Before You Go | A Prequel

1.8 | The Park

-"...Can I see it now?"

Caspar paused and he looked up from his sketchpad once more. It was hard to fight the grin which spread across his face as he shook his head yet again.

The girl sighed some whimsied, melodied breath as she sat back in place. The warm feeling lingered in his chest as he resumed the drawing. Gentle, gray, pencil-strokes as he shaded in the side of her face.

He still had to glance up every now and then for reference, but she would always be looking off, appearing deep in her thoughts, somewhere far away. Cas wondered where it was that she went. After all, he had his places— the good, and the bad. He figured everyone did. Maybe one day, he would gather the nerve to ask her. What were the places she thought of when she imagined herself anywhere but here?

-"Your eyes are pretty."

When Caspar looked up this time, she was staring at him. At first he wasn't sure. She hadn't really just said that. He was distracted— no, focused— focused on finishing the portrait and that was why he hadn't heard what she'd really said—

"I-I mean like... pretty but like, f-for a boy?" She giggled as she shrugged. Her hand moved a braid from her face as she looked off awkwardly. "Sorry if that's weird. I just think they look cool."

For the first time in Caspar's life, he felt his face get hot. Was he blushing? No— no, he wasn't blushing. No, only girls could blush. Right? Blushing for boys, that wasn't a thing— he'd never heard of that.

She thought he had pretty eyes.

It was a compliment. The muscles stiffened like lead in his neck. She was trying to give him a compliment. And what was he doing but staring at her like a drooling buffoon who'd lost the ability to speak english.

She thought he had pretty eyes. The prettiest girl on the island— heck, probably the prettiest girl on the whole planet, and SHE was flirting with HIM.
And he hadn't said anything. He was dumbstruck, he didn't know what to do. He needed to say something— anything!

A thank you, maybe? But it had to be smoother than a thank you. It had to be witty— funny, ideally. Something to make her laugh. Girls loved to laugh. Everybody loved to laugh.

There was probably nothing that was less smooth, less witty, or more un-funny than his catatonic stare in the face of the most beautiful girl in the world.

Finally, he opened his mouth, "Uh—,"

-"Cas!"

A familiar voice from somewhere below instantly snapped him out of his trance. He glanced down, and not far from the base of the tree stood his brother with their two youngest siblings. Exhaustion was painted all about Nico's face. A weepy-eyed Ellie clung to his torso, and he held Gus' wrist at his side, and the boy sniffled as he rubbed at his nose.

"It's time to go." Nico said, "Come on."

Cas pressed his lips together in a line, the heat returning to his face as his eyes darted back to his muse before looking down at Nico again with a subtle jerk of his head toward the girl. He just prayed that his brother would take the hint.