"That was t-the single most terrifying thing I've ever done in m-my life," Angel, as I've decided to call him, pants out once we escape the evil clutches of my mother. 

"Uh, I think you mean the most hilarious!" I correct him. "Did you even see the look on her face?  I wish I had gotten a picture of it.  It would have been excellent blackmail the next time I need a new pair of shoes or something."

"Whatever, you're a-absolutely crazy." He grumbles out as he walks to the steps leading to a gazebo a few feet away from us and plops down.

"Thank you!" I reply cheerfully and move to site opposite sim. This way I was leaning on the left side wooden frame and he was leaning against the right. I put my small bag of m&m's beside me and Angel did the same.

He chuckles at me before asking, "S-so how exactly is this weird game of yours going to work?"

"Alright so this is how it's gonna go down," I begin. "We are going to play rock paper scissors to start off -best two out of three of course- to pick who gets to throw first. Then after that is decided, whoever wins -well call them person A- throws an m&m at the other person - person B- and if that person B catches the m&m then they get to ask person A a question. Then person B throws an m&m and person A tries to catch it and so on. But, if you don't catch the m&m you have to say something embarrassing about yourself, okay? Great! Now let's start."

"Rock paper scissors shoot!" I exclaim enthusiastically as Angel mumbles along, but plays the game anyway. I had scissors while he had a rock so the little fudge nugget won. Two games later and he had beaten me all three times. Obviously he must have cheated some how because there is absolutely no way he could have done that with out some help.

"I won!" He exclaimed and stuck his tongue out at me like a child. Well, two can play at that game then. I'll get my revenge later, but for now, I want to play this game with Angel.

"Yeah, yeah whatever. You won, now get ready because I'm going to start throwing m&m's!" I tell him as I roll my eyes. I pick out one as he leans back, mouth open and ready to try and catch it. I toss the blue m&m into the air towards him and watch to see if he could do it.

Angel caught it with ease, and grabbed some of his own m&m's to eat while we talked. "Okay so I caught it and now I get to ask you question?" He asked shyly to make sure he got it right; I noticed that he didn't stutter that time which was good. Hopefully he'll get more and more comfortable around me tonight. I nod and gesture for him to ask me something. Dear lord I hope he doesn't ask me something stupid like what my favorite color is. That doesn't even help you get to know the person.

"Hmmm. Ok, so uh " he begins to stutter out again, obviously he didn't have a question to ask me yet. "Oh! I got it. If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?"

"That's kinda a hard question to answer," I tell him, thinking about my answer. "There are so many different places around the world to see but I guess the place I really want to go to is Sydney, Australia. It just seems like such a beautiful place and I've always wanted to go to Australia to see the wildlife and go cliff diving and learn to surf."

"You want to learn to surf?" He asks, sounding slightly shocked.

"Well yeah. I mean I've seen people do it at the beaches on the coast about an hour away from here, and I've always wanted to try it but I just don't have anyone to teach me," I tell him, kinda embarrassed. It was weird, I'm usually super confident about everything, but I had never told anyone that I wanted to learn to surf. I didn't like admitting that I didn't know how to do something.

"Well, I used to love to surf. It made me feel free, ya know? Just you, the board, and the waves is an amazing feeling. I miss doing it a lot,"  He tells me, his eyes lighting up behind his mask as he speaks before slowly dimming again towards the end. Then as if just realizing what he said, he straightens up and clears his throat. "Isn't it my turn to throw a m&m?"

"Uh, yeah. Go ahead," I answer slowly. I wonder why he just shut down like that, like he said something he wasn't supposed to. I would love to hear what else he had to say.

He throws a red m&m at me and I catch it flawlessly.

"Ok, what's the most scandalous thing you've ever done? And no lying, because I will know," I ask as my first question, just to get a laugh out of him. I'm pretty sure it's my new favorite sound.

After a few rich laughs leave his lips he begins to answer. "Let's see... the most scandalous thing I've ever done would probably be," he says in a almost teasing voice as he leans in close to me. "Running around with a crazy brunette, and stealing m&m's from a hotel's kitchen."

We both laugh uncontrollably for a few seconds before returning to the game.

We go back and forth for a while continuously asking questions and laughing and taking like we had known each other for years as music from the party plays in the background. I had learned so many strangely wonderful things about the boy sitting in front of me and he had learned so much about me that it really felt like we were connected. It was so much more than knowing his favorite color or animal, I felt like I knew him.

Finally it was his turn to ask a question again, the last one before the game was over. I tossed the m&m up into the air and watched as he caught it effortlessly just like he had done all night.

"Ok, um this is going to sound kinda weird," he begins looking at the ground and scratching his neck nervously.

"Yeah well if you haven't already noticed, I'm a bit weird myself," I tell him, laughing lightly.

"I don't think anyone could not notice that," he replies chuckling as well.

"Ok the suspense is killing me, Angel! Just ask the question," I tell him impatiently. I really did want to know what he had to ask. It couldn't be any weirder than him liking pineapples on his pizza, yuck.

"Angel?" He questions, looking confused. Darn it, I've been caught.

"I'll explain after you ask me whatever question you where thinking of," I tell him with a flick of my hand to dismiss the matter, hiding my slight embarrassment.

"I guess, I, well," he stutters and stumbles before just blurting out, "Why did you want me to dance with you of all things?"

"Again, that's a hard question to answer. You just love putting me on the spot huh?" I ask rhetorically with a chuckle. "I honestly don't know the answer to that," I tell him thoughtfully. I really didn't know why I wanted him to dance with me, I just did. He was different than the guys I was usually surrounded by at school and it made me want to know him. He was a challenge to figure out, and he made this party interesting, something that no one has been able to do for me in a long time.

"There has to be some reason, right?" He prompted, looking genuinely interested.

"I don't know. I guess you just intrigued me. You seem different," I tell him, still trying to find the right words.

"Different?" He inquired.

"Not bad different, just different. You weren't overly cocky and apologized to me when you spilled lemonade on my shoes. Some of the guys I know wouldn't to just push past me and not bother to look back, not that I would let them. I'd give them an earful before they could get ten feet away," I explain to him with a slight laugh.

"Now that we've bared our souls to one another," I joke, "We should get back to the party. I want to dance a little more before the fireworks start and the party begins to dwindle out."

He seemed like he wanted to question me further. For whatever reason he acted as if it was odd for someone to be interested in him without an anterior motive. I can't imagine why though, no sarcasm intended. He was perfectly, perfectly... something. I can't figure out exactly what it was about him. But there was definitely something that just made him completely intriguing to me.

"They won't start for another hour, Princess," he finally tells me. "Stay out here with me under the stars for a while longer. We can hear the music just fine from here." But he stands up and holds out his hand for me to grab. I was surprised by his sudden surge of confidence.

"Princess?" I question like he had when I called him Angel and grab his hand as I stand.

"Well if you have a mysterious nickname for me - with no explanation might I add - I should have one fore you as well shouldn't I?" He says with a lopsided grin.

"I suppose so, Angel." I tell him, and we begin to dance again.

a u t h o r ' s n o t e :

not edited

~ holland