Him and Me.

Him and Me- Forty Three.

“I knew you were going to succumb to the power of my leaves,” Colby boasted, turning his head slightly to smirk at me.

Despite the humming of my heart due to his close proximity and his handsomeness, I rolled my eyes. “You were cheating every step of the way,” I pointed out.

As we collided against the leaves earlier in the afternoon, Colby announced the great leaf fight. I was an expert in this game, and I was going to clobber Colby at it, but then he had always wrapped his arms around me and threw leaves at my face whenever I got the advantage over him. I sure enjoyed the feeling of being wrapped up in his arms, and I was sure that my face burned a thousand times during the fight, but he still cheated. He took pride of cheating me at a game I so dearly love and kick ass at.

“Was not,” he countered, returning his gaze at the night sky. “All my moves were perfectly legal.”

I huffed. “Yeah, right.”

“Stop being a sore loser.”

That was the last straw. I reached over to punch Colby on his shoulder, but he was able to catch my fist with his hand. My skin tingled where his palm met my knuckles, and when his hand enclosed mine, the warmth that enveloped my body felt good, comforting and familiar. Our eyes met, and I was thrown momentarily back to earlier today, when Colby almost kissed me. My cheeks grew red hot then, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away from his even if I tried, and even as thousands of questions raged inside my brain.

His eyes were like magnets, pulling me under, closer and I couldn’t fight the attraction, whether I liked it or not.

Colby blinked, and a slow smile spread across his face. It was beautiful.

“Gotcha,” he whispered.

I almost melted right there.

Clearing my throat, I whispered back, “You’ve learned.”

He chuckled lightly. “Considering how many times you’ve punched me, it’s about damn time I do.”

Colby still hadn’t let go of my hand, and it was leaving a trail of quivers up and down my arms. We stayed like that for a while, until I finally managed to avert my eyes.

At that moment, Colby cleared his throat, making me raise my gaze up to him again. I could sense his hesitance, the usual glow and confidence in his eyes were dimmed. He looked down at the grass between us, slowly bringing our hands down on the ground before glancing back at me. His mouth opened but he closed it immediately, seemingly trying to find the right words to say. The grip he hand on my hand tightened, and then he spoke.

The whole time, I was holding my breath.

“Kayla, what happened earlier…” His voice trailed off. He cleared his throat again as I prayed for him to not continue, whatever he was planning to say. I would’ve interrupted, but my tongue felt like sandpaper.

Colby then continued, full of hesitance and uncertainty as he spoke, “I don’t really know what to say, but I’m sorry about that and I didn’t me—,”

“It’s okay,” I interrupted, surprising myself in the process. I had no idea how I managed to speak, given that it seemed like every part of my body was frozen on the spot. Colby raised his eyebrows at me, his face taking on a somewhat a hopeful mixed with nervous expression. I took a long, deep breath.

“I understand,” I continued, finally tearing my eyes away from his, finding a leaf wedged between us. “I just wanted to annoy Matty, that was why I said what I said, and we were just both caught up in the moment, that’s all. No big deal.”