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Dating Nolan made me feel like we were in different time zones.

He was asleep for most of the time that I was awake, and my "good night" was his "good morning".

The only times we got to talk to each other was the short period in between classes, lunch period, and in the evenings when his 'day' finally started. In a way, it almost seemed like we spent more time together before he became my boyfriend, and I missed those days when he'd join our study sessions after school.

On the other hand, now that he was my boyfriend, his reticence had entirely dissolved into an open willingness to talk.

First, he came to lunch with me without having to be asked.

Second, instead of letting my friends carry the bulk of the conversations, he'd started contributing a lot more without having to be prompted.

Where he'd have previously stayed silent on subjects that didn't involve him, such as Melissa's and Derek's planned snowball fights, Nolan now chimed in with his own opinion without having to be addressed directly.

After putting in his two cents on the topic—which was that it sounded fun—Nolan had suddenly been invited to participate in the one they had organized for later that day with their other friends.

Instead of declining like I'd thought he would, he'd agreed to go and asked me to come along.

"If you go, I'll go," he'd said, and everyone had goggled at him.

I hadn't thought that he would ever want to join in on large group activities, let alone ones with tons of people who were strangers to him.

Granted, the aforementioned people were all in our grade, and he should therefore know them, but since this was Nolan we were talking about, he didn't bother remembering that he'd even met any of them.

The moment I'd agreed to go with him, Ashley had looked at me as if I had suddenly transformed into another person.

When I had tried to suggest that he go ahead without me, he'd shrugged and said that he didn't really need to go. I knew that he wanted to, though. He was still nowhere near as relaxed in my friends' presence as he was when we were alone, so it had to take a certain level of interest in the activity for him to want to take part in this.

Initially, I hadn't wanted to do it, but it was the first time Nolan had expressed genuine interest in any kind of group activity on his own accord.

If it meant that he would be comfortable enough to join in on a social activity for once, I was willing to tag along in a snowball fight—even if that meant that I had to spend the whole time being paranoid that we'd get caught by a teacher.

And that was how I, Chelsea Arnold, the rule-abiding good student who only ever got detention once in her entire life, ended up in my second detention for participating in an all-out snow fort defense war on school grounds.

I did feel a little better about it as I sat in the large school hall after school the next day, surrounded by my many fellow accomplices who were all assigned the same 1000-word reflection essay to be handed in at the end of detention.

The main thing that convinced me that my sacrifice was worth it, however, was how much Nolan seemed to be enjoying himself during the battle.

He had a look of utmost concentration on his face while he was helping to build the snow fort and packing snowballs. I'd never seen him like that before, and I loved it.

He shielded me a few times too, right before I was about to get hit by a snowball. My chest felt all warm and fuzzy as I watched him get all engrossed in the fight.

Melissa and Derek, clearly impressed by the physical prowess he'd demonstrated during the snow fort war, began asking Nolan to join them whenever they were about to play basketball. Much to my surprise, he didn't turn them down either, as long as they were planning to play in the evening. Of course, I tagged along to watch him play as a show of support every time he went.

I really loved how he was starting to truly become an integral part of our little group.

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The one thought that had remained prevalent on my mind over the last several days was this: why hadn't we kissed yet?

Nolan and I had been going out for a couple of months now. Apart from that one cheek kiss Nolan gave me that night in the astronomy clubroom, the only couple-y thing we did was hold hands. Sometimes we hugged, when there wasn't anyone else nearby to witness it, but those times were far and few between since we were always in school.

It left me wondering just when we were going to kiss.

Had I imagined the whole getting together part? Maybe we weren't actually together, which would explain why we hadn't kissed even once.

No way. His asking me to be his girlfriend was a scene that was still too vivid and fresh in my brain to possibly be a product of my imagination.

I stared down at the object of my current confusion, who was lying down on the grass beside me.

Spring had finally arrived after we'd endured the biting winter, melting away the snow and restoring our treasured forest night outings.

This was my first venture out into the forest since the biting winter weather became unbearably cold. Nolan had still been coming here almost every day, of course, since he needed to eat. It was still pretty chilly, especially at night, but at least I was no longer at risk of freezing to death.

Right now, we were doing some stargazing in the usual clearing.

Well, I was, anyway—Nolan had his eyes closed and his binoculars resting on his chest. After almost an hour of peaceful stargazing under the cold dark sky, he'd sighed with a smile and then closed his eyes.

He looked so peaceful, like nothing could bother him in this moment.

I wanted to hug him. Somehow, one hug never seemed enough, especially when he was so warm and nice to hold. The second a hug ended, I always wanted another. Besides, each time we embraced, which wasn't that often, Nolan held me tight like he really meant it. Of course, I knew that he meant it, but it didn't hurt to be able to feel it, too.

Thinking about it brought a large grin to my face, and I wanted one again.

Chelsea, stop daydreaming already!

As I forced myself to snap out of it, I suppressed a groan.

Seriously, why hadn't we kissed yet? Was it because he didn't want to? Maybe I should ask him. But then again, I didn't want to ask an awkward question like that and kill the mood.

'Hey, Nolan, are you ever going to kiss me?' didn't sound like the best way of going about finding out his thoughts on this matter. In fact, I didn't think there was any good way to phrase it as a question.

Now that I was contemplating it, maybe he was waiting for me to kiss him. Was he?

Okay, I could have initiated it if I wanted, but the atmosphere never seemed right. Someone could walk in on us or pass by at any second when we were in school, which was also the reason why we rarely hugged. It was disappointing that we couldn't go out together on weekends, but at the moment I hadn't managed to come up with an alternative plan that didn't potentially involve getting my friends suspicious.

I considered my options.

Asking him would probably be the fastest way, but it would also be totally unromantic!

I didn't need any romantic experience to know that it would kill the mood faster than anyone interrupting the moment could.

Or, I thought, as my gaze slid over Nolan's handsome face again, maybe I could just go for it right here, right now.

We weren't in school, and the atmosphere in the forest was tranquil and almost romantic. It would make sense if we had our first kiss here. Right?

Moreover, Nolan's eyes were closed, so the pressure wasn't as overwhelming as it was whenever I thought about kissing him in school. It was pretty hard to go for it when he was looking right at me. Judging from the soft smile on his lips, he wasn't sleeping either. He would probably open his eyes right before I kissed him and realize what I was doing and maybe even kiss me first! Right?

The thought strengthened my resolve, and I nodded firmly to myself.

It was time to take action.

Slowly, I scooted closer to Nolan and switched from sitting to kneeling on my little plastic sheet.

I lowered my head towards his, feeling my heartbeat speed up as I did so. My imagination began running wild with how he might react to this. Would he kiss me back, or would he be so shocked this whole thing would become awkward and ruin our first kiss forever? Maybe I should continue waiting for him to make the first move. Maybe I should start hinting to him instead.

Up close, I caught a whiff of the comforting, fragrant scent I'd come to associate with Nolan. He smelled so good.

I gulped.

Now that my face was only a few inches away from his, the idea of him opening his eyes and seeing me this close was kind of daunting. Maybe this was a bad idea after all.

Getting cold feet at the last second, I decided to go for his cheek instead. It was a fail-safe move, wasn't it? There was nothing risky about a peck on the cheek.

I could always try to kiss him again another day. Yes, that was a good idea.

Right as I moved closer to his cheek, his eyes flew open.

I froze.

"Um, hi," I said.

"Hey," he said, staring up at me alertly.

Yeah, he definitely hadn't been asleep.

Immediately, I pushed myself away from him. "N-nice weather, isn't it?! I'm so glad we came here tonight."

"You already said that a while ago." He sat up and crossed his legs.

"I-I did? I totally forgot. Anyway, it bears repeating!"

He stared at me. "You're acting weird. What were you doing just now?"

"Nothing!"

"If it's nothing, then why were you leaning over me?"

I frantically racked my brain for a reply that made sense before spouting the first line I could think of. "I ... I thought I saw an insect on your face! Or something! I had to take a closer look!"

"I don't really think you'd be able to see much when you're that close. At any rate, wouldn't you want to put some distance between the bug and yourself?"

Now he was staring at me like I had something on my face.

I spluttered. "I don't know! Don't ask so many questions, okay?!"

"Hey, are you okay? What's up?" he said, shifting over so that he was sitting right next to me.

The close proximity was making me sweat. Combined with the panic that had overtaken my mind, I could barely think straight.

"N-nothing! I definitely wasn't trying to kiss you or anything!"

Oh no. Betrayed by my own big mouth.

Groaning, I buried my rapidly growing hot face into my hands.

How could I have said that?!

When Nolan said nothing for the next several seconds, which felt like an eternity of towering silence, I finally dared a glance up at him.

He was looking at me with his mouth slightly agape. Once he caught my eye, however, his mouth curved up into a slow smile.

Was he amused right now?

The heat that was originally contained to my cheeks started rushing through to my entire face.

"What?" I wailed. "Stop smiling like that!"

"You're so cute," he said, putting an arm around my back. "Come here."

He pulled me to him, gently cupping the back of my head with his other hand. My heart stuttered as he held me close, the side of my shoulder leaning into him.

Then he lowered his head and pressed his mouth to mine.

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AN: so they finally kissed!! thank you for reading and for all your support, it means a lot to me how kind you guys were, leaving me sweet comments on my message board T_T please take care, every one of you, okay? sleep earlier if you can! ˉ̞̭(′͈∨‵͈♡)˄̻ ̊

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