"Hey," I said. I walked onto the boardwalk and spotted Andre. He looked cuter then ever in his jeans and sweatshirt.
I was glad I hadn't listened to Jessica and Megan's fashion obsession rants about how I had to look really nice. Instead, I put on a pair of skinny jeans, a white shirt, and flannel. I merely threw my hair in a pony tail because having it down annoyed the hell out of me.
We planned on just catching up on the past couple years and then maybe getting pizza at the place next to the boardwalk.
"Hey, Corrine," Andre smiled.
Shit I'm so awkward about starting conversations.
"So how's your Saturday been?" Andre asked. So he's no better at it.
"Pretty good. Just trying to make a dent in my homework. Which I can't say I've been very productive in doing," I said.
"Same. I don't know why teachers think weekend homework is nice."
"I know right? I miss middle school where they rarely did that," I said. Good. Bring up old times; it's a common ground.
"Seriously," Andre agreed. We talked a while longer and I surprisingly didn't say anything stupid. I said goodbye and instantly let out a happy giggle when I reached my car. Oh he's so cute.
Next Tuesday at my volleyball game, Andre was there. I was kind of confused because I wasn't playing his school.
I tried to not focus on him and keep my attention on the game, though.
We had the serve and Jessica was up. She tossed the ball up and went for a jump serve. It landed deep and their backrow players got it up. It was sent to their setter, who set it off to their outside hitter.
"Watch outside!" I called. Our middle and outside blockers went up and just barely were able to slow the balls momentum.
"Touch!" Avery, our middle blocker called.
"Got it!" I called as it fell near me. I passed it to Megan and she sent it back over the other side.
The game went by fast and our team won one set and the other side took the other set. We were now on our third set, the tie breaker, and I was receiving a servers ball. I got it to our setter, Grace.
"You got me on hit!" I yelled and so did Avery. We were both ready for it and not the setter dump Grace pulled.
"Yeah!" We cheered when we got the point. We won the game and I ran up to Andre after.
"Hey. What are you doing here?" I asked.
"Just came to see one of my good friends," Andre shrugged, "You did great."
"Thanks," I smiled.
"I've gotta go, but I'll see you later," Andre smiled nervously and walked away quickly.
"Okay that was weird," I said aloud to myself. It's almost like he ran away. I shrugged anyway and went to hang with my friends.
Andre and I hung out a ton more over the next few months. I started making time to go back to the youth group I had gone to in middle school with my friends at the local church. We were in the high school group now, obviously, but it felt so amazing to see my friends again from middle school.
I never knew why I had stopped coming; things just got to busy I guess-but I always had a blast when I went.
Also, another plus to all this was I saw Andre more.
We didn't talk much during youth group, but we did occasionally glance at each other, shooting a smile when eye contact was made.
"Corrine, you with us?" One of my middle school friends, Lindsey, waved her hands in front of my face.
"Yeah, of course," I nodded and focused back in on their discussion about how their school was. The school I didn't go to and the only reason I cared about it was because, well, Andre went there.
"Hey, Corrine. Want to hang out tomorrow?" Andre asked, running up to me as I was leaving.
"Yeah sure. Let me just check with my parents, but text me and we can figure something out," I nodded.
"Cool. See you later," He waved.
"Bye," I got into my car and drove off, listening to music that made me feel like the main character in a teen romance movie.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"So what do you wanna do?" I asked Andre the next day, Saturday.
"I don't know. I didn't really think about that. I kinda just wanted to hang out," Andre rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.
"Okay. Well, what if we got ice cream at the boardwalk. That's always a great idea," I recommended.
"Don't we always do that?" Andre asked.
"Yeah, but it's my only idea," I shrugged.
"Okay, I'm down." We drove to the ice cream shop by the boardwalk and ordered our ice cream.
"So delicious," I muttered, taking in the taste of the raseberry truffle ice cream.
"Yeah," Andre agreed.
We talked while we ate and then longer after. The sun was high in the sky, showing it was about 1-ish. We had been here for an hour already.
The taste of ice cream was long gone and I just chilled on the bench, enjoying Andre's company.
"Come on, let's go to the park," Andre said, helping me up.
"Sure," I shrugged. We walked silently down the boardwalk until we reached the park.
There wasn't much there other then the monkey bars, four swings, and benches, but it was still one of my favorite places to go in the summers when I was a young kid.
We both hopped onto a swing. We were swinging in time for a while, and talked the whole time.
We did that a lot. Just talk. It was calming and peaceful in a way.
After we did that, we just walked some more.
"Corrine can I ask you something?" Andre asked suddenly.
"Sure, what's up?" I told him.
"Why do you hang out with me?" The question was abrupt and I was caught off guard.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Well, I'm so lame. I don't see myself as a great person. You're such a great person and you one hundred percent deserve a friend way better then me..." He kept rambling on and on about how stupid and what an awful person he was. Finally I got fed up with it an decided he needed to be stopped.
I grabbed onto his t-shirt in a quick movement and pulled my lips to his. It was a dream come true, only both of us were in to much shock by my actions to actually kiss.
I pulled back abruptly.
"I'm sorry. That was uncalled for. I shouldn't have. I just got tired of you rambling about how 'bad you are', and I wanted you to stop. I'm sorry. I should go," I said, my face felt like someone set a torch to it. I turned to walk away, but only made it a few steps before I felt my wrist being grabbed.
My arm was tugged slightly and I whipped back around, crashing into Andre. I was pressed against his chest, my arms crammed in between both of our bodies.
"Not so fast," He said, calm now, "Don't you know it's the guy who's supposed to initiate the first kiss?"
I relaxed a tiny bit and got the courage to reply, "Well better luck to you next time." It didn't come out as confident as I wanted it to, but he got the point.
He leaned down and our lips met again, softly but with passion. His hands tangled through my hair and he rested his one hand on the back of my neck, pulling me closer. I kept my hands wrapped around his neck, not backing down from him, but standing on my toes. Eventually though, the oxygen faded and we pulled away, desperate for air.
"Gosh I was waiting to do that for so long," Andre chuckled, a blush coming through his dark skin.
I blushed as well, "How long have you been waiting?" I asked him, still pressed against his chest.
"A few months. Since I saw you again," Andre smiled.
"Ha I beat you to it. I've been waiting since eigth gr-" I was cut off my me getting kissed again.
"Sorry," Andre smiled sheepishly, "I had to. When you get all competitive it's just so cute."
"Eh, no problem," I smirked.
"Oh stop you still look really cute," Andre muttered. I laughed and he joined in. Hand-in-hand, we made our way back to our cars, taking our time, savoring each passing second.
