GOLDEN MOUTH

COTTON CANDY

"look!"

in the cafeteria where she used to admire jagger from afar, he walked up to her, test paper in hand with a cheeky smile on his face before slapping the paper down onto the table where she sat, arms outstretched in awaited praise.

tawny examined the letter grade: B-.

she was tutoring him four days out of the week for about a month now. the whole experience was still surreal to her but she was slowly but surely getting a bit more comfortable sharing the same space as her crush. he made it really easy to relax around him since he was actually funny and adventurous, often sharing crazy stories from his childhood, especially the summers he spent traveling to and from his parent's hometown in Greece.

her secret obsession was when he would show her his latest surfing or skating videos, or how full of life he was when explaining what a perfect wave or perfect sunset looked like to him. that was surprising. she never thought of him as being poetic but when he started to go on about something he was passionate about, he had a special way with words.

"trigonometry was kicking my ass but i'm a fucking genius now," every tooth on display, "and it's all thanks to you."

he didn't realize how much of a scene he was causing, the dichotomy between his table and hers in the cafe was stark, there were no paths that lead to hers and vice versa. so for jagger to have made an effort, for him to have bypassed cliques and exes and nerds and jocks and make a beeline for her table made her blush awfully.

others were observing the conundrum. a few evil eyes were being thrown her way.

"congratulations," tawny stood up and gave a small clap and quiet whoop, cheering him on.

his arms remained outstretched as if that wasn't enough.

"c'mere, t!" jagger wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled tawny in for one of his all-encompassing, impossibly warm hugs. he nuzzled his face against hers, "you know i'm a hugger and you're just gonna have to get used to that."

the gesture was truly innocent but the press of his body against hers and the way he just spoke into her ear like that...she could've groaned.

with school, tutoring, and a boring job at a department store that she could care less about, the days seemed to go by. she'd wake up, get ready, and proceed to fulfill her duties. the most interesting part of her day was seeing jagger and as she wasn't wasting anymore time with her matches on tindr, by default, he was the only interaction of any sort of intimacy from the opposite sex.

and speaking of sex...

it had to be at least two months, three at the most that she'd had it. and she didn't care what anyone said, a toy could never compare to the real thing. she was pent up, bound to a strike she never agreed to in the first place so any touch felt like a lot more. especially from him. she was highly sensitive and jagger's little random bouts of friendly affection just weren't helping when he felt so strong and... right... against her.

tawny put her hands up to his chest to get some much needed space.

jagger winked at her.

when she sat back down, so did he, nudging her shoulder playfully. "i can't wait to break you out of your shell." he said.

"you think you can do that?"

"i think so, actually." he gave a half-smile at her challenging tone. "a hard exterior because you're cotton candy soft on the inside."

"out of all things, cotton candy?"

he shrugged. "it's pink, tastes sweet. melts in your mouth."

she bit back a giggle. "you are so..."