Acid Rain

Chapter 17

                She slowly knelt down to pick up her wand then stood back up and walked back to her laughing cousins, defeated.

                I grabbed Brian’s arm and pulled him into the tight closet under the staircase we were right in front of. I turned on the light and glared at him, arms folded over my chest.

                “Wow either you’re not happy or you want to make out,” he joked.

I said nothing.

                “What?” he asked annoyed.

                “What was that?” I asked, my turn to be annoyed, “if we were to have a kid together is that how you would treat it? Like crap?”

He stared at me, shocked at my reaction, “I’m not letting that germy little girl put pink nail polish and make-up on my face plus I thought you hated kids.”

                “I don’t hate them, I just don’t like them, but I have enough sense to not do what you just did to that little six year old. Go back out and apologize!” I demanded.

                Brian rolled his eyes, “are you kidding me? Just when I was starting to really like you, you make me do this.”

                I tried to hide my face that was now red from blushing but I was failing so instead I rolled my eyes and walked out of the closet angry at him.

                I walked over to the little girl who was sitting alone on the stair steps, her purple wand laying next to her.

                “What happened to your cousins?” I asked sitting next to her. I smoothed my dark purple dress out and looked at the gorgeous little girl. She had blonde curls and green eyes similar to Matt’s. Her formal pink dress had little plastic diamonds along the bottom giving it a cute girly look.

“They’re outside playing tag,” she mumbled while slowly twirling her fingers.

                I nodded not knowing what else to say. I don’t know why I came over to her in the first place. I wasn’t good at talking to children. With that realization I suddenly grew nervous. I was about to get up when I saw Jimmy and Brian staring at me. Jimmy nodded at me coaxing me on to talk to the girl. “This is how you talk to children,” I heard Jimmy whisper over to Brian. Brian watched me as if he was interested in what I was saying.

                “What’s your name?” I asked.

“Lacey,” she responded quietly.

                “That’s a beautiful name,” I smiled lightly trying my best to cheer her up and show Brian how to treat children, “is Matt your uncle?”

She nodded, “he’s married to Aunt Paige.”

                “They’re a good match huh?” I asked jokingly. They really were, it’s as if God put them together on purpose. Right on cue I saw Matt formally dancing with Paige. They looked at each other with a love I was afraid I’d never be able to feel. Just as the song ended they stared at each other smiling for a second before he leaned down and kissed her on the lips.

“Is Mr. Gates your boyfriend?”

                I tore my gaze away from Matt and Paige to Lacey, shocked she asked that and from what I could tell, Brian and Jimmy heard it too because Jimmy started laughing, Brian was glaring at me.

                “No sweetie he’s not we’re just friends.”

“Oh,” she paused, “but I saw you two kiss.”

                I tried not to smile thinking of that perfect kiss. “We’re not, it was just a friendly gesture.”

“Well you need to kiss other people because he’s mean and I hate him,” Lacey crossed her arms over her chest and poked out her lower lip.

                I knew how she felt, he was good at being a jerk and as much as I wanted to agree with her, I knew I had to do the adult thing. “Lacey, it’s not good to hate people, and he’s really not all that bad,” I assured her while trying to believe it myself. Before Lacey said anything I looked at Brian and mouthed come here. He shook his head but finally came after a few minutes.

                “Lacey, Brian has something he wants to say to you,” I lightly moved a piece of hair out of her red face.

                Brian sighed, he knew what he had to do, he also knew I wasn’t going to let him leave this party without apologizing.

                “I’m sorry Lacey for being so harsh, I just really didn’t want a make-over. I’m a guy, I don’t like make-overs. Even though I may wear make-up sometimes that doesn’t mean I want your make-up, your make-up looks pretty on you, I don’t think you should waste it on me, waste it on yourself,” he apologized.

                I sighed, close enough.

                Lacey looked up at Brian smiled then said bluntly, “that apology sucked but I’ll take it.”

                With that Lacey hopped off of the steps happy again.

                “Wow you suck at apologies,” I laughed. Brian grinned then looked towards Lacey running off while I struggled to get up in my dress and heels.

                “A little help here?” I said. “You’re not big yet you can still get up,” he said ignoring me. I stared at him in shock. He had planted a huge kiss on me not 30 minutes ago and now he was back to his normal self: a great big bag of dic- “I was just kidding,” he grinned then moved over to me and placed one hand lightly on my back and his other in one of my hands.

 “Thanks,” I said while smoothing my dress, “what made you so nice tonight?”

“Well,” he said then slid his fingers in between mine and held my hand sending sparks up my arm, “if tonight counts as our second date, I have to make it a good one.”

“You care?” I asked surprised.

It was his turn to looked surprised, “I still have to prove to you that I’m too good for you.” He then looked forward his smirk in its perfect spot on his face.

I rolled my eyes and smiled, I liked this new Brian.