VIOLET (A Harry Potter Universe Fanfiction)

21.

One in particular — a witch flying a broom that had crashed into a tree — sent them both into hysterics. The other patrons looked at them like they'd lost their minds, and to them it probably wasn't that funny, but Caiti just kept wheezing, "It's me! They knew I was coming!"

Once they'd recovered themselves, they wandered through a corn maze that really hadn't looked that difficult from the little map on the outside, and they got themselves very much lost. Caiti kept trying to jump up to see over the top but couldn't manage it. Finally, Marlowe boosted her up and when she came back down, she announced to him that she had seen corn, which really didn't help them at all.

When they finally made it out, Marlowe punched a fist in the air and yelled, "Freedom! At last!"

Caiti held up her hand and he high fived it hard.

Next they rode a hayride out to the actual pumpkin patch where they selected two pumpkins to carve the following day. Caiti picked one that was perfectly round and Marlowe picked one that was very tall. Hugging them to their chests on the ride back towards the barn and the rest of the attractions, Caiti said. "They're just like us. Short and tall."

Marlowe smiled and kissed her just because. They treated themselves to caramel apples before they left.

They spent the rest of the day exploring the town and after dinner they ended up at the beach, which was where they still were now.

It had completely cleared out after sunset. It was properly cold out now, but they sat shoulder to shoulder with a flannel blanket around the both of them and it wasn't so bad.

They'd been talking all day long and for the first time, they'd gotten quiet. Caiti didn't feel like she'd run out of things to say. It wasn't that kind of silence. It was just nice to be with him. Marlowe reached around her waist under the blanket, pulled her a little closer. Caiti turned her head and looked at him.

For what felt like entire minutes, they looked at each other. She couldn't remember ever holding his gaze this long. It made her forget to breathe, forget to blink. For probably the first time in her entire life, not a single thought went through her mind.

And then he kissed her, his hand tangling into her hair, and her stomach filled with butterflies. The wind whipped at them, Caiti's hair smacking Marlowe in the face, and then it caught hold of the blanket. It ballooned away from them and they broke apart, both reaching for it. Caiti's fingertips grazed it, but she wasn't long enough and she fell back in the sand, laughing, fingers clasping nothing. Marlowe caught it by the edges and yanked it back, a triumphant grin on his face, but rather than wrap it back around them, he shoved it under his knee where it wouldn't blow away and then he laid over her in the sand and kissed her again.

Caiti's fingers felt gritty and she was sure her hair was full of sand, but it didn't matter. Marlowe was warm on top of her and his hand had found its way under her shirt, under the strap of her bra in between her shoulder blades. She couldn't feel the cold anymore, couldn't hear the waves, didn't even notice the sand sticking to her back where Marlowe's hand had pushed her shirt up.

She couldn't process complete thoughts, only bits of things, almost phrases, impulses mostly. She turned her head a little so she could breathe, her hands on his face. He tucked his head down, pressed his lips against her collarbone.

"Let's go back," she breathed. They were scary words. She felt like they meant a lot more than she'd said and she felt like Marlowe knew that, too. He lifted his eyes to hers, kissed her again, and then helped her up, brushing sand off her back and out of her hair.

Caiti's hand fell from his shoulder down to his chest and she stood there, frowning at the buttons of his shirt. Marlowe had the blanket balled up under his arm. She couldn't quite decide if she knew what she was doing.