Fantasy World

A warm rain was falling over Tampa. Most people were hiding away while Maci and Steven settled on his small balcony. She had her text books laid out on the small table while he was playing on his computer, a radio station playing softly from the speakers. 

Maci hummed along with the song as she scribbled down numbers. "What day is your graduation?" Steven asked curiously. 

Maci paused to remember. "June sixth," she told him. "You coming?"

"Hoping to," he replied. "Doesn't really look like we'll make it to the playoffs this year."

She glanced over at him. "How do you feel about that?" she asked, squeezing her toes between his legs on the chair their feet were propped up on. She savored the warmth that returned to her toes. 

He shrugged. "It sucks, but I've been prepared for it," he told her honestly. "This year wasn't really our year. Maybe next year we'll do better."

She offered him a smile. "I think you will," she told him. 

He gave her a smile right back before they both drifted off to their own work. Maci groaned as her problem didn't work out for the fifth time. She furiously erased the scratch work before giving up and getting a new piece of paper. 

She copied down the problem and set to work again. "Well fuck. I forgot a negative sign," she muttered as she realized what she had been wrong all along. Steven chuckled beside her. 

"Damn negative signs," he commented. She smiled at that. 

She began humming when a familiar Adele song came on the radio station. "I set fire to the rain. Watched it pour as I touched your face!" she sang out before suddenly smashing her hand against Steven's face. 

He laughed and pulled away, watching her grin at him. "I couldn't resist the perfect timing," she told him as she glanced out at the falling rain. 

He rolled his eyes at her while she giggled. He stuck out his hand and messed up her bun. "I couldn't resist the perfect timing," he mocked while she frowned. 

She shook out her hair. "I'm thinking about cutting it," she told him. 

He frowned, running his fingers through the soft tips of it. "Why? How short are you thinking?" he asked warily. He liked her long hair. It was different and completely natural, compared to a lot of girls' fake extensions. 

She shrugged. "Just to try something different. I was thinking about taking it up just under where my bra strap lies," she said, not knowing where else to make an example of. 

He smirked. "Maybe you should let me see where that is so I know," he suggested. 

She rolled her eyes. "No thanks. It's right here," she said as she pointed to a place on her back. 

He frowned. "That's almost ten inches," he grumbled as he picked up her hair. 

She nodded. "I don't want to completely get rid of the length, just shorten it up a bit," she told him as she watched him toy with her hair. She distinctly remembered a week ago when he tried to tie an entire strand into knots. That had been a disaster. 

"I guess I can deal with that..." he sighed out. 

She laughed and lightly hit his arm. "It isn't even your hair," she pointed out. 

"So? I still love it," he responded. 

She laughed and turned back to her paper, leaving her hair down so he could continue to play with it. She glanced up when she heard a camera click come from his computer. He was holding a strand over his top lip like a mustache. "I needed a new Twitter photo," he told her with a smile. 

She laughed and leaned over to see the picture. He was making the infamous duck lips while her hair rested over his upper lip. She shook her head. "You need help," she told him. 

"Hey! I do not! You need a Twitter. I'll message you all the time and mention you. It'll be fun," he told her as he logged out and began creating a new one. "What do you want your username to be?" he asked. 

"Steven Stamkos sucks dicks," she replied simply as she continued her homework. 

"Steven Stamkos is my one true love," he mumbled as he typed. "Fuck, it's too long. Okay. Ninety-one is my one true love."

Maci laughed as she watched him try to create a username short enough to fit. "Okay. I got this," he declared. "Ninety-one is number one."

Maci rolled her eyes. "Right. I call BS," she teased. 

He groaned dramatically. "Okay. You make one up then," he told her. 

She shrugged. "I don't know," she said honestly. 

He turned the computer back towards himself. "Baby Steven it is," he decided. He smirked when the username was given a green check. "Password? I love Steven Stamkos. What's your email?" he asked. 

"My first and last name at gmail dot com," she answered. He typed away at the computer as he set the account up. 

"Lean over. Picture time," he told her after a few minutes. 

Leaving her homework once more, she leaned in close to him while he got the webcam centered on them. They both smiled widely before he turned at the last minute to kiss her cheek. Maci giggled and pulled away, not expecting the wet kiss. She wrinkled up her nose as she wiped his spit off her cheek. "I hate you," she said though her laughter. 

He smirked. "That's how I get the ladies," he told her. 

She laughed harder. "And here I was thinking you licked your lips just to bug me. You just have no idea how to get a lady, huh?" she teased. 

He chuckled. "I save those special kisses for you," he replied as he finished up her account. He added her phone to it so she'

Just to test it out, he sent a tweet from his own phone. Within seconds, her phone went off. He clicked on it and smirked. "Welcome to Twitter, baby Steven," he told her as he handed the phone back. 

"I won't be using it," she pointed out. 

He smirked. "Watch this," he told her. He typed out a new tweet and sent it. 

Moments later, she clicked on the new message on her phone. "Real Stamkos 91: Mon amie at Baby Steven thinks she won't use Twitter. I hooked it up to her phone. She's doomed." Maci groaned. "How do I turn it off?" she asked. 

Steven smirked and went back to his computer. "You can't. It's permanent," he responded. He watched as the number of her followers slowly began to go up. He checked the messages he was being sent, all asking if she was his girlfriend. He ignored them and left Twitter, a smirk on his face. He leaned over and placed another purposely slobbery kiss to her cheek. 

"I knew I shouldn't have come over here to study," Maci mumble as she wiped his spit off her face. Steven simply laughed, thankful she was spending the day at his house instead of at the library. She let out a soft laugh.

"But then you'd miss me too much when I leave tomorrow for four days," he told her. 

She hung her head back, knowing perfectly well that he was right. They had spent a lot of time together since the day Stephanie asked about him having a girlfriend. 

When he wasn't on the road, they had breakfasts or dinners together, depending on what the team was doing that day. They had movie nights and days where they just spent time together like, like now. It had fallen into a pattern that slightly unnerved Maci. She wasn't sure what to think about it all. 

Of course she loved it and being around Steven was more fun than hanging out at her dorm alone, but she questioned what she would do once things ended. She knew this couldn't last forever. Not with Stephanie visiting for her graduation. They didn't bring her up or the future up anymore. His live in the moment attitude was beginning to rub off on her. She'd rarely thought about it any more except for the odd occasion. 

She knew she was attached, though. Probably more so than she wanted to think of.