice place, and you've travelled within the States, anyway. It doesn't matter if I'm from London. London's not what people think, you know. It's dangerous, and expensive, and it's insane to try and get around in."

"It's London." He sighs, looking defeated. "I don't deserve you in that sense, Zoe. I know nothing, and you're some kind of genius. I haven't travelled, and you've been to every continent. I'm just some stupid kid who thinks he's cool from the middle of nowhere, but you're someone."

"I'm not someone, Seth. So what if I've travelled? Trust me, when you're eleven and you have to keep getting pulled out of school to go to weird places where no one spoke your language was not all that great."

"You don't need them to speak English, Zoe. You can communicate in like nine languages."

"It's seven, actually." I say, smiling. He smiles weakly back. I stop walking and turn to face him. "But Seth, at the end of the day, what does it matter how many languages I speak? I'm here now, and we're together."

He sighs again.

"Anyway, you've obviously got more life skills that I have, because you managed to get me out of a perpetually spiralling situation that I'd been stuck in for years."

"Well..." He starts, but I lean up and kiss him to silence him. I don't want to hear whatever he was going to say. When we pull away he's smiling again.

"And by the way, I haven't been to Africa." I say with a small smile. He laughs and pushes my shoulder gently, shaking his head at me. "And you've been to Mexico."

"And?"

"That's still North America."

"Depends who you ask." I answer with a grin. "Anyway, if you were planning on taking us somewhere to eat, could we please hurry up because I am hungry."

¬

Since neither of us wants to sit in a restaurant and be uptight for an hour, we buy two take out pizzas and head back to the park to eat them. We find a bench behind some weeping willows and sit down. We haven't seen anyone from school yet, but I predict we will at some point.

"Favourite colour?" He asks me, opening one of the boxes and setting it on the bench between us. I take a slice, roll the end up delicately and take a small bite. He laughs.

"You know that."

"Blue?"

"Of course." I swallow and look up at him. "Favourite colour?"

"You know that."

"Don't copy what I say!"

"It depends. I'm such a shallow person I change favourite colour every few weeks." I giggle and almost drop my piece of pizza. I've stopped trying to look posh while eating it. I'm just gulping it now.

He's making a reference to me telling him that people in our school were shallow because of how fast they changed opinions.

"So what is it at the moment?"

"Well, it was red two hours ago, but right now..." I almost choke on the pizza I'm eating and double over laughing. He starts to laugh too.

"Will you stop making references?" I groan.

"Nope." He finishes his slice and reaches for another at the same time as I do. I snatch it from him. "What's your favourite place out of everywhere you've been?"

I pause, hesitant to bring the conversation back to this topic. He nods encouragingly, telling me he doesn't mind what I say.

"I'm probably going to go with somewhere in Europe." I say tentatively. "Perhaps Paris. Or New York. New York was amazing. Or Tokyo. Yeah."

"I've always wanted to go to Paris."

"I don't want to be all cheesy and start making unrealistic plans but I'm sure we'll get there at some point, Seth."

"I guess." He sighs again. "Anyway, how many people had you dated before me?"

God, awkward question. "Uh, I had a couple of dates in London, but nothing serious." He raises an eyebrow. "And, uh, Jean." I say the last bit very quietly.

"I knew it!" He exclaims. "You hooked up with Jean, I knew it!"

"How?"

"You kept dropping little hints. And, I saw you two."

"Seth, I have a serious question to ask you." I say, putting on a serious face. He nods and raises his eyebrows, but he looks a tiny bit worried. I let the suspense build up for a few seconds. "Did you stalk me or something?"

"No, I saw you together in the basketball court when I was out with Caleb one day."

"It wasn't really anything, but both of us... Well, we had more things in common than I had with anyone in school."

"I understand, and I don't care, Zoe. He's kind of on the other side of the world at the moment." I laugh, watching his eyes light up as I do. He has such perfect eyes, they make me long for things I can't even name.

"Who you dated before me?" I ask to break out of the situation.

"Believe it or not, I don't have the most illustrious dating history."

"I don't believe that."

"You can ask Caleb, or Eliza if you want. I really don't. I started to notice you at the beginning of last year, but I didn't pick up the courage to talk to you until... Well, Rita." His cheeks redden a bit and I smile. "Before then, similar to you. I fooled around, had a few affairs, but I'd never been in a relationship like ours before."

I desperately want to ask him if he's a virgin and my cheeks tint red when I think of it. Thankfully, he saves me the hastle.

"Are you a virgin?"

"I was about to ask you that."

"You first."

"No, you first."

"It's okay, I don't mind."

"Well, considering I've been here for the past four years of my life, meaning I left London at thirteen, what do you think?" He grins. "Knowing full well I haven't been in a serious relationship with anyone in this country."

"What about Jean?"

"Seth!"

"Well, what do I know?" He smiles even more. "So I take it you are?" I nod, pressing my lips together in a small smile.

He shrugs. "I'm not." He says nonchalantly. "It wasn't the best thing, to be honest. I was drunk."

"God." I mutter. "That's not great."

"No, it's not." He says. "I hope you don't mind."

"It's not like I believe in no sex before marriage or anything like that, Seth. Why should I mind?"

"I don't know." He answers. I decide to try and steer the conversation out of increasingly awkward waters into safer, shallower topics. I reach for another piece of pizza to find it's the last one left. He glances down. "Take it if you want."

I don't think twice before snatching it up, eating it quickly before he tries to steal it or something. When I'm on the last bite, he leans forward and bites what's left, our lips almost touching. The pizza breaks and I swallow almost without chewing, leaning in properly to kiss him.

It's going to take me many years to get over the feeling I get when we kiss. It's like everything you've ever wanted. He feels safe, he feels kind and hot and handsome and courteous and literally everything you'd want in a guy.

He never pushes me too far but he's not too precious either. At the moment he also tastes like Hawaiian pizza. I love it. No, not the pizza, the kiss. I also loved the pizza, though.

"When did you first like me?" He asks me suddenly, pulling away. I laugh.

"You know when you phoned me about my birthday, because you wanted to meet up and take me out?" He nods, smiling even more if possible. He puts the pizza box on the floor and scoots closer. "Well, at first I was kind of scared because I thought it was part of a prank."

"It never was."

"I know, Seth." I say and he winks, taking my right hand in his, trailing his fingers over my knuckles delicately. Just the smallest contact with him makes me feel alive. "But the way you kept insisting for the whole week before, it made me feel like you actually cared."

He doesn't say anything.

"Perhaps you could say that when we first went out I'd already fallen for you, only a little bit." I sigh. "I mean, you and Caleb and Luke and Nate. Hottest boys in the school. Don't even say anything because you know that."

He smiles slightly proudly.

"But I'd never really noticed any of you. I was kind of busy... Well, avoiding you. If I could. But when you started paying attention to me in a different way, I guess I just realised."

This time the look in his eyes is hurt.

"I'd never actually like... Looked at any of you four in the eyes of a normal girl from school. I saw people trying to make moves on you and I was just disgusted. I didn't understand how anyone could like such people as you four."

I realise I'm going way over what he asked me, but he doesn't stop me, so I continue pouring myself out to him. We'd never talked this way. Well, we had, but not about our relationship.

"I didn't care if you were good looking or not. It didn't affect me. Now I can see clearly that you're very handsome and the others aren't all that bad either." I smile and he leans in to kiss me again.

"I don't regret anything I did, Zoe." He whispers. "On the contrary, I think noticing you was one of the best things I've ever done."

A/N - Sorry for such a late update but the Christmas period is always busy... anyway, I hope you all have a Happy New Year and begin the year as you intend to continue it (aka by reading erratic One of the Boys updates :)). 

Thanks for reading!