26

Flynn and I sat on the couch facing the TV, Tilly sitting between us, her eyes locked on the screen as she absentmindedly crammed goldfish crackers into her mouth.

She offered me some a little while ago, but she had kid slobber all over her fingers and I turned down the offer. And now I'm pretty sure that I insulted her and she's pissed.

She's a cute looking kid, there's no doubt about that. She's got these huge hazel eyes and a mop of dark brown curls and a funny little smile - when she's not giving you a deadpan look of biased appraisal.

I tried not to think about the mystery of Flynn's mother. It wasn't really any of my business, anyway, though my inner Nancy Drew thought otherwise. But I told her to shut up and sat in silence.

It was a little awkward, because I was there and awkwardness follows me around like a lost puppy, but after a few more strained minutes, Flynn asked if I wanted a cookie.

"Yes!" I answered immediately, with so much enthusiasm it made him laugh.

"Okay, so that's what you've been waiting for this whole time, isn't it?" He asked, rising to his feet and heading toward the kitchen.

"Well...." I followed him, leaning on the counter as he fetched the jar of delicious cookies, "...maybe."

"Your wish is granted, m'lady," Flynn said, giving a small, playful bow as he held the opened jar out to me.

I snorted and grabbed a handful - I'm not ashamed that I eat like Ronald Weasley - with a weird, lopsided curtsy. "Why thank you, good sir."

"Anything for you, Madam Sarcasm," he said, replacing the lid on the jar and putting it back on the counter.

"Ooh, I've graduated from Miss to Madam, have I?" I asked while nibbling on the first cookie.

"Madam Sarcasm does have a better flow to it than Little Miss Sarcasm, don't you think?" He asked with a grin before plucking a cookie out of my hand and taking a huge bite out of it.

"Hey!" I said, smacking his arm with my free hand, "you just defied the Terms and Agreements! No stealing my food!"

He shrugged and said slyly, "hey, you still owe me for that piece of cake you devoured at an alarming speed, okay?"

~

"So the trick to good mac and cheese, you see, is adding a bit of extra milk and some salt," Flynn was saying as he stirred the ingredients together vigorously.

"Astounding!" I said with exaggerated enthusiasm, "I've dreamed my whole life of discovering the secret to delicious macaroni and cheese! And now that I have, I just don't know what to do."

He turned to me with a goofy expression on his face. "That's the good part, I guess. You get to go find a new dream."

"Whatever," I said, rolling my eyes, "real dreams never come true."

His face became serious, and he stopped stirring the macaroni. "What makes you say that?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. Because it's true? Hope ruins lives."

"Aw, don't be that way," he said, his eyes meeting mine, "if anything ruins lives, it's giving up hope."

I rolled my eyes. "Ah, dreamers and their crazy notions."

"Ah, pessimists and their crazy notions," he said, rolling his eyes in an impression of me.

I socked him in the arm in exasperation.

"Hey, one of these days I might just decide to defend myself, you know," he protested, wagging his finger at me. "And also, the food's ready."

"Good, because I'm starving," I told him as he headed over to a cabinet and opened it.

He reached up and grabbed some plastic bowls off the top shelf, his shirt lifting up enough for me to see a glimpse of his bare back. Instantly I looked away, my cheeks heating up, and I was annoyed. Why was I suddenly so bashful about skin? 

Ugh. Stupid weird teenage hormones.

As he filled the bowls with macaroni, he called to Tilly, telling her it was time to eat. I heard her scramble off the couch and her footsteps thunked on the floor until she appeared in the kitchen. Instantly her eyes fell upon me in a gloomy stare.

"Here you go," Flynn said, handing a bowl to Tilly. "And for you, m'lady." He handed me the other with a playful bow, and took the third for his own.

Tilly climbed onto a chair at the table and began eating without a word. Flynn and I followed, settling in the two chairs on either end of the table, and thus our meal began.

And apparently Flynn did have a magic touch when it came to making macaroni and cheese, because this was some of the best I'd ever had. I wonder if he had a magic touch for anything else?

Ew. Wait! No! That sounded wrong. Umm....a subject change was desperately needed.

Unfortunately, I couldn't think of anything else and only hoped that Flynn wouldn't notice the fact that I was blushing as red as a tomato.

~

At the end of the night, Flynn walked me to the door, a sleeping Tilly resting her curly head upon his shoulder.

He smiled. "This was fun."

I smiled back; surprisingly, it had been fun, not too extremely awkward. We'd eaten, watched a movie, and now here we were, me standing at the threshold of his door, not sure how to bid him farewell until the morrow.

"Yeah, it was," I said to him, "thanks for the cookies, and the macaroni and cheese."

"No problem," he laughed a little, the corners of his dark eyes crinkling in a pleasant way.

"Anyway, I...I guess I'll see you tomorrow, at the park for Harry Potter," I said, twiddling my fingers. "It starts at six, I think."

"So I'll just meet you there? Or should we carpool to save the environment?" He asked with a grin, shifting Tilly's weight slightly.

"Umm, I don't know...." I thought for a moment, "I'll just come get you."

"Okay, sounds good," he said, nodding.

Then we fell into silence. It wasn't exactly awkward, though perhaps a little strained. I cleared my throat, looking up at the door frame before turning to look off into the semidarkness to the side of me.

The next thing I knew, something had brushed my cheek. Warm, a little wet, soft. I turned back abruptly to see Flynn turning pink as he straightened back up from bending slightly. To kiss my cheek, apparently.

He cleared his throat in a funny little way, kind of like John Watson on Sherlock, and stammered, "S-sorry."

"It's okay," I said, my voice surprisingly calm despite the fact that my thoughts were racing, and my blood was rushing so fast I could feel it, "just warn me next time."

"Noted," he said, a sheepish look in his eyes. "Uh...good night."

"Good night," I replied, and turned away, walking back to my car. I got in and cranked up, and that's when he finally closed the door to his apartment, taking the shaft of warm light with him, and I was left in the darkness, with only my headlights to guide me.

I pulled out onto the main road, the feeling of his lips lingering like a ghost upon my skin, though it was a cold, tingly sensation rather than warm and soft like before.

As I was pulling into my driveway, my phone buzzed. I went inside and settled down in my room before checking it, and by then it had buzzed again.

I dropped onto my bed, unlocking the screen to read two new texts from, no surprise, Flynn.

The first one read, I'm really sorry......

The second had a link to a YouTube video and and the message, also I forgot to tell you, I found a song about your favorite color

I clicked the link, and was sent to a YouTube video with lyrics to a song called Yellow by Coldplay. I pressed play, and was instantly alarmed.

It was the song from my dream. My creepy dream where I'd kissed him. Only in real life, he'd kissed me. This was weird.

However, I liked the song, and once I'd overcome the initial shock of the fact that I'd had a future-predicting dream - or close to future-predicting, anyway - I listened to it again and again.

This was my song. Or our song, since he'd found it. Would it be weird if Flynn and I had a song? Honestly, who cares at this point, it's a nice song.

I like it, I texted him, and he sent back a happy smiley face.

I laid back on my bed, the song's melody filling my ears, and smiled to myself. Maybe it wouldn't be so weird to maybe, possibly, sort of, somehow have a crush on Flynn. Surely it would pass, and in the meantime, I'd have a pretty cool friend.

 And if it never passed, well...I guess I'd figure that out later.

~~

Oh my god I finally updated!!! I'm so horrible....

Anyway, did anyone get the Tangled reference? Eh? Maybe not....