"I'm scared" Sparks announces making the grin on my lips widen as I use my spare keys to Drew's house to unlock it, "Seriously". She adds her eyes still wide as she eyes me and I have to laugh at this point, she's been expressing her fear since the moment I told her about my idea for our date. Apparently she's one of my haters who think I'd burn down Drew's kitchen.
"Don't worry there's a fire extinguisher in there just in case and I also have a number for poison control" I assure her "No one is getting harmed tonight" I announce letting the door to Drew's condo fly open.
"Mmh that's very re-assuring Forbes" Sparks laughs a little as she walks into the place, me following her behind and shutting the door behind us, grocery bags in hand. It was 9.00 at night, and yes I agree it was a bit late but what do you expect when someone decides to take an hour and a half to get ready ? huh ?. So after driving Sparks to her place and heading back to mine to shower and change, I head to the grocery store and do a little shopping for ingredients I'd need to make pesto pasta salad. This was one of the few things I could remember making properly from my lessons with Nik. Grocery shopping didn't take that much time since I'm obviously fast when it comes to these things, please note the sarcasm. I head over back to Flame's and pick her up and here we were at Drew's.
"I know Sparks" I place the bags on the counter top "That's my job, to re-assure you" I shrug trying to play it cool as I watch the prettiest lady walk to me looking around Drew's open dull lit kitchen. She's always beautiful so I wouldn't waste my time explaining how extraordinary she looked tonight in a brown thigh-length leather skirt and white sweater tucked in, with black ankle length wedge boots, her hair held up in a ponytail exposing her face that was overall my favourite part of her because it was enough to make one question whether she was truly from this universe. Damn she was beautiful.
"So are you gonna start blowing my mind or just stand there and look at me like that ?" she questions a small smile decorating her perfect lips and I shake my head.
"I can do both" I point her and watch as she nears the counter leaning against it to get closer to me who was standing on the other side of the counter.
"Oh yeah ?" she raises her eyebrows a bit and I have to say, nothing made me dumber, by dumb I mean brain smooth dumb, like Sparks being this close to me, her lips brushing mine her delicious scent killing me, her eyes searching into mine for something I still don't know of. Holy shit I had it bad for this one.
"Yeah" I whisper back my eyes moving lower on her face from her eyes slowly, but before they can get to their destination she moves back sitting on one of the stools set by the counter, and leaving me there leaning into her.
"Then do it" she says laughing a little at the disappointed look on my face.
"So what ? you're teasing me now ?" she can't just get that close to me then back away without giving me a kiss, that should be illegal.
"I don't know what you're talking about Forbes" she shrugs, looking away from me and I can't help but chuckle a little.
"Okay Sparks" I nod "Two can play that game".
"And what's that supposed to mean ?" she raises her voice slightly faking a gasp "Is that a threat ?".
"No, it's just a suggestion, haven't you ever heard of that word ?" I mumble unpacking the pack of pine nuts together with the spiral shaped pasta and other ingredients.
"How's it a suggestion ?" I could hear the animated tone in her voice and I looked up at her to find her smiling.
"I'm just suggesting that if you're gonna tease me like that, then I might as well start teasing you" I mumble knowing how dumb I sounded, but I'm not mature enough to go down without a fight.
"You are threatening me Forbes" she laughs earning an eyeroll from me "If I knew you were gonna be such a baby about it then I shouldn't have done that" she says stretching her hand out for me and like the desperate person I was when it came to her, I got closer letting her cup my cheek and place a quick kiss on my lips. It wasn't what I expected but it was better than nothing, plus if we started making out rightnow I don't think we'd have a date.
"That okay ?" she asks faking a pout and I shrug moving back.
"Not really but I'll take it".
"Okay, can you actually start cooking for me now Forbes" she asks frowning a bit and I cant help but laugh at the authoritative tone she used on me.
"Ofcourse ma'am".
_
Seconds turn to minutes, minutes turn into an hour and an hour turn into hours as Sparks watches me try to put ingredients together and make her a meal, she never fails to make a comment, some hilarious, some offensive as I move around the kitchen trying to find cutlery. What I appreciate though is how she just watches me and doesn't try to correct the stupid mistakes that I make, I'd say she has that much faith in me, but I'm not quite sure that's the reason.
She takes a long sip of her white wine, watching me intently as I try my best not to make a mess as I mix the pesto and mayonnaise with the pasta "You have pretty hands" she comments her voice quiet and I look up at her from the bowl to find her still eyeing my hand and chuckle a bit.
"Should I take that wine away from you now ?" I question.
"You can try" she challenges and I shake my head going back to my mixing. We stay quiet for a minute or so before she speaks again "You know you really amaze me".
"Why is that ?" I ask still looking into the bowl and appreciating that my food at least looked edible.
"Because, you have so many layers" she mumbles.
"And what's that supposed to mean ?" I pick up the cut tomatoes and dump them in the bowl then look up at her to find her looking at me a smile on her lips.
"I mean look at you, who thought you'd survive in the kitchen without causing a fire or preparing poison" she points me and I laugh.
"We're still not sure about the poison part".
"Mmh, doesn't change the fact that you're pretty fucking amazing Forbes" she shrugs and if the smile on my face wasn't enough I feel my heart skip a beat, damn it, what was with her and messing with my circulatory system ?. Even the smallest compliment from her could make me feel like this.. happy, she made me feel happy. "And if your going to poison me at least have the decency to take the poison with me".
"Oh, so you want me to die with you ?" I wag my eyebrows at her.
"Ofcourse I'd want my murderer to die with me" she frowns stating this as if it's pretty obvious and I chuckle and go back to dumping some leafy vegetables in the mix. This was a weird topic we had started just now, but honestly speaking, if she were to die or leave, then I feel like I'd have nothing to live for, it's messed up, but I really like her around me and now I was starting to get awfully used to her presence.
"So where'd you learn to cook ?" she questions, pulling me away from my trail of thoughts.
"From Nik, who I'm pretty sure just took out recipes from google to try and seem like an interesting person who had a personality other than being a dick" I mumble and hear Sparks laugh a little.
"I would congratulate him for at least trying but I don't wanna" she shakes her head.
"Yeah me neither". Again I was freaking out because I hadn't heard from my old man in days, almost a week now, what was he planning ?. Is he just secretly watching me ?.. I don't wanna think about him. "So, did your mom get google recipes to teach you too ?" I look up from the bowl to Sparks who was now sipping from her half full wine glass.
"No" she smiles shaking her head "I was the one that got the recipes from google" she points herself laughing a bit and I'm forced to laugh too until she begins to explain to me how her mother always expected her to know things even when she didn't teach her. So Sparks took it upon herself to learn them before her mother brought them up and lectured her about how 'a female' as she puts it 'should learn how to do such things for their husband'. Those words were enough to give me the ick and make me feel sorry for Sparks, something about a parent that's still into those silly gender role things makes me pissed.
_
It wasn't poison, in your fucking face.. and how do I know that ? well here we were Sparks and I minutes after eating my not only non-poison but also pretty delicious dinner, alive, we were alive, and looking as good as we always did when we were together. We were sited outside at the balcony on the comfortable lounge chair, Sparks still sipping on her wine and I obviously didn't like wine at all so was sipping on Drew's beer. Ofcourse I'd drink his beer what did he expect ? plus what's his is mine remember ?.
"What do you listen to ?" I look sideway at Sparks after shuffling through my playlist just to confirm that she didn't know any of the songs "Oh don't tell me you're one of those one direction girls" I move back in my seat and she laughs looking away from the open sky above us to me.
"Don't start with me" she points me "What's so bad about one direction anyway ? not everyone likes screamo like you do".
"Excuse you, I don't like screamo but that's way better than one direction" I chuckle "But no judgement here babe, you can like whatever band you like as long as you actually have liking to music" I shrug.
"I didn't agree to liking one direction but now I wouldn't admit it if it were true" she chuckles "You're a jerk at times".
"I am not, I just wanna know that my so called girlfriend" as everyone puts it "Has a type of music she likes". I wouldn't mind if it was one direction, I had nothing against one direction, but really ? one direction ?.
"Okay, first of all.." she raises a pointer finger "I don't have a specific genre, I can listen to anything and second" raises her middle finger "Really ? 'so called girlfriend' " she puts air quotes on the words. Looking at the lady next to me I find the main reason the night is beautiful.
"No, I think all labels are dumb" I correct her "What are labels for anyway, just another thing putting people in boxes they probably don't wanna be in-".
"So you wouldn't want to be my girlfriend ?" it's a genuine question I can hear it in her tone.
"No, that's not what I'm saying" I raise my index finger "What I'm saying is I don't get the reason for labels when a couple can just love or like each other without one, you don't need people to have a definition for what you two are, that's what I'm saying". Sparks nods finally looking sideway at me.
"Yeah but at times people just need re-assurance that they're not like everyone else in your life, they need to know that they're special in some type of way, and if a label will do that then so be it" she shrugs looking back up as if she hasn't just said that. I think this topic hit close to home for her, and now me too, I could hear it in her tone and it was pretty obvious she was talking about herself. As I said I'd try as hard as I can to make her feel how special she is to me.
I sigh and move to sit by her in her lounge chair lifting her stretched out legs and placing them on my lap, the whole time she's just blankly staring at the sky and I can't exactly tell what she's thinking. I feel guilty for hurting her feelings with my stupid mouth. "Hey.." I whisper, smiling at how her pretty dangling star-shaped silver earrings brushed against her neck. Lucky earrings.
She looks down at me and smiles a bit but it doesn't reach her eyes, I know she wants re-assurance, I know she wants labels and all that, but she obviously won't ask for it, because as the guys put it, she wouldn't want to pressure me. Damn this girl deserved someone better than me.
"I don't believe in labels because it doesn't stop your girlfriend or husband or father from hurting you.." I shake my head and she nods tucking in her lips "But I believe that if two people really do have feelings for each other and respect those feelings they don't need labels" she just silently stares at me as I go on. "I also believe that you're really special to me Sparks.." I nod and watch as she smiles a bit, "I'm willing to prove that to you no matter what and if it's a fucking label you want-".
"I didn't say that" she cuts me off but I know better.
"You don't have to Sparks" I scoff "If it's re-assurance you want, then I'll give it to you no matter the cost". I wasn't only saying this, I meant it, I didn't mind any label as long as it was given to Sparks and I, I'd take it. Hayley was nothing like this lady sited in front of me and as much as I wanted to protect myself from hurt, I also wanted to protect Sparks from the same.
"What does that mean ?" she tilts her head a bit and I smile, I was hoping this would sound less cringe when I said it.
"Will you be mine and allow people to label us whatever they want ?" I tried to remove the cringey words, turns out all of them were and I ended up with that fucked up sentence, Sparks laughs throwing her head back and I find myself doing the same.
"Is this your twisted way of asking me to be your girlfriend ?" she raises her eyebrows still chuckling and I shrug enjoying the fact that I put that pretty smile on that pretty face.
"Yeah, I guess" she raises her eyebrows further "Okay, yes" I roll my eyes and this gets her to laugh harder for some reason, her hand going over her mouth to muffle her loud laughter. I personally didn't get why she was laughing but I couldn't help but laugh too.
"Okay" she says after she finally quiets down and I smile.
"Okay ?" I raise an eyebrow, I know I didn't even ask properly, but the fact that she agreed made me so excited for some reason.
"Yeah" she nods "As long as you be fully mine too and accept the labels with me". I laugh a little, she was so cute.
"Of-fucking-course". She laughs again looking away before looking back at me her eyes twinkling brighter than the fucking stars, "I think I should get that kiss now". She shakes her head trying to hide her smile then rolls her eyes but like the good girl that she was, crawls up to me and sits on my lap, straddling me and my arms naturally hold her by the waist as hers go around my neck.
"Can I be the first to put a label ?" she asks pouting a bit as she looks between my eyes and who the fuck would say no to her ?.
"Sure".
"You're my girlfriend". She announces proudly and I can't help but laugh at the cute expression she made, I would be whatever the fuck she wants "My beautiful amazing girlfriend" she adds, and though I didn't ask for it, I feel all warm inside.. I feel special, I didn't think I'd need that but it felt good and before I could reply to this she closes the gap between us, softly touching her perfect lips to mine making me involuntarily melt into her, sighing both emotionally and physically because damn this felt good. It felt good to be here with Sparks, it felt good to be held by her, to be complimented by her, to be spoken to by her, to be listened to by her. It felt good both emotionally and physically.
**
So, it turns out, it's easier to just sit around and watch YouTube videos all day than to write and this came out a day late buttttt 🍑🍑 I worked hard on it, my shoulders hurt from the bad posture I was sitting in while writing this and I think that deserves a vote and comment. Also fun fact I was listening to a one direction and 5sos playlist while writing this, that is to show I have nothing against 1d it's all Cain, I swear. Anyway do the necessary and the next chapter might just pop up. Probably not this week I'll be busy but the following week chapters shall be flowing I promise. We should get Nik, coz we miss him.
Also check out my other book, it's pretty amazing, the characters are traumatized just like Cain but less bitchy.