Cotton Candy Kisses

I was to say the least surprised when the school's soccer star Forest Emmerson asked me to the town's Valentine carnival. I know what you're thinking, a carnival, on valentines day, as in the middle of February. Yeah most tourists found it crazy but we lived in South Carolina so mid February weather wasn't far off from early summer weather meaning we could pretty much do a carnival for Christmas if we wanted. Of course that was only one side of my hazardous and jumbled thinking. The other half of my brain was thinking along the lines of 'holy crap did that really just happen'. It's hard to believe that a guy who could have any number of girls swooning with just a glimpse of a smile actually wanted to take me, a plain jane, out on valentines day. I guess plain jane wouldn't be the most accurate of terms to describe me though. I was a little to crazy to be ordinary but still. Guy's like him don't even talk to girls like me. It's a rule of high school etiquette. I didn't get a chance to answer him before the bell rang. I was up and out the door before he had the chance to blink.

"Guys help!" I shouted at my friends once we were all seated around the lunch table. I preceded to explain my situation to them. They all looked a little dumbstruck with the exception of my friend Millie. I was too distracted to actually think about why she looked like she was planning.

"Go for it!" Was Anthea's enthusiastic reply.

"I don't know about this Cassie." Was the obvious answer from our cautious Cathleen.

"Don't listen to her. She's just being Cath. What have you got to lose?" Interjected Mandy.

"I don't know. Maybe my self respect, pride, social standing, wait I don't have that, ok scratch that, ummm... but there is the matter of severe social circle difference. He's the best soccer captain in 5 years. I'm a social invisible. Ughhh... high school is way too complicated." I rambled. I started banging my head against my pile of books before my scheming friend decided to step in.

"You're going with him and that's that. It's three to two and my vote counts as much as yours so don't try to pull the I count more than the rest of you thing. You're going and I'm coming over to help you pick out your outfit and fix your hair. Now go find that boy and tell him when to pick you up. " Millie demanded yanking me out of my seat and shoving me towards the cafeteria door.

"I don't know where to find him!" I pleaded helplessly.

"He's on the field. C'mon." Millie commanded yanking me by the arm. She was so definitely up to something. I dug my heel's into the ground stubbornly but she only yanked harder causing me to falter and jog to get back in step. We preceded to the field where, Millie was right, the soccer heads were doing some drills. Forest spotted us as we walked down and jogged over to meet us at the edge of the field.

"Hi!" He greeted with an enthusiastic wave.

"Hi." I whispered timidly. I wouldn't meet his eyes.

"Hey Forest. We came to tell you that Cass here will go to the carnival with you tonight. Right Cass?"

"Umm..Yeah I'd like to." I chimed in, albeit meekly.

"Great, I'll pick you up at 6:00." He said before jogging back over to his impatient team mates. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I'd lived next to the guy for three years. The walk back to the cafeteria was painfully silent. Millie was scheming and I was thinking of all the ways this could go terribly wrong.

My already depleted attention span was non-existent throughout the rest of the day. I completely missed the lesson in two of my classes and struggled through the third. By the time the final bell rang I was lucky if I knew what my homework was yet alone how the heck I was supposed to do it. Mandy sat next to me on the bus and tried to strike up a conversation but gave up after five minutes of my silence and decided to talk to the person in the seat across from ours. I have no clue who it was.

6:00 came way to fast for my liking. Millie came over at 4:30 on the dot and forced me into a shower while she tore my room apart looking for an outfit. I ended up wearing a pair of black denim capri's with a silver belt and a blood red spaghetti strapped top with a white rose decal. We curled my onyx hair and put it in a loose ponytail with one section framing my face and I put on a barely there bit of make-up finishing with my silver locket that, in 4 years, I was never without. We wasted the last half hour talking and playing cards considering it was Friday and neither of us were suicidal enough to start on our insane amount of homework. I wouldn't have been able to focus on it if I tried. Millie abandoned me ten minutes before Forest showed up and I was left to wait nervously.

The next sound I heard was a terrifying, bone chilling, noise. That's right, it was the doorbell. I stood on trembling legs and did my best to walk over to the door, resisting the urge to hide in my room and pretend nobody was home. I gripped the knob and, taking a deep breath, I eased the door open. If I hadn't known better I would have sworn there was a male model standing on my stoop. The god like creature in front of me had on a pair of khaki colored border shorts coupled with a red button down left open over a white wife beater and a simple pair of white flip flops. Simple but on him it looked...wow. Great I was losing what limited vocabulary I possessed.

After I had finished ogling, which admittedly only took about thirty seconds, I swallowed the thick lump in my throat and mustered up a smile. I looked up and warned myself not to look in his eyes. Greener than green and always sparkling, they were a huge part of what made him so gorgeous.

"Hello." I greeted politely. He laughed and handed me a six flower bouquet of exquisite blood red roses.

"For you my dear. You look wonderful by the way." I could feel the blush creep into my cheeks as I mumbled thank you and invited him in before going in search of a vase. I grabbed one of my mom's vases from her under the sink collection and filled it halfway with water before setting the roses in it and placing it on the windowsill. I intended to move them to my room if the date went well and let them die if it didn't. The poor flowers lives depended on a guy. I felt bad for them.

I entered the living room only to see Forest silently appraising the pictures on the mantle which, unfortunately, were all of me at various ages. The curse of being an only child. He turned around after hearing the obnoxiously loud squeak of the floorboards as I walked into the living room.

"Ready?" He asked. I nodded and he smiled as we headed out the front door.

"So, I figured we could walk considering we only live about 3 blocks from the boardwalk. Is that ok with you?" He explained.

"Sounds Good." I agreed. We started down the street in an awkward silence. I wasn't sure what to say and from the look of things neither was he. Apparently he was more agitated by the silence than I was because he started somewhat awkwardly.

"So we've been neighbors for almost 3 years and I know nothing about you other than the fact that you have a lime green bike."

"There really isn't that much to know. I like to sketch and ride my bike. I'm a really strange person and the park and the beach are my safe haven's." I babbled. He laughed again. As pathetic as it sounds I really did love the sound of his laugh. It was smooth as glass and soft as silk instead of the deep rumble that most guys think sounds tough and manly. Newsflash, it sounds more like a landslide, and not appealing in the least.

"So what about you? What secrets make up the great Forest Emmerson?" I asked, more out of politeness than anything. I already knew more about him than his own parents probably did. I may not have mentioned this earlier but I have been in love with this guy since the day he moved in 3 years ago. Like I said before, I am just that pathetic.

"Not much to talk about there. I play soccer constantly, when I'm not doing that I'm a fair painter. I spend a good number of days surfing too. I've been called a surfer boy more times than I can count." He shrugged. He was more than a fair painter. He had a tendency to paint the landscape of his backyard and I had a tendency to stare at the painting while he left it to dry. Some of them were absolutely amazing.

"Your a great painter. I've seen some of the ones you've left outside to dry. They really are beautiful. I wouldn't classify you as a surfer boy though. Most of the ones I know are blondes that constantly smell like salt water and sea weed." I crinkled my nose remembering my few guy friends that surfed twenty-four seven. It didn't smell good at all. He really did have to stop laughing though or he was going to cause my already frazzled brain to explode.

"Well I'm glad you like my paintings. I'll have to bring over a few to show you, on the condition that you show me some of your sketches." He compromised. I grinned.

"Deal." I accepted shaking his hand somewhat awkwardly considering we were still walking down the street. He never said which sketches I had to show him and I knew there was an entire section of my notebook that would not be a good idea for him to see. I already knew that he surfed because I had about ten drawn from life sketches of him on his board in the bright Carolina sun.

With that we found ourselves at the boardwalk where a majority of our school's population was gathered around the game booths and food stands or spread out across the beach. I took a minute to observe the decoration's and was almost blinded by the amount of pink hearts and lace that covered everything from the stairs that led to the beach to the payphones spread up and down the pier. I had to hand it to our committees, when they did something they went all out.

"Well umm...It's...very...classic." I commented, trying vainly to hide my slight disgust.

"Classic. I suppose that's the nice way to put it. I may have to talk to Tanz about the level of pink they use at these things." He replied, obviously as weirded out by the pink as I was.

"And just what is wrong with pink?" An angry voice demanded from behind us. We turned around and came face to face with Forest's senior, supermodel of a sister.

"He-he. Hi Tanzie. We were just admiring your lovely decorations." Forest appeased. She gave him a look that plainly said, 'I'll deal with you later' and set her sights on me.

"Cassie dear, wonderful to see you." She cooed sweeping me into a delicate hug. I may have had problems talking to Forest but me and Tanzie were the best of friends. She helped me survive freshman year and in turn I kept her from failing math. It was a match made in heaven and all it required on my part was use of my exceptional math skills.

"Hey Tanz. You look great and so does the pier. It must have taken forever to set all of this up. You know if you had asked I would have been more than happy to help." I gushed. I admit, adding the last part was more to spite Forest because I knew I was off the hook and he'd get an earful later for his oh-so-wonderful comments on Tanzie's hard work. The death glare he sent made it hard to contain my laughter.

"Thank you Cass. You are so sweet. Unlike some ungrateful little brothers of mine. I would much rather have you as a sister." She said venomously emphasizing the little part. She may have only been a year older than us but she used it to her advantage.

"You'd love that wouldn't you Tanz. Someone to be your own personal barbie." Forest teased. Tanzie huffed and walked off ignoring her brother but turning to wave back at me. I grinned. Tanzie was just so easy to love.

"Well now that you've succeeded in getting me in trouble what do you say we look for something to eat?" He suggested.

"Alright." I agreed. And so we were off. We walked along the boardwalk looking at the different booths and games. I loved looking at the different games and prizes. It reminded me of the fair my parents took me to when I was little. We walked by a throwing game where one of the prizes was an adorable teddy bear with a red ribbon around his neck. I made the mistake of slowing a little and let loose a soft 'awww' at the little stuffed creature. The next thing I knew Forest had handed the man at the booth two dollars and had a baseball in his hand. With deadly accuracy he threw a perfect pitch at the poor, defenseless, fake, milk bottles and the scattered all over the booth. The man looked at Forest and asked him which prize he would like. Forest pointed at the tiny brown bear I had been looking at before and the man took the animal of of the chain and handed him over.

"For you." Forest stated presenting me the bear. I took it from him carefully. My date was getting dangerously close to cliche level.

"You didn't have to you know." I somewhat whispered.

"I know." He shrugged. I think I blushed again but I quit talking for fear of saying something stupid in light of my embarrassment. I guess we were still on our search for food and fun so we continued walking in a silence that wasn't exactly awkward but wasn't the at ease silence you hear about.

We walked a little longer before my nose was assaulted with the most amazing smell. I veered off the path we had been taking without thinking and was led in the direction of the sugary sweet I smelled. I think Forest followed me but I didn't really care at that particular moment. I was on a mission and nothing was going to stop me from the delicious treat I knew was there. Finally I found the stand. The man that was manning the stand was in an old time red and white pin stripe costume complete with the flat straw looking hat. He was leaning over a large tub which was certainly not authentic but looked like it was working just as well. In the metal drum were the spindle sticky fibers of pink sugar that made up my favorite treat, homemade cotton candy. Again, before I could register what was happening, Forest had handed the salesman three dollars and was being handed back a paper cone topped with a pillow of pink. I almost groaned when he handed the sticky concoction to me.

"You have to stop buying me stuff. We've passed into cliche zone." I demanded.

"What's wrong with living a cliche? The people in cliche's are happy, well in most of them anyways." He retorted. I sighed and abandoned the argument letting Forest believe he'd won.

I chose instead to munch on my treat and inspect the surrounding area now that we were stopped. Let's see, couple, couple, booth, food stand, Anthea hiding behind a pole, gam...hold up. I glanced back at the pole and blinked. Sure enough there was Anthea decked in all black with a baseball cap and sunglasses to boot. If she was there the rest were bound to be close by. I searched a bit and found another black figure that looked suspiciously like Mandy hiding behind a payphone. I located the mastermind next. Millie was crouched behind a bench and looked like she was begging Cathleen to hide with her. Cathleen however was sitting on the bench in normal clothes throwing exasperated looks at our strange friends. She met my eyes and shot me a sympathetic look before returning her attention to the annoyance on the ground. I took another look at the pathetic spies. Oh lord, if these were the next Charlie's Angels we were all screwed. Apparently Forest noticed where my attention had been directed.

"Are those..." He started but I cut him off.

"Yes." I snapped.

"Wow." He whispered ignoring my apparent anger. He didn't souund surprised just confused. I silently counted to ten and then turned to him with a sickeningly sweet smile.

"Do you want to go for a walk on the beach?" I asked. He looked confused but my pleading stare made him nod his head in agreement. As we headed for the stairs I offered him some of my half finished treat. He looked skeptical but a pair of well placed puppy dog eyes made him pluck a piece off the cone and pop it in his mouth. As we hit the beach he snatched another piece of my favorite treat and ate it.

"Not bad." He said honestly. I accepted his opinion but silently vowed to make sure he changed his mind from 'not bad' to 'absolutely amazing'.

"Ok, so what do you know that I don't? Why weren't you more surprised that my friends were here and acting like they escaped from a mental hospital?" I questioned. He looked like he was going to feed me some 'I have no clue what your talking about' bull but decided against it.

"I went to talk to Millie to see if it would be a good idea to ask you out. She told me to go ahead but wouldn't say more than that. Then today she showed up at my house at quarter after four and gave me this spiel about how I better not hurt you and they would be watching. I understand the watching part now." He explained. If I hadn't looked in his eyes I would have thought he was completely fine with admitting this but his eyes showed the shame and embarrassment he felt at being caught.

"You shouldn't have asked her first but it's ok. I mad at them though. They shouldn't have followed us." I fumed.

"You know they just want to keep you safe. They're really protective of you. They may have taken the whole spy thing a little far though." He said pointing up the beach where four figures were trying to hide behind a beach umbrella someone left in the sand. I sighed again and almost let the subject drop but I was still curious about one thing.

"Why did you go to Millie? You couldn't have been afraid of me saying no." He blushed.

"I was though. I wasn't sure I could handle you laughing in my face when I asked you and I figured if anyone would know how you'd react it would be one of your best friends. The truth is I've liked you for the past two and a half years." He confessed.

I stopped dead in my tracks and he came to a halt beside me. My thoughts were going a mile a minute. Part of me wanted to scream 'Finally' at the top of my lungs. The other more cautious part of me was saying that it couldn't be true. He couldn't possibly have liked me for that long. However it was the third part of me that overrode all other thought's and feelings. This part of me was saying 'Just kiss him damnit!', so I did.

I stood on my toes to get as much of a height advantage as possible and I pressed my lips firmly to his. He hesitated a fraction of a second before he kissed me back. It was an amazing feeling. We only pulled away when air became a necessity.

"If you didn't catch the hint, I like you too. I have since you moved in three years ago." I explained. He laughed and kissed me again. I was thinking to much again but one particular thought stood out this time. He tasted like cotton candy. I love cotton candy.