Met His Match ✓

Chapter 21 - To Feel The Unexpected

"Must run in the family college boy," Lily smiled, arching an eyebrow at me.

I huffed out a breath as Dick burst out laughing and stepped next to Lily. He held up his hand for a high five and Lily gladly accepted the offer. "I've finally met someone else who does high fives? Woo!" She laughed, smacking his hand with enthusiasm.

"Hell yeah," he chuckled, swinging his arm over Lily's shoulder. "Us two, we're the cool ones. Unfortunately, we become uncool by association with these two nutbags."

"Hey!" Jackie and I blurted at the same time.

As they both burst out laughing all over again, I felt Jackie jump down from my back and step to my side. She patted me on the shoulder lightly so I bent down. With Jackie whispering in to my ear, I couldn't help but smile. "What's say we teach these two a lesson," she laughed softly. "You take your other half, and I'll take mine."

"Sounds like a plan," I whispered back, giving Jackie a quick fist bump as we approached Dick and Lily slowly, devilish smiles on both our faces.

They were too busy laughing to notice us, so I nodded at Jackie and grinned. Striding forward, I grabbed Lily around the hips and pulled her against me. Her head snapped up and she yelped in surprise, a look of shock on her face. "What are you - " She started, but raising my eyebrows at her, I squeezed her hips gently and a laugh escaped her.

Looking her straight in the eyes, I moved my hands up slightly and squeezed again. This time, Lily's laugh became louder. Starting to laugh myself, I kept moving my hands higher until they were on her ribs. "Noah, please - please stop! We're in the middle of the sidewalk," she gasped, laughing almost uncontrollably.

"I don't think so honey, you have to do something for me first," I whispered in to her ear, noticing other people laughing at us.

"Wh- what?" She breathed, trying her hardest to wriggle her way free.

"Oh it's quite simple really," I smiled, raising my head and looking in to her eyes.

But just as I was about to tell her, the words seemed to vanish. Staring down at her, I was overwhelmed by how beautiful she looked at that very moment. Her cheeks were flushed from laughing so much, and her tied back hair had come loose, falling over her shoulders. A huge grin came to my face as I realised what it was. It wasn't makeup, or clothes, it was seeing her laughing without a care in the world that made her look so beautiful to me. And it was at that moment that I vowed to make her laugh everyday, if it meant I could see her like this again.

"Noah?" I heard a faint voice calling, snapping me out of my trance.

Blinking a couple of times, I realised that I had stopped tickling Lily and I was just holding her around the waist, a faraway look in my eyes. "What happened?" Lily smiled, stepping closer so she was pressed against me. "You looked like you were lost in thought."

Tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, I lowered my head and kissed her lightly. "I was lost in you," I whispered against her lips, before pulling back and smiling at her.

Looking in to her eyes, I wondered what she was feeling. The way she was just standing there on the sidewalk in her yellow dress, the wind blowing her hair, she looked a little unsure. But my brief worries vanished when she threw herself forward and wrapped her arms around me, a huge smile on her face. "Thank God I found you," I heard her mumble in to my shoulder, and I couldn't help but think the same thing as I wrapped my arms around her and held her close.

"Um, guys," I heard Jackie's voice say next to us.

Reluctantly, I gently pushed Lily away from me and took hold of her hand. She was blushing furiously, obviously just realising that we had just acted like we were in our own little world, when in fact we were on a busy sidewalk, right in front of an Italian restaurant's window. Realising the same thing, I was sure that I was probably blushing a little too, but I just chose to ignore it and turned to Jackie.