Behind the Game Face

hay and a long day

"A corn maze?" I laughed as we entered the clearing. The perks of being in a small, college town. You walk far enough and you'll hit the woods sooner or later. "Aren't we too grown for this?"

"Humor me." Princeton mused as he was walking backwards and you can bet I skipped my happy self to catch up to him.

There were three different entrances you could pick from and from the looks of it, the maze was bigger than I thought originally.

"Let's race?" I popped the question as we walked to the front booth. It was a free activity but the lady gave us these flags to hold up in the air if we wanted to leave the maze at any time. Of course, it was for the children but I still took it, just in case.

"What does the winner get?" Princeton asked as we made our way to the entrances.

"Try and find out." I looked up at him as I patted his chest. He must've not been expecting my response because he all of a sudden became flushed, raising his brows slightly. "And go!"

I laughed at his expression as I took off in the middle entrance.

"Lilah!" He yelled after me but I was already down my chosen path.

Little kids being followed by their parents, middle schoolers messing around in the maze and even senior citizens were taking their go at the maze.

"You there Evergreen?" I shouted to the sky, waiting for a response.

"I can barely hear you Lilah, keep up!" He exclaimed back to me. I huffed a laugh as I kept on trying to find my way through the maze.

Laughter floated through me as I quickened my pace, running into walls of hay and finding dead ends before I finally found the exit.

"Ha!" I jumped in victory as I saw nobody but a pile of hay in the clearing and a huge banner that said this was the end of the maze with an arrow pointing to go back to the front. "I win!"

"Boo." I jumped again, but this time in fear as I fell into the pile of hay. Standing above me was Princeton, laughing so hard that he had to hold his stomach. His eyes crinkled as he laughed and I smiled to myself at how innocent he looked before I started groaning. "Ow."

Immediately, he sobered up. "What happened? Are you okay?"

"No, I think I twisted my ankle when I fell." I groaned, sitting up in the hay.

"Here, let me help you." Like the gentleman he was, he came infront of me, reaching out a hand to help me up. Despite the chill, his hand warmed my entire body up as he tightened his grip on me, ready to pull me up.

Just before he could though, I tugged on his hand hard. Princeton's face showed one of complete shock as he fell into the haystack with me. I laughed as he fell on top of me, grabbing hay and rubbing it all over his head.

"Oh, you're done for." He replied, getting off of me and grabbing more hay from the pile to throw at me. I squealed as I tried ducking but it was no use as he showered the hay on me.

"Princeton!" I yelled, trying to run away. It was to no avail as his long arms stopped me from running, wrapping them around my waist as he pulled me into him.

"Don't try to run now." He chided at me. "Where's my prize?" He all but murmured into my ear, his faint breath of apple cider hit my neck as I stuttered a response.

"Uhm...it-it's a surprise." I answered, turning to meet his gaze. We were extremely close, anybody who looked at us would probably think we're dating. With the way his arms were wrapped around me, the way my head tilted up to look at him as he brought his head to my shoulder, anybody would be mistaken.