"The brother and sister pair Damon and Jo Lee?"
Groaning, I bow my head down into my hands while Damon looks on at what was going on, his arms locking me in place of where I was sat.
Did she even have to add the 'brother and sister' part?
Did she even have to say it without actually knowing what was really going on in this weird, kind-of-not-official family?
"Anybody know where they are?", she asks again, 'looking around'.
By now, I heard far too many gasps and turns of heads to us over here from afar already to realize they weren't 100% dumbfounded and clueless. Struggling to get up off my spot, I mutter curses under my breath, expect Damon doesn't allow me the freedom to go.
"Listen, I need to go explain to them what is really going on-"
"No, you don't."
"What do you mean, 'you don't'?"
"I mean, simply, you don't."
Completely terrified, I sit back and sigh.
"Damon. Those people obviously think we're some freaks, related-by-blood siblings who just made out in front of the entire school and now both of our parents will-"
"Oh, no, I know that. But all I'm saying is that it'll be better if you stay here for the meantime, and I'll be right back after....", he turns away from me to look over his shoulder at the people, slowly moving his hands from the table beside me, "Explaining some things."
I watch him in panic when he calmly jogs towards the center of attention and slows down to a warning stop to tap Jennifer on her shoulder. She turns right around, grinning to all ears, even pulls my mum closer to her side while the rest of the students examine the scene like a crowd in a silent movie.
"See? There he is!", she tells my mum, "And you were worried that you wouldn't be able to properly see your son around here. But now that we've found your son, why not find his little sister Jo? How about that, Michelle?"
Worry rises fast in my chest.
Already coming up with ways to explain to everybody, my parents, my friends, the school, on how this was all just big, big confusion. But I stop when my mum politely gives in and stops her from walking away any further away.
"Actually, Damon isn't my son, dear", she smiles at Jennifer.
The girl plasters on another grin, "He's not?"
This some Dr. Phil shit right here
"Well...", my mum turns to place a hand on Michael's chest and softly laughs, yet to find out why the grade was watching her so closely, "I'm not sure if Jo told you, but Damon and she aren't siblings. Me and Michael here, Damon's dad, are not married yet, but we live together. Kind of like roommates, as you might call it, right?"
Staring back in awe, Jennifer slowly takes her hand of my mum's shoulder to pull it to herself.
The listening students all look at each other with 'huh?' expressions on their faces.
Damon gives up on even bothering to explain anything else as my mum pretty much did all the work already.
And I'm sitting over here with anxiously-bitten nails and a worrying thought as to why my mum easily gave away that much information about our family.
"Well then", Jennifer says with both hands firmly together as she slowly walked away from the area, "I guess since we've cleared up some things, it'll be best for me to go back to where I was before, wouldn't it?"
Almost immediately, students switch back to talking amongst themselves about what the hell happened. Which leaves Damon to quietly bring over both our parents to where I was no longer sitting on the table.
"There you are", my mum goes in for a hug and holds onto my wrists to look at me from a standing distance, "Were you standing over here the entire time?"
"No, of course not. I was just about to walk over to you guys after I heard Jennifer call you out."
"Ah, Jennifer.... that's her name", my mum nods at Michael beside her, "Do you know why she went away so quickly? Such a sweet girl, too."
"I have no idea", I naturally say, "But I do have friends waiting for me over there, so Damon can be your tour guide around the school for now, okay?"
They weirdly enough agree, but I don't leave without Damon secretly holding onto my hand as I walk away.
A silent, 'Are you sure?'
I pull away, 'Don't worry'
Trying my hardest not to look back, I scan over the students in hopes of finding, at least, one of my friends, but don't even step forward when Kandy tackles me in a hug.
"Jo'ee~"
"Hey to you too", I kind of pet her so she pulls away, "Where's the rest of the group?"
"I don't know, probably busy. Screw them."
"Oh, then how come you're here-"
"What's more important is that I just witnessed the best 'in your face' kiss and basically HAVE YOU AND DAMON HAD SEX YET?"
By reflex, I shut her mouth with my hand.
"Kandy. You're too, damn loud-"
"Plez, I dun cur abut peepl wen my las vergn fren is no longur my vergn fren, huny", her words come out in muffles so I take my hand off.
"I'm your last virgin friend?", I ask with a raised eyebrow.
"Doesn't matter. So, have you?", her eyes light up, "Finally had sex with your Romeo there?"
"No."
"Then have you... given him a little helping hand down there with his joystick?"
"Did you really call it-? Just stop. Please."
"Okay, geez", she raises both hands in defense and leans over to me, "Has he given you a little help down in your magic hole of-"
"Bye."
"No, wait", she pulls my arm back, "Sorry, couldn't help it. But I do want to know... where exactly in the list of FaceBook relationship statuses do you and Damon stand?"
Looking at the darkening sky, I desperately want to tell her I didn't know the answer myself too well, but only shrug, tightening my hand around hers.
"I've quite enjoyed calling him my boyfriend for the past few weeks."
Watching her expression change from a patient stare to a full-blown open jaw almost hitting the floor and eyes as wide as balloons, I take that as my queue to leave her be and hurriedly jog away from her to wherever my feet let me go.
Although I do hear her loudly shout back to me, "Can I tell the rest of our group?"
"Fine. But only our group, got it?", I reply from far.
It was close to 7pm so not many people were left hanging around. I pass by the countless tents of activity booths from behind where nobody saw me and find the 'Face Painting' stand. So I reach out to push apart the curtains from our tent from behind only to have someone's arms around my waist pull me back from behind and against their chest.
Damon.
Of course, it's Damon-the-possible-spy-who-can-somehow-find-me-in-any-place-or-country-and-even-time guy.
His arms wrap around me in a secured hold and I have to slightly tilt my head when he swiftly kisses me on my neck and stays in this position. Not yet a single word said, but I already knew the shivers running down my body were definitely not from the soft wind.
Bringing my hand up to twirl through his hair, I say, "You better be thankful I know your cologne by heart, or you would've been slapped across the face a long time ago."
Softly laughing, he loosens his hold on me, letting me finally turn around even though I was still in his arms, just to look at his face I strangely missed so much over what felt like hours of time.
"Hey."
"Hi", he kisses my cheek.
"Thank god nobody can see us behind these massive tents."
"Yeah, that's why I waited to come talk to you once I saw you walk around behind these things."
"I knew you were a spy", I point at him, "Where's mum and Michael? I thought you wanted to tour them around the school?"
"Right, they actually only wanted to come say hi to the both of us on their way home from work, so they left a few minutes ago", he explains, "But thankfully they didn't notice the commotion they created before leaving with the help of Jennifer."
"Ughhhhh", I run my hands across my face, soon regretting the decision of 'trying' to forget what had happened about an hour ago on the field in front of pretty much everybody.
Damon takes my hands from my face, "Hey hey hey, are you okay?"
I don't pull away from him, even though I wanted to crawl up into a ball, but I couldn't stop the ongoing list of questions in my head.
"No, no I'm not okay. She, she, she...."
"Is a bitch?"
"Yes. She just had to walk over there in front of our grade right when she had the perfect chance to, showed everybody my mum and your dad with no reason, proceeded to tell them how we're apparently siblings related by blood which is not the case here, and now made everybody think that me and you are these porn star step brother and sister who make out every once in a while."
Taking a deep breath in and out, I find myself being able to stop painting when I needed to.
"Sorry", I apologize, mostly to him.
Shaking his head with a slight smile, he motions for me to lay my head on his chest, so I do, along with his arms that hold me closer.
"Sorry", I say again.
"What are you apologizing for?"
"I don't know. For everything that happened in the last hour?"
"..."
"Like just now, for cursing and ranting on about things that both do and don't matter, and also like a while ago, for having to put you into people's label of being 'the apparent guy who makes out with his apparent sister'."
"..."
I slightly worry, "Is that a silence of forgiveness or...?"
Hearing him laugh, he pulls away to kiss my forehead and properly look at me, "It's neither. There is nothing for you to apologize for."
"But-"
"No, I mean it", he firmly states, "I know you're worried about what the others will think of you, me, us. Or of what might happen on the day back to school. But that all doesn't matter."
He sighs, bringing up his hand to caress my cheek like he knew his touch soothed me and continued.
"I'm sure you and I know that the only literal solution for us both to do at this point in time are two simple steps."
"Which are?"
"Well, the first would be to explain to whoever bothers you or misunderstands what Jennifer meant by the whole 'brother and sister' thing, just to clarify things a bit more and not have to deal with the possible weird thoughts that people might have about us."
"And step 2?"
"That comes only after you have either realized that people from our school still think weirdly of us or don't want to think of us in the same way as they did before, and just to not care."
I think about it, "It's not that simple, though."
"The not caring part?"
"Yeah, not caring. I'm not too good at it."
"It might take time, but once you learn how to quite literally 'dgaf' - it's a great skill to have", he explain.
Not saying anything else, I fidget around with the top zipper of his sweatshirt and pull it up and down by an inch. When he unwraps his hands from my waist to slowly move onto my arms like a soft trail and traces circles onto my wrist, making me have to look up at his tall figure.
"You know what I think we should do right now?", he asks, a sudden enlightening grin appears on his face.
I curiously smile back, "What?"
"Since the fair is only filled with students who are bored out of their mind and I can't stand not being able to be with you without that shitty music playing from the school band, let's get out of here."
"Get out of here?", I laugh at how adventurous he made it sound to walk out of a school without telling anybody, "What do you want to do when we're out?"
"Let's go have some of your favorite desserts."
My eyes widen at the thought, "Do you mean...?"
Without speaking, he pulls himself in to give me a sweet, delicate kiss on my lips and leans back to nod.
"Yep. That one."
|
Almost 9pm.
Sitting in an empty park on an empty bench.
Only a few dim lamps lit around us.
Having just walked over to the McDonald's across the street.
And a McFlurry ice cream in both of our hands.
This, I loved.
Taking another spoonful of my Oreo ice cream, I swing the plastic spoon around while I finish chewing in a sign to show Damon I wanted to say something.
"You know what?", I finally ask while looking straight.
He sits back with his own M&M flavor, "What do I not know yet?"
"You're fucking great, Damon."
"Wow, pass me the napkins, you'll make me cry, Daniels", he jokes.
"But it's true", still holding onto my ice cream cup, I stick the spoon into the center and move myself to face him on the bench, "You really are amazing."
Looking at me with that same smile, he turns away and asks, "What makes you say that all of a sudden?"
"Well, I was just wondering how you didn't think of me as a rude bitch since the first day that we met and didn't decide to never talk to me again", I mix around the ice cream in the cup, "I know I would've."
I look up to see him doing the same with his dessert when he puts it down next to him and shakes his head, his arms spread out on the two sides of the bench behind him.
"No", he begins, "I still think you're kind of a bitch sometimes, but you're also kind of my girlfriend and I kind of kiss you every once in a while when your sexiness overpowers my actions - which is far too many times a day of you to be that sexy - so it changes things."
Staring at him look around the park with a casual glance over the trees and all over our surroundings, I already feel my heartbeat racing at the speed of god knows how many km/h.
Desperately wanting to take him for myself out of the moment, I resist it and put down my ice cream beside me on the further side of the bench.
"Yeah, I still think you're kind of an asshole sometimes, too", I honestly say.
He smiles, although his body language screams 'sit on all this free space on my lap I have for you baby' at me.
"I know you do."
I get up and pretend to stretch my arms above my head. Only to take a step back to sit where I was before and 'accidentally' fall down onto his lap with my hands already wrapped around his neck.
"Oh no, my deepest apologies", I gasp, "I was definitely not wanting to sit on your lap as if I wanted to kiss you right here, right now."
He smirks, pulling me closer to him, his hands traveling on both sides of my waist and wrapped up around me like a ribbon.
"Please. Don't be."
"Are you sure?", I ask, my fingers traveling to feel his soft hair from behind.
He nods, and I don't notice how one of his hands moved to grasp my butt that was right there for him to touch.
"Damon-", I squeal and try to swat his hand away, but it already moved to being on my waist again, his lips attacking mine before I realize it.
No longer wanting to play 'innocent', I pull myself into kissing him back, just as passionately and lovingly as he did to me.
Smiling into the kiss, I can't help but think that even though my lonely ice cream was not going to be touched again in a long time - kissing Damon was the sweetest dessert I ever wanted to have.
And I loved it.