Ambedo; A kind of melancholic trance in which you become completely absorved in vivid sensory details; briefly soaking in the experience of being alive.
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River's pov;
I sigh, "This was by far the best homecoming." My eyes catch with Vee's and I wink which causes her to shake her head.
Aspen and Finn nod but leave to I'm assuming, get another drink.
"Could have been better," She says once we're standing alone.
"How?" I ask, turning to look at her.
She looks at me, "If you kissed me."
Fuck.
Jesus Christ.
I can't believe she just said that.
"Well, I mean, it isn't over yet." I tell her, my lips slowly pulling into a smirk.
"What isn't over?" Aspen asks with Finn following behind.
"My conversation with Vee." I grit out.
I think a record is forming on how many times I have been cockblocked tonight.
"Oh, well it is now," Finn says.
"What are you guys doing after this?" Ivy asks.
"Haven't decided yet actually." I say.
"Actually Aspen and I have to get home because we have to get up early tomorrow." Finn says.
"Why you and Aspen?" I ask, quirking an eyebrow.
"Because I have to babysit and I'm forcing him to help. Layla actually likes him instead of you." He says it like I've done something for her to not like me.
I haven't by the way.
I scoff, "I haven't done anything for her to not like me."
"She thinks you're weird."
"Whatever," I mumble, taking a sip of his drink, again.
"So what are you guys going to do after this?" Aspen asks us.
"I don't know," I shrug, "But I do know that I don't have to be home."
"Want to come over?" Vee asks which causes me to nod my head a little too fast for my liking.
"Okay pretty boy," She chuckles, "That looked a little eager."
"Shut up," I say, finishing off Finns drink.
"I just got that drink and now it's gone." Finn says, throwing his hands up in despair.
"Hmm," I fake pout, "You poor thing." He snatches the cup out of my hands and throws it in the trash.
"You definitely don't need anymore," He says.
"I didn't even have a lot."
"You're tipsy."
"Am not."
"Are to."
"Am not."
"You definitely are." This time it's Vee that speaks up.
Oh.
"I promise, I'm not tipsy." I may be a little tipsy.
I don't know what Finns drink was but it was really strong.
Vee sighs, "Give me your keys."
"Here." I hand her my keys and she gladly takes them.
"You guys ready to go, because I am." Vee says.
We all nod and leave the gym, making our way out of the school and to the parking lot.
"Drive safe and text us when you get home." Aspen says.
"Will do."
They wave goodbye and get into their cars and I get into the passenger of mine as Vee gets into the driver's seat.
"That drink was really strong." I say.
"Yeah, and you drank a lot."
"Psh, it was like... a half of a cup."
"You had two full cups." She says which causes my eyebrows to shoot up in surprise.
"And you're a lightweight so you're definitely more than tipsy, probably a little drunk but not too much." She adds on.
I don't know when she started driving but she did. I didn't even see her reverse.
Reverse, Reverse.
Slide to the left, slide to the right.
"The cupid shuffle is a great dance."
"Yeah?"
I turn my head to look at her, still leaning it against the headrest.
"You look like you don't know how to do the cupid shuffle. I can teach you."
"Does this mean you get to be my own personal dancer?" She asks.
"I'll be whatever you want me to be." I nod.
She mumbles something about me definitely being a lightweight but I don't comment on it.
I want a cat.
"Do you think my mom would let me get a cat?" I ask randomly.
"I don't know. Does she like cats?"
"I don't know. She doesn't talk about them, or to me a lot."
Silence overtakes us and we just enjoy it. No music, no talking, nothing.
It's just us in the car enjoying the comfort the silence brings us.
Until I ruin it, "You're really pretty." I blurt.
"I am?" She asks, her voice holding a bit of teasing.
"Yeah, you're like, really nice to look at if get what I'm saying."
"No, I don't really get what you're saying, can you elaborate for me?" She asks, glancing at me every so often.
"If I had an entire bag of Starburst, and it was only orange and yellow, I would give you all of the orange ones."
"But orange is your favorite."
"That's my point."
I turn my head to face the window, but I don't miss the ghost of a smile making its way to her lips.
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"Here's some water and crackers." Vee says, handing them to me as I sit in her desk chair.
"What for?" I ask.
"To sober you up?" She more or so asks.
"Oh."
I pretty much chug the entire glass of water and munch on a few crackers.
It doesn't take long before I have to piss so I head to the bathroom to do my business.
"What are we doing now?" I ask her once I walk back into the room.
"We're gonna have some fun." She says in a singing tone.
I raise an eyebrow, "Not like that, perv." She says in response.
I roll my eyes but let her explain anyway.
"Are you okay? Are you like sobered up?" She asks.
"Yes, now can you tell me what we're doing?"
"No, but it's illegal." She pauses for a moment, "I think."
"You think?" I narrow my eyes at her.
"Well, I mean I think it is but it isn't if we don't get caught." She shrugs.
"Better hope we don't because if we do, I'm out of basketball."
"Awe, will someone miss playing with balls?" She teases.
Smirking, I slowly walk towards her and stop just right in front of her. She has a confused look on her face before I slightly bend down so my lips are right by her ear.
"Just for your information, Sweetheart, when I have you standing in front of me, the only thing I will ever prefer is pussy." I smirk once I hear her breath hitch and pull back sending her a wink.
Her pale white face flushed a deep red at the words I said, shocked I said them.
I am too.
She coughs, regaining her composure, "Get your shoes on." And with that she leaves her room, leaving me alone and heading down the stairs.
I slip my shoes on and make sure I have my wallet and my phone in my pocket.
Thankfully we changed right when we got home because I would have not been able to handle being in those clothes any longer.
Once I have everything, I make my way downstairs to see Vee standing by the door scrolling through her phone.
Upon hearing my footsteps, she glances up from her phone and brings her full attention to me as she puts her phone away.
"Ready?" She asks.
"As I'll ever be." I mock her words from earlier in the day.
She shakes her head with a small smile on her lips but nevertheless opens the door and locks it behind us.
"I'm driving again." She declares, heading towards the driver's seat.
"What? Why?"
"Because you don't know where we're going and I'm not telling you." She shrugs.
"It's my car though." I scoff.
She huffs and comes around to the passenger side. She opens the door and gestures for me to get in, "After you m'lady."
I roll my eyes but get in anyway, but not before flicking her forehead. Satisfied when I hear her groan.
She shuts the door and gets in the driver's seat, handing me the aux and backing out of the driveway.
"What's so illegal about this that you can't tell me yet?" I ask, wiggling my eyebrows for extra emphasis.
"Not telling you."
I sigh, "You're so lame."
"Takes one to know one."
Smooth.
I don't have anything smug to reply back to her with so I just pick a song and watch silently as we head in the direction of a hardware store.
Why we would be going to one of these? I don't know. What I do know is that I don't care what it is as long as I'm doing it with her.
Fuck.
I like her.
Well I think I do.
But we're friends? What if she doesn't see me like that?
That would be really embarrassing. I would be that one guy in those movies that is like a "brother" to the girl he likes.
In the future, to whatever thing that is out there listening, don't let me get embarrassed.
I'll just let it play out, see what happens y'know?
"What are you thinking about?" She asks, her voice calm, always bringing me comfort.
"You." Once I say that her cheeks flush a light pink.
"Just kidding, don't get your hopes up."
"Ass." She mumbles.
"I know I already have a nice one, you don't have to tell me twice." I grin.
She just shakes her head but doesn't say anything else, focusing on driving through the dark night.
"Have you ever had a boyfriend?" I ask her. I've never asked her but she just seems like the type of person who would.
Not saying she looks like she would have a lot of them, I'm just saying a lot of people probably wanted to be her boyfriend because she's so pretty.
"One."
"Only one?" I ask, slightly shocked.
"What? Did you think I would have more?" She asks, glancing at me before looking back at the road again.
"Well no- yes- well. Not in the way that I think you would have a lot of boyfriends like that, but in a way where you're really pretty so I wouldn't be shocked if you had more boyfriends in the past because you're just really pretty." I ramble.
"Calm down," She chuckles. "I was joking."
"Oh."
"Have you ever had a girlfriend?" She asks me now.
"Two, one in middle school and one freshman year." Those were some crazy times. I was definitely not mature enough to be in relationship in both of those.
"That bad?" She asks.
I'm guessing the face I'm making as I recall those memories isn't a good one.
"Now that I look back at those times, they were some bitches." I admit which causes her to laugh.
I love her laugh.
"When did you have your boyfriend?" I ask since she never said. It doesn't matter I just was curious how long ago it was.
She sighs as if thinking about it bring her bad memories. "Sophmore to Junior year."
So... recent but not recent?
"That bad?" I mimick her words to lighten the mood that seemed to drastically change by that one question.
"Yeah actually, that bad."
Oh.
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be, I'm fine now, it's fine." She brushes it off.
Not long after, we pull into the parking lot of the hardware store and head inside.
I don't know what we're getting here that has to do with us doing anything illegal but I guess I'll find out.
She starts walking to the back of the store and I quietly follow behind her.
Soon we end up in the aisle with spray paint.
"Why are we getting spray paint?" I ask her, looking at the shelves full of different colors.
"You'll see."
I groan but pick out some colors as she does the same.
Once we have what we need we make our way to the front and pay.
Once we get back to the car she gets in the driver's seat again since she still won't let me drive.
It's my car, how is this fair?
She starts driving and I actually become confused because I've never been this way before and I don't know what's over here.
After what seems like forever, she finally parks the car and get out, me doing the same.
She grabs the two bags of spray paint from the back of the car and comes over by me.
"We still have a five to ten minute walk." She tells me as she starts walking down the sidewalk.
"Why'd you park so far away then?" I ask her as I take both of the bags out of her hands.
"Because, when you do illegal activites, you can't have the car right where you're doing those activities." She says as if I'm supposed to know that.
I don't do "illegal activities."
"Oh, makes sense." I nod.
We continue the rest of the walk in comfortable silence and we eventually come across an abandon building.
"Are you making me commit vandalism?" I ask her, raising my eyebrow at her.
"Yes." She grins, happliy walking over to the side of the building.
"You do realize that there is a neighborhood right around the corner. What if, somehow, magically, cops just show up?" I question.
Maybe I'm being paranoid for no reason.
"You're being paranoid."
Well then.
"Loosen up, Knight. Have fun." She nudges my arm.
"Fine." I grin, walking to stand next to her and taking all the colors we got out of the bags.
We both grab a random color and start shaking the bottle and soon enough we move in silence just coloring and drawing all over the abandoned building.
Slowly, we started to work together on the picture and it eventually turned into one big picture.
I don't know what we were making, but it was something.
Just as we're about to start with another color, the bright light of a flashlight shining on us stops us.
I spoke it into existence.
"Hey! You guys can't do that!" The cop shouts.
I drop my can and Vee drops hers too. I grab her hand and start running the opposite direction.
The cop starts chasing us and we run into the woods behind the building, laughing our asses off because we actually got caught.
After a few minutes we stop once we think we lost him.
"Holy shit." Vee laughs, leaning over to catch her breath as I do the same.
"I'm not going to lie, that was really fun." I grin.
I never thought I would be running in the woods with Vee while trying to get away from a cop after homecoming, but here we are.
"Lets get back to the car." She says once we've calmed down.
I nod and let her lead us back towards the car because if I'm being honest, I'm a little lost.
"See, we had fun and you get to keep playing with balls." She jokes.
I'm starting to think she wants me to like balls.
I shake my head at her but a smile still creeps up on my face because this is one of the best nights I've had in a while.
Once we make it back to the car, she jokingly opens the door for me again and I once again, flick her on her forehead.
But this time, I'm the one that gets to drive.
Crazy, I can drive my car.
Once she's buckled in, I start our drive.
"Do you want to get ice cream?" I ask her as I remember that there is only like one ice cream shop open at this time.
"Yeah, actually. It sounds really good."
I take a last minute turn and head towards the ice cream shop.
Once we pull up to it there is only like two other people inside not including the worker.
I get out and rush over to Vee's side to open her door before she can.
"After you m'lady."
"Wow, never knew you could be such a gentlemen." She teases.
"Ha Ha." I shut her door and we head inside.
"What can I get you guys?" The girl asks at the register.
If I was working at an ice cream shop this late at night, I would not be as happy as she is.
"Can I get cookie dough in a cup?" Vee asks.
"Sure," Her tone plain but when she turns to me a smile overtakes her face. "And what can I get for you?"
"Cookies and cream in a cup please?"
"Of course! Will that be all?"
"Yes." She gives us our total and I pay, yet again. Although Vee isn't too happy about it considering she gives me a dirty look.
The girl turns back to me and awkwardly rubs the back of her neck, "Uhm." I glance at Vee to see her narrowing her eyes at the girl.
"Spit it out." Vee says bluntly.
"I was wondering if, uhm, I could get your number?" The girl asks me.
But before I can even open my mouth, Vee answers for me. "No."
The girl scoffs, "I wasn't asking you."
"Okay? And I was telling you no." Vee shrugs and grabs my hand to lead us to a table.
Jealous Vee.
"What was that about?" I ask her as we sit down across from each other.
"Nothing."
"Mhm."
"What?" She asks, acting oblivious.
"You were jealous." I say, a smirk forming.
She scoffs, "Was not."
"Yes you were."
"Okay, maybe I was." She shrugs.
"I wasn't going to take her number," I laugh.
"Well, I just wanted to make sure, y'know make it clear to her."
After she says that the girl brings us our ice cream, not making eye contact and not saying anything.
"So, now that football season is over, you read for basketball?" She asks while scooping up some of her ice cream.
"Yeah actually, practice starts soon and then soon games in November will start."
"Isn't your birthday also coming up?" She asks.
"Yeah, October 22nd."
"Have anything planned yet?"
"No, haven't really though about it yet."
She hums in response and we both eat the rest of our ice cream in silence.
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"Move time." Vee grins as she walks back into the living room with a bowl full of popcorn.
She decided that we watched 10 Things I hate about you, because it was either that or The Proposal, again, so I chose the other.
"I asked my mom if she wanted to watch it with us since she was still up but she said she wanted to stay in her room." She explains.
Once she's situated on the couch, I grab the blanket and lay it over us making sure it's covering me and her.
"Have you ever watched this movie?"
"No."
"You really need to up your game." She says while pressing play.
We watch the movie and she tells me little things here and there but it's actually a pretty good movie so far.
I'm not liking Bianca though.
Shes like one of those rich snobby girls and she definitely needs to be humbled.
"Y'know? You're kind of like Kat." I mumble.
I see her face me out of the corner of my eye and I do the same.
"Does that mean you're going to be my Patrick?" She teases.
"I might have to pass, Patrick is a horrible name." I wince.
"Fine, you can keep your name." She grins.
And then there it is.
That fucking tension.
It's thick, making it absolutely hard to breathe.
And it doesn't help that she's only looking at my lips but I can't help but do the same.
There's a possibility we're moving closer together without even realizing but we will never know.
"Hey kids. I just came down here to get a drink and wanted to let you know I'm heading to bed." Her mom says from the kitchen which causes us to split apart and go back to how we were.
I internally groan at being cockblocked again.
I have officially beat the world record for the amount of times I've been cockblocked.
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a/n: i love building tension. river finally coming to the fact that he might like her??
also, sorry for not updating, BUT i do have a short story out and if you haven't read it yet, i encourage you to because i'm really proud of it.
see you soon:)