under the magnolia tree - dreamwastaken x oc

chapter 6 - fireflies

We played a few more songs before pulling into the neighborhood. We grabbed the bags talking and laughing while we walked through the back garage door.

-

"What are you two giggling about so much." My mom said confused but happy.

I told her what we did in the car and she told us it was good that we were bonding. I put all the things we bought away leaving the gushers in a secret compartment in my car. I left all the food we got for tonight out and we got everything ready.

We made sandwiches and sat outside for dinner tonight. We had torches on each corner of our octagon shaped deck and my mom lit each on so there was light. The sky was getting dark but it was still light outside. We all ate having a fun time and just talking about me and Clay as young kids.

We used paper plates so we didn't have dishes to clean so It was pretty easy to clean up after. My sister pointed out something outside and we all looked. She didn't know what it was and dragged me over Clay following behind me.

It was fireflies. Our yard was pretty long and they were closer to the forest behind our house and I told her we should go catch them. I then remembered I had a mason jar in my room specifically meant for catching fireflies. My dad made it for me.

I grabbed it from the box way back on the top of my closet shelf. The box with all the things my dad made or gave me before he became the guy he is now. I ran back downstairs and told her to go catch them. My phone was connected through the speakers in the house and I didn't like the song that was playing so I skipped it. One of my favorite songs started playing next.

Saturday Nights - Khalid

Clay was leaning on the sliding glass door watching our sisters play in the night with the fireflies. I went past him nudging him telling him to come and go with us.

"Nah it's not my thing." He said

"Stop being such a party pooper and get over here."

I grabbed his hand and dragged him over to the end of our yard.

~

I kept thinking about our car ride back home. Us singing and blasting music not giving a care in the world with the windows down. Her hair was everywhere and messy. She didn't like it but I thought no matter what it was amazing.

We got home laughing and her mom asked her why we were laughing and we just explained we talked about the things we membered as children and how crazy we were while we blasted music.

We had dinner and picked up and then our sisters found something in her backyard. It was fireflies. I didn't want to go with them I just liked to watch them. My sister never had looked so happy in her life. With her crazy bad anxiety life was hard and I tried my best to be a good brother but it was hard. She's not good with feelings which reminded me of George. They are similar but so different.

Alyssa asked me to come with her so we could catch fireflies too. I didn't want to because I thought it was quite childish but then I felt her grab my hand. I got so nervous and my heart started racing. Why was I feeling this way? Maybe it was cause I just haven't seen her in so long? I mean I liked her when we were young but I thought that faded away.

I brushed it off and followed her. She still holding my hand. We got there and all we could see was small lime green lights light up and then go black. It was actually kind of cool I have to admit. I looked at her and I was in awe. She was flawless. Every part of her. Her brown eyes glowed from the light of the bugs and in that moment all I could think about is her lips on mine.

Get out of your head

She doesn't want you.

Why are you thinking like this?

It didn't make sense to me. What was going on?

~

After I finally dragged Clay out I politely asked for the jar from my sister. She knows stuff from our dad pre-alcoholic was really important to me so she gave it to me very carefully not dropping it even though it would've dropped on the grass. 

"Gotcha," I said catching a firefly in the jar.

Clay giggled and I looked at him and smiled. And then he told me to stop and not move. He looked scared. I got very nervous. He slowly got closer to me and then walked behind me. I felt his finger on my hair and then he told me to turn around. He held out his finger and there it was. A glowing firefly. We were very close to each other maybe about 5 inches in between us. I looked at him and he looked at me and I opened the jar and he put the bug in there. It's like he knew what I was thinking. Just like when we were little.

After about 5 minutes we all walked inside. I released the two bugs from the jar letting them fly free. We all walked inside the parents having wine glasses in their hand a little tipsy. My mom had disconnected my phone from the speakers playing her own music and our sisters went downstairs because my sister had just started cheer and wanted to show Annika her skills. I wanted to get away from my parents so I decided to show Clay my room. 

I unlocked the door with my nail and he walked in and his eyes lit up. I connect my phone to the speaker in my room playing my calm playlist. I had led lights but I also had fairy lights and tonight I had my fairy lights on. I had all my sunglasses and my real glasses on my dresser. My fairy lights hung around my window and dripped down behind the head of my bed. I had a queen-sized bed with gray comforters to match my gray room. My closet was open so I just decided to put the jar back and close my door. His eyes were caught though. He stopped me from closing my closet door. He saw the sparkly red dress I had in my closet.

"What's that for," He said.

I told him it's for an important event. I don't know what event but it was for one. I closed my sliding closet door and moved on. By this point, he was looking at my jewelry tree. I had all my bracelets and necklaces. The clear glass tree had a little plate with my rings on it as well. It was on my vanity. My vanity was pearly white. He then looked at my window and commented on how pretty it was.

"The moonlight comes right through your window. It's beautiful." He said with passion.

"Watch this," I told him.

I grabbed my big fluffy bean bag from my closet and also grabbed my remote turning off my fairy lights. It was dark in my room but became lit up by only the moonlight. I told him to sit on the bean bag and just watch the moon. We sat there talking for about 5 minutes and it was calm.

Anchor - Novo Amor

Another one of my favorite songs started to play as we were still talking. At this point, I had both hands under my head looking at Clay while he was talking to me a little bit about his career. He could tell I was getting sleepy but didn't say anything. I felt like he wanted me to fall asleep which is why he kept talking. He copied me and did the exact same thing I was doing, hands under his head looking right at me.

The tension was weird. I was nervous and tired and calm. Clay nudged himself closer towards me and I readjusted myself which caused us to get even closer. And soon enough he was going in for a kiss. and so was I. We got at least 2 inches from each other before we heard his mom calling for him.

He looked away and I backed away while he wasn't looking. He told me we should hang again soon and gave me his number because I didn't have it before. He got up and I got up with him. We walked downstairs and our families said bye once again. He walked out the door giving me one last wave before shutting the door.

What was that?

Did we seriously almost kiss?

He's my best friend why do I want to?

Does that mean he feels the same?

All the thoughts came back. I went back upstairs locking my door behind me too tired to change into comfy clothes.