Her capered response in return left him feeling winded, no words present. Only settling dust, left after his train of thought had seemingly taken off without him: an unpronounced feeling. He hadn’t been joking, but he kind-of had been, but now she was joking, completely and unadulterated, and he felt the sting of wishing regretfully that he could’ve been completely trivial. That his feelings could’ve been completely trivial on the matter, but the matter of fact was that he’d been thinking so adamantly about asking her to be his the past few days, it had slipped out in a lapse. He was left stranded. Stuck between a clause and a phrase, and he suddenly felt a little gawky, which he never felt. He was, for a few seconds, minimized and reversed back to the fourteen-year-old boy asking out the junior he became, and along with the brief and suppressed feeling came ornaments of distress that he’d ruined it all. It showed on his face, the minor self-disappointment, as he looked down and as his brows knotted. His lips moved as if he were about to say something but nothing came. Lamely, the connotation of her words left him feeling like he was balancing along a tightrope, one side rejection, the other praise. The flowers in his hands lightly limped as he thought of a response that didn’t deepen the fumbling any more than it needed to.
Her hand on his arm spoke in large measures, and he looked up as she touched him to see that her normally light cheeks at turned pink; her top row of teeth, straight and ivory had found a resting place in her bottom lip. She looked like she was about to apologize, and he tilted his head to the side, still close enough to her to easily and readily count the lashes on her eyes. He expected to have her tell him it was too soon, and he was ready to agree, and though he’d never exactly been faced with this level of rebuff he was more than willing to wait for her. But that wasn’t what happened. She grew earnest, perhaps even solemn, but closer, her hues lifted, her rounded eyes accentuated with the seventy-degree tilt of her head. If he weren’t so hung up on what she was about to say about the ineptness of the past forty-five seconds he would’ve inspected her lips with care only an artist had while composing his craft. Her smile. ‘Your girlfriend’. She meant it but she didn’t seem appeased, but he was. Enough so to sigh and glance away complacently, a smirk forming on his lips, “Sorry.” He apologized, half-lamely, and it would be the last pitiful move he’d make, “I really wanted this to be more special,” He admitted, finding her eyes again, and he couldn’t help but smile at the sight, “I mean, this sounds kinda sappy but I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. How I was gonna ask you tonight, but now, I guess–…” He glanced around to see no one in sight, his plans obviously foiled but he wasn’t deterred, “… Will you,” The male’s head slightly cocked to the side, and he paused, inspecting her face, realizing the groundwork he felt was laying didn’t feel quite in tune. He began to grin, slow and comfortable, “––do you wanna be my girlfriend, Chandler?”
He felt punch-drunk and alive and he realized then he was nervous. A first for him, or at least since he’d turned eighteen and moved away and become a new person–– a better person. A grown person. A man. And he felt no shame at discovering a woman could make him weak at the knees, as long as it was the right one, and she felt just right. Garrett got closer, his eyes falling over her body, languidly before they scraped back up. Her eyes, a sweet demise, she had his attention. And he watched, just as her expression began to change and brighten and he wanted to kiss her now, again. Deeply and profoundly and he could not wait to see what the late evening would have in store; what she would have in store for him.
She watched his expression change in concourse as she spoke, at first it seemed to be unclear how he was taking her words and then she saw the disappointment settle in, but only briefly. In the time she knew the brunette she learned his eyes were a window to his emotions and when the feelings were unpleasant they showed solely through his azure hues, but you had to catch the evocative display quick because as soon as he realized it was showing it was gone. She redeemed herself, though, with her touch and her statement that followed. Girlfriend. The word left her lips burning as if it was something she was keeping a secret and shouldn’t had said out loud. His countenance softened to silk and she had the urge to move her hand up to it, she wanted to watch him melt more from her touch, her fingers wanted to touch his lips as if to remember exactly how they felt in this exact moment, but then he started to apologized and she pushed the impulse back. Her brows furrowed in confusion, she wasn’t sure why he was apologizing, she didn’t want him to. As he continued her face relaxed into more of an understanding, into a realization; He was nervous. He had been thinking about how to ask her. She found it endearing. He was continuing to make her feel special in a way that she had never felt before, in a way that no one had ever even got close to doing. She wasn’t sure what she was feeling but she knew it had to be close to pure and utter bliss, something you’d only feel when you were at complete peace and in heaven.
‘ —do you wanna be my girlfriend, Chandler? ’ It was almost like she hadn’t just called herself his girlfriend because now her stomach was in knots and a toothy grin found her face, one that made her feel silly for showing. Words couldn’t find her voice so she started nodding briskly, her hand squeezing his arm, “ Yeah... ” She trailed fleetingly as her eyes found his, “ Yes, of course. I mean obviously. ” Almost as soon as the words left her mouth her hands slid up around his neck and she pushed up on the ball of her feet to initiate a hug. She squeezed tightly bringing her chest to press against his and the feeling of his arms around her torso brought an instant sensation of warmth and safeness. She released herself, her arms hanging limply around his neck, and her gaze still on him. “ I’m so happy. ” It was a phrase she was saying a lot lately, more than she was used to and it was merited to her, now, boyfriend. Her hands broke their cusp and lightly trailed to the corners of his jaw, right below his ear. Her thumbs rubbed gently against his cheek and even though there were dozens of their pupils pushing through crowds around them all she could hear was silence. A comfortable silence. She pushed back on her toes again, her lips resting on his only for a second before her eyes closed and they interlocked.
