Flowers and Pop Rocks

06

p o p p y

Blake stared at me when he heard my interesting reply.

It didn't only surprise him. I was shocked by my boldness too.

"Oh my God, why did I say that?" I buried my face in my hands, not wanting to be embarrassed even further.

He started to laugh and pulled me into his arms, embracing me and allowing me to hide my face in his chest.

"You're really something else, Flower."

"Why'd you ask me in the first place?" I questioned. "I won't lie, I really thought you were gonna kiss Angel, not me."

"Seriously?" the disbelief was evident in his voice, and I could almost imagine the face he was making.

I pulled my face off of his chest and looked at him slowly.

"Yeah, why? You're considering it now, aren't you? I knew you should've gone with her. I usually don't get stuff like that wrong. She's always been the more attractive cousin. Now you prob—"

"Whoa, whoa," Blake stopped me from going on a tangent. "Flower, relax."

"All I'm saying is you probably regret it, don't you?" I mumbled. "I don't even know why I just kissed you like that."

He watched my sullen expression before attempting to give me a heart attack. His soft lips were on mine like they were earlier, moving slowly and waiting for me to do something.

The kiss was mind-numbing and even more amazing now that I knew we weren't being watched by everyone. My knees almost gave out under me, but he thankfully grabbed hold of my waist and kept me from falling.

"Proof enough that I don't regret it?" 

I didn't know how he had that much confidence. I needed to ask if he was giving classes on that.

"Wh—I just—yeah," I was stumbling with my words, not able to form coherent sentences.

My ex needed to take notes on how to get girls flustered like this. He really needed them.

"You're adorable, Flower," he threw his arm over my shoulder and pulled me to sit on the bed with him. "So, twenty five blocks, huh? My little prodigy."

I cracked a smile and rolled my eyes. "Yeah, mostly thanks to you. I'm not sure how many I have exactly, but it's around that."

"Let's count how many," he suggested. "I wanna see how many I have too."

We both brought out our boxes and started counting.

"Twenty four, you?"

He finished counting the blocks he had and looked up at me. "Give me your best guess."

"You had like twenty yesterday, so if you found the same amount today, I don't know, maybe forty?" I tried.

"No, but close," he affirmed. "Thirty seven."

"How do you find so much?" I wondered.

Blake shrugged, shutting his box and moving to lay on his back.

"Their hiding spots are kind of predictable. They're not hidden so much, you just have to be really observant. Mostly around wood because the blocks blend in."

I never realized it, but he was right. The blocks I did find were mostly hidden in plain sight or stuffed into places you'd expect.

"What happens when we leave? You know, like when we get out of here tomorrow," I asked, changing the topic randomly. It was a question running through my mind the whole day.