Kennedy's P.O.V
"SO WHAT DOES the Aussie want for lunch?" Caiden asks me as we drive aimlessly around.
I think for a while. Still shaken up from the incident a few minutes ago. Caiden senses this and glances over. "Try not to think about it. I texted Kingston, he's reporting it to the principal as we speak."
I give a small nod. This has happened before. But it's never gone this far. Usually, the teachers would just eye me like candy and linger their fingers on my arms, thighs, and other body parts for a second too long.
"So? Food?" Caiden says, his attention back on the road ahead. "We can't drive in circles all afternoon."
"Yeah I guess not."
"We could go to the food court at the mall?"
I run a hand through my hair. "Do they have marshmallows there?"
Caiden chuckles. "You want marshmallows for lunch?"
"Yes please."
The car stops at a red light and he turns in his seat to give me a lopsided grin. "Then marshmallows it is."
My stomach does a thousand somersaults. I really like his smile. The way it always meets his eyes. And his birthmark, I love his small pearshaped birthmark that rests above his eyebrow. He may not want marshmallows, but the fact that he'll get me something so ridiculous for lunch makes the lions in my chest run wild.
He pulls the car to a stop then effortlessly reverses into a car park right outside the front of the mall.
We head in, his fingers brushing mine as we walk close together.
"Marshmallows aye? Just a crave? or is this what you usually have for lunch back in Australia?"
I look up at him, "Nah it's just a crave."
Then out of the corner of my eye, I see a bright pink Lollie shop, with white and purple pillars standing proud outside. "Marshmallows!!!!" Without another thought, I then grab Caidens hand and drag him into the shop.
Rows of jar filled candy decorate the isles. There's gumballs, jellybeans, M&Ms, basically every type of sweet-filled delight you could imagine.
"Holy-" Caidens eyes widen in amazement. "That's a lot of candy."
"Lollies," I correct him.
He waves a hand, "Yeah whatever. To me its a shit ton of candy."
I go straight to the huge jar of marshmallows and take it off the shelf.
"Kennedy. Are you seriously getting the whole thing."
I smile uncontrollably and bounce a little like a two-year-old. "...Can we?"
He folds his arms and raises the birthmarked eyebrow at me. "Do you know how much that'll cost?"
My smile drops and I look down at the huge jar or shall we say bucket, of marshmallows.
I sigh. "Your right."
Placing it back on the shelf I turn to see Caiden looking at me with an expression I can't quite decipher.
"What?"
He bites his lip and looks from me to the marshmallows then back to me.
He shakes his head as if he's about to say something he'll regret.
"Fine. If you really want that many marshmallows..."
My eyes light up instantly as he walks over and takes the jar back off the shelf. "You can have the marshmallows."
I grin. "Thank you, thank you, thank youuuuu!"
He rolls his eyes but I see the faintest of smiles on his lips.
We take it up to the counter. "You want the whole jar?" Says the shopkeeper slowly.
Caiden nods and takes the money out of his wallet.
"No, no. Keep the $10, I'll give you lovers a discount. " She winks at me.
"Uh, we're not..." I gesture between Caiden and me.
The lady smiles sweetly, "Sure your not."
Caiden takes the jar from the lady and we leave the shop. He opens the lid and holds the jar out to me. I quickly grab a handful of the pink ones and stuff them in my mouth.
"They tashe show gud," I approve with my mouth full.
Caiden laughs at me then grabs a couple for himself.
"What should we do now?"
I shrug. "I guess we could do anything."
***
2 & 1/2 hours later we finish all the marshmallows and have walked around the entire mall, looking at almost every shop.
We got kicked out of 5 five shops for being silly. There was this two dollar store that we entered and we went to the costumes section then tried on everything and made a big mess.
Leaving the mall my phone beeps. I totally forgot that I had one.
There are messages from everyone, Julie or Michelle must've given the others my number.
JULIE: Kennedy! I'm so so sorry you went through that. King told us the principal fired him. He also said your ditching with Caiden have fun ;)
MICHELLE: Babe! Are you okay! I can't believe that bitch of a teacher did that to you! Txt me back when you get this.
HAYLEY: Oh my gosh Kennedy, Kingston told us what happened. Really hope your okay XX
KINGSTON: Mr. Ballar was pretty beat when we got to him. Principal fired him. Wish I could've been there to help.
JERSEY: Hope ur okay, Caid better be giving you one hell of a school ditch.
I send a short reply to them all just to thank and reassure them. I place my phone back in my jeans pocket and open the passenger car door.
"Have you ever played Laser Tag?" Caiden asks me as he starts the engine.
I buckle my belt in. "Nope."
"Well then." Caiden smirks at me. "You're in for a heck of a lose."
"So is that where we're going? To play laser tag?"
He nods and pulls out of the carpark. "Theres a place just down the road. And I must warn you, FOR I CAIDEN THE GREAT.... am the all-time champion."
I chuckle at his stupidness. "Will the great ol' mighty Caiden teach little old maiden here?"
He turns down another street and a large grey brick building appears. The words 'GAMEWORLD' printed in large capitals and bright red paint nailed to the outside.
"Yeah. I'll teach you." Caiden turns off the car and begins to open his door but suddenly stops and turns back to me. "But your not a maiden..." I look up into his eyes as he inaudibly mumbles the next part. "You're my queen." But I hear it.
My insides flutter. Why is he making me so giddy lately... the simplest things... are giving me the biggest smile.
"Come on," Caiden pokes his head back in the car. And it's then that I realize I'd been sitting there thinking of him for a while.
We walk inside and my eyes are bombarded with a range of blues, reds and greens. Off to one side is an inside go-kart track then there's a room for laser tag and another for paintballing.
Caiden leads me through to the counter and we pass a variety of game stations and a small cafe.
"Paul! hows it going," said Caiden as a tall man with funky glasses and a vest on pulls Caiden into a bro hug over the countertop.
Paul breaks the hug and pushes his glasses onto the top of his head."Lifes better now with my favourite customer here. Now, what game are you doing today?"
"Laser Tag."
"Oh sweet, hey how bout right now? There's a group just about to go in, you can pay after."
Caiden looks at me for my opinion and I nod. "Yeah, sounds fine."
"Good, good." Paul lifts the countertop and walks through to our side. "Just follow me and we'll get you suited up."
The next room we enter is way smaller, like way- way smaller. It could probably fit only 10 people at a time, maybe less.
"Richard you know Caiden, he's here with an extra to play. Mind if he joins?" announced Paul to a bigger guy tending to a womans laser gun.
"Perfect, now we'll have big even sized teams."
Paul leaves us and Richard hands both me and Caiden a black vest that looks like something from NCIS.
"On the blue team, we have Mia," the skinny blonde waves. "Also Eden and Nico," The two guy twins wave.
I pull the vest over my head and Caiden helps me when It gets caught in my hair. "Thanks," I whisper carefully, Richard, does not seem like the guy that likes to be interrupted.
"And the red team we have Talia and Pippa and Matthew."
they also wave at us.
"Caiden you can be red, and..." Richard eyes me. "Whats your name?"
I tighten my hair in a low ponytail and reply, "Kennedy"
"Ok, Kennedy looks like you'll be on the blue team."
He hands us our guns which are surprisingly heavy for something that just shoots lasers.
"These are your team bands," He holds out blue bands and red bands which we each take one from him and tie it around our waists.
"I'm assusming you all know how to play, so were just going to go straight in. You have 30 minutes to get as many points as you can."
I open mouth to tell him that I actually don't know how to play but he walks off to a corner and starts typing something in a wall computer.
"So Kennedy," Says Caiden, his breath tickling my neck. I turn and face him. "You squeeze this trigger to shoot the laser," he points to a thin lever on the underside of my gun. "You get 15 points for a chest shot and 10 points for a back shot, There are targets on the walls that glow orange- 2 points, purple- 1 point and if you find a red one and shoot it then its 10 points."
I nod, slowly taking in the rules and information he continues to go on about.
Richard walks back over to us, "Blue team you have a 30-second head start, after that 30 seconds the red team will enter. Once your shot, your gun will automatically disable for 15 seconds."
"And blue may enter... now!"
"Your going down," whispers Caiden as I shuffle past him into the large dark room.
I follow Mia, and Eden with Nico right behind me. There are fakes bushes, trees and walls even stairs and hills. Mia and I hide out in a miny playhouse till we hear the red teams scurrying footsteps.
***
So far my team has got 104 points and red has 157 points, I've shot Talia quite a few times, shes also not very good at this.
I haven't counted how many times I've been shot in the back and chest, but let me say that it's certainly a high amount of times.
"Quickly, Kennedy," Said Nico to me in a hushed voice. He beckons me closer and points to a small area with fake bushes. "Hide there, I'll lead Matthew to you so you can jump him k?"
I nod and hurry over to where Nico pointed.
Bending over I lower into a crouch and wait for Matthew to fall into our trap.
"One minute left" Richard hollers over the speakers.
I peek through a gap in the bushes. Matthews right there facing me, but not seeing me. I hold up my gun and aim for his chest.
I shoot.
"Fuck!" Matthew grits his teeth as his gun makes a bee bow boop sound and disables.
Then I see another figure come up to him and is not Nico. "Shit, disabled?" Said Caiden to Matthew who nods in reply.
Holding up my gun again I get ready to aim for Caiden but he's gone in a flash.
"Gotcha" says someone behind me and I jump in fright.
They grab my shoulders and twist me around, my gun drops to the floor.
I squint. Hoping to figure out who captured me in this dark space with such little lighting. "Caiden?"
He kicks the gun away to the other side of the bush.
"Guessed right," he whispers his face inches away from mine.
My heart beats faster and faster with each moment we're alone together.
"Were you the one that shot Matthew?"
I gulp, "...nnooooo" I drag out, unsure if that's the right way to play it.
He smirks, stepping closer so that I'm pressed up against the bush.
"Don't lie to me Kenji."
He said my nickname. He remembered my nickname. God he's making it so hard not to feel what I'm feeling right now.
Caiden brushes a loose strand away from my face. I hold my breath and try not to lean into the touch.
"You shot my team mate. And your going to pay for it."
His eyes flicker to my lips, then mine to his.
I refrain myself from saying the words kiss me.
"Did you notice the stars?" He quietly said out of the blue.
I look up and see them. They're not real stars of course. I'm assuming there just really small lights.
I rake my gaze over as much of the ceiling as I can, taking in the beauty of it all. You could say that the stars are scattered like icing sugar. "So pretty."
"Yeah." Caiden leans in his hand moving to cup my cheek. "You are."
Removing my gaze from the stars I look into his eyes, a fire glows within them. It's The same fire that's burning within my chest.
And he kisses me, I inhale sharply as our lips fit together like two puzzle pieces. Sparks fly in every direction, and the world was slowly disappearing around us, along with all of our worries, our troubles and our problems.
His lips are softer than anything I've ever known. Soft like a first snowfall, soft like biting into cotton candy.
Closing my eyes I allow the world to completely fall away. Caiden kisses me slow and soft, comforting me in ways that words would never be.
His hand rests below my ear, his thumb caressing my cheek as our breaths mingled. I move my hands up his chest, and he steps closer until theres no space left between us.
As our lips move in perfect rhythm I feel the beating of his heart against my chest.
Caiden's kissing me.
And I'm kissing him back.
What the fuck took him so long!
Caiden moves his hands down to my waist
And he deepens the kiss, pulling me against him and I kiss him back passionately.
Honestly I never knew a kiss so innocent could be so intimate and electrifying.
"Mmhm...Kennedy," he murmured and kisses me again and again, like he can't get enough.
I move my hands to the back of his neck playing with his hair.
Finally we pull apart both in dyer need for oxygen.
He smiles, his eyes sparkling from exhilaration. "I've wanted to do that for so long."
I rest my forehead against his. "Then what took you so long?"
"Because I knew that once I did. There would be no going back."
I inhale his cologne, my eyes closing as the wonderful aroma fills my nose.
When I open them again my eyes catch sight of my gun on the floor not far away from us. The corner of my lips pull up into a smirk.
I duck away from his grasp, grab the gun and shoot him.
His mouth drops open as his own gun disables. "Did you just..."
"Yep," I laugh.
He shakes his head, laughing with me.
A/n: This chapter was 2615 words, felt I should make it long for y'all.
FINALLY THEY KISSED!!!
Fun fact: I based my character Kennedy off of my child hood best friend!! Who's name is also Kennedy.. hehe