"What's wrong with you?" I asked, finally tired with his annoying stares.
"What's your deal with Lucas?" He asked back, gritting his teeth.
Geez what's wrong with this human? He must have traded his brains for his looks.
"And why do you care?" I ask...
"What are you guys doing?" a voice calls out to Nora and me from our surveillance. We look up to see Lucas with two cute girls who look around six or seven years old. The little girls looked at Nora and me as if we were aliens and once I looked up I saw Lucas's amused smile that made my cheeks heat up from embarrassment. Well, of course, he would laugh when he saw some grown-ass teenage girls crouched and hiding behind garbage cans with binoculars in their hands. Nora nudged me on the shoulders and whispered "I told you that it would have been better to go with disguises". She wasn't wrong, but the amount of time we had after Edward came to pick Laura up was little so we had to improvise.
We slowly stood up only to duck back down again when we saw Edward turning in our direction. He saw Lucas and just nodded in greeting before turning back to Laura.
Nora and I rose ever so slightly to check if there was any chance of us being caught again. When we saw that the love-struck boy's attention was only on our fair Laura were we at ease to rise.
Lucas was busy holding his laugh and the little girls next to him started to discuss with their eyes. "It's not what it looks like" Nora started but was cut off by Lucas "Suuure then, please I'm genuinely intrigued as to why you were spying on the couple. I want in on the action" He says, arms crossing against his chest.
Nora and I exchanged glances before I took a breath. "It's nothing" I said putting the binoculars in my bag. "Uh huh," Lucas remarked, and before he could give us a side eye Nora chimed. "It's for a story I'm writing," she says, making me whip my head towards her. She gave me a slight side glance before continuing. "I'm writing a romantic story but I need inspiration so when my brother asked Laura out I thought it would be a good opportunity to go and get some ideas. Laura already knows but there's no way I'm telling Edward. He'd be so stiff that poor Laura might as well be going out with wood." Damn, I would be handing her the award for the best liar with a poker face right now. I wouldn't be able to say anything in such a situation but she managed properly and I just nodded in agreement.
Lucas seems to be satisfied with her answer before the twin starts dragging his hand. "We want to go in the bumper cars" At those words he seemed to pale and then blew out air. "Crystal and Nora these are Ada and Ava" he says gesturing to the little girls "One of my mom's friends asked me to babysit while she attends a meeting."
"Don't they have a nanny?" Nora asks and he just nods. "Yeah they do, but their mother has been suspicious of the nanny for a while and frankly trusts me over her," he says, giving us a sheepish grin.
The kids become impatient and soon start dragging his hand again. Lucas lets out a sigh before agreeing with them. Before he could say goodbye, I called after him "Yeah?" he asked. "Well, how about I go with the girls and you and Nora can go together and get some inspiration?"
Nora casts me an unreadable look before turning away. "Uh um... You don't have to" he says. "It's fine I can handle some kids for a while," I say and Lucas seemed to consider it for a moment before a smile took on his handsome face. "thanks, Crystal."
~~~~~~~
"Again!" the girls exclaim and I let out a small chuckle but I've already told you the story three times. "We don't care," they say and I sigh. I look up at the sky hoping that Lucas and Nora would return soon. The sun was slowly starting to set. It was fun letting the girls let out some energy, they almost didn't notice me watching them and ran around.
Under the tree, I felt the rustling of some leaves and thought it was the wind but by the direction of the wind, I looked up and a yelp almost leaped out of my throat.
I looked up to see Ben lying on one of the branches. It looked like he was sleeping, which is dumb cause unless he wants a broken skull he wouldn't be up there. Ada looked up and started to laugh as she pointed up. Ava sees where she's pointing and joins in, their laughter is so contagious that I can't help laughing with them.
This causes Ben to stir and curse under his breath, when he looks down his eyes widen in surprise to see this. "Aww, I was hoping for Crystal to give the sleeping handsome a kiss to wake up" Ava whines, causing both Ben and I to snap our heads to her. Ada chuckles "Yeah, like in Crystal's story".
Ben snaps his head to me "What are they talking about?!". I give a nervous chuckle "I kind of gave them a remix version of Sleeping Beauty" I say. Ben jumps down, like literally 'Break your bones and cry uncle while you're on your way to being crippled for the rest of your life' jump. I stare at him dumbfounded as he just dusted himself as if he just had dust and not a chance to have a wheelchair.
"Again," the girl says in unison, wanting to see Ben do something dumb again. "No," I say "Not again" and they whine meanwhile I thought I heard a chuckle coming from Ben but when I looked at him again his face was back to being poker.
"Do you enjoy danger?" I ask and he gives me a 'what are you talking about look'. I point up "And besides that anywhere I see you it's like you're having tea and crumpets with the Grim Reaper before you both walk into the sunset". Amusement litters across his eyes before he looks at the kids and then back at me. "Yes and no" he says and I wait for him to elaborate but he doesn't.
"Crystal, we want to ride the Ferris wheel" the girls say while they start to drag my hand "I'm sorry, but I'm not eighteen yet". I say giving them my best 'sorry' look.
"It's okay" Ben starts and the girls immediately turn to him. "I've been told that I looked older than my age and besides it seems like it's going to be late soon, they wouldn't care who goes in at that point"
The girls give me their best puppy dog eyes. I just sigh "Fine" and the girls start to dance and sing 'Hurray' as we start walking in the direction of the Ferris wheel. "Thanks," I tell Ben and he just nods and continues.
By the time we got through the queue, they actually let us in. The girls immediately sat in one corner together while Ben and I sat at opposite them. As we slowly rise I get a glimpse of LA and feel grateful for moving here, at first I thought it a hard thing to do but the scenery makes the resolve to live here better.
"You know, next time we come here we should bring Bobby," Ada says and Ava turns red. "What are you talking about?!" She squeaks and I pretend to cough trying to hold my laugh back. "Cali says that if two people kiss when the Ferris wheel reaches the top, they will be lovers forever". "That's a lie!" Ava exclaims turning away from Ada and making her laugh. That didn't seem like a good idea when Ava turned back to her with a smirk on her face. "Oh we'll bring Bobby as long as we bring Ken," she says and it became Ada's turn to turn a shade of red. "No we won't!" she squeaks and I pretend to cough again. Ava looks at me "Hope you don't have corona" and she turns back to her sister while leaving me in a stupor.
Ben chuckles and I didn't even know we were reaching the top until I turned around and saw the city lights. The people looked so tiny but watching them and the lights of the city felt nice, I loved the feeling of watching it, it all seemed like a painting on a canvas that I would love to own. "Crystal" Ben whispers in my ear, My heart leaps into my throat and I turn to him only to notice how close he has gotten to me any movement more would result in there not being any space. I look up at his icy blue eyes and gulp, he just smiles and takes the hood of my oversized hoodie before using it to cover my head and at the same time cover part of his face. Every second ticking by was making my heart go into overdrive and once he licked his lips and his gaze wandered to my lips my heart was about somersaulting its way out of my chest. His lips slowly grazed mine before planting themselves on mine.
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