A Crazy Little Thing Called Love

Chapter Eighteen

For the few who still want to hear this story.

18.

When I woke up from the wonderful dream, I was just a tiny bit sad that it wan't my reality. If only I had really gone on that date with Cole...

Kidding! Totally kidding! It was completely a reality. I really did go out with that mass of adorableness, and it was perfectly awkward.

Did I scare you? Are you mad at me? Aha, good. I'll get back to not fooling you.

So here's what happened.

I awoke with the wonderful sun streaming through my window, bathing my body in it's amazing warmth. For a moment, I couldn't believe it wasn't actually a dream. My pours were oozing with happiness. A bubbling giddiness tightened my chest, and I did a sort of dance while laying there in my bed. He had kissed me! Cole had kissed me! I couldn't help but giggle to myself.

Reader, you have no idea. You cannot contemplate the immense exhilaration I felt upon waking and remembering that Cole Kelvin's lips had touched mine in a brief - but totally sweet and romantic - dream come true, kiss. It was ten times better than the glee one feels after getting that pony you had on the top of your Christmas list you didn't really think you were going to get.

I'm not sure if people actually get ponies on Christmas or how it would actually feel to get one, but I think I can relate now. Can't I?

I just realized that I never asked if you minded the name "Reader"... Oh well, I can't hear your answer through this text anyway so I guess you'll just have to put up with it. But enough about you; let's get back to me.

With a sigh of happiness, I got up and spun around the room humming "So This Is Love" from Cinderella.  Even a text didn't bother me. I just typed a reply and kept on singing.

A knock on the door nearly startled me out of my daze, but it wasn't really enough to keep me from feeling like running in circles and hugging everything in sight.

"Yes?" I called, throwing on a robe. "Come in."

Mom's head appeared around the opening door. "Alexandrea, sweetheart, can you pick up some things from the store for me? The list is on the fridge."

"Sure thing, mom!"

I was in such a happy state, that I didn't even think about the effort that I would have to put into getting thing from the store(i.e. actually going to the store and putting things in a shopping cart/basket. UGH.). No, not for one minute did I think of that. Instead, I jumped merrily into day clothes, and set off at a brisk skip, like I was going frollicing in a field of daisies, towards the nearest grocery store, list in hand. It didn't take too long since our town was a small one, and, a few Disney princess songs later, I was strutting through the automatically sliding doors of Walmart.

There was just one little thing that I might've thanked my mother for telling me about. If, that is, she had told me. Which, she hadn't.

Who of all people was working as a Walmart greeter that day than the sole person I'd been daydreaming about for months?

If you guessed Hunter, then you're wrong. And: shame on you! How could you think such a thing of me! I mean, really.  I'm like twenty percent sure my main focus has been Cole throughout this entire story.

Now, I know it seems as though I might have had some sort of something for Hunter back in chapter fourteen, but I didn't. And I don't. Did you not read chapters previous to that one? I think I've said a couple of times that I slightly less than loath the guy. And, I'm mean, what girl wouldn't think such thoughts when in a situation that contains not much personal space between oneself and the moderately attractive opposite sex who just happens to be around the same age as said girl?

I'm really hoping you don't have an answer to that.

If you can guess who the greeter was by the metaphoric giant flashing lights...well, then, I don't have to say of whom it was. But, it's Cole, in case you were still lost in the rambling that is my life.

I sort of stopped functioning when I saw him and just stood there, staring. Do I even need to say that it didn't take long for him to notice the statue in the midst of the crowd?

That smile of his appeared, counteracting the invisible force that held me in place. It was contagious, that smile. In no time at all, I found my lips retreating from each other as my face flushed at the memory of our date.

 "Hey," Cole lifted a hand in greeting. As a greeter usually doesn't. Ah, but he was an adorable little nugget, so I let him get away with it.

I approached him begging my legs to move at a normal pace. "Hi."

“What are you doing here?” He asked.

“Oh, just picking up a few things for my mom." I cleared my throat. "You?"

Ah, crap. I obviously know what he's doing here. He's going to think I'm an idiot. 

"Just headed home. I was picking up some stuff for a barbecue tonight."

Oh, yeah, so he was - apparently- not a greeter... My mistake, but, honestly, that's what he gets for wearing a blue collared shirt to Walmart, that cutie.

"Would you like to come?" He flashed me his pearly whites, a tinge of blush spreading across his cheeks. 

I blinked. "Where?"

"To the barbecue tonight. I've invited to be Hunter and Alex and the gang, but I'd love it if you came."

Now it was my turn to blush.

Then I processed what he'd said, analyzed it as quickly as my brain would, and haphazardly put the pieces back together to form a clear thought.

Alex? What Alex? I didn't receive and invite from him as Alex. Did I? 

Surreptitiously, I stole a glance at my phone.

Oh, poop.

That text I'd received earlier. The one I didn't really look at because I was so happily singing... That was the invite. 

Can you guess what I'd oh so absentmindedly replied? I'll give you two guesses.

______

Sorry it's so short. Blame school and three papers due.