Babe.

36.

Blanca. 

It was just us left at the festival now, well us and like ten other people, the bands weren't playing anymore it was just pre-recorded songs playing over the speaker now. It had stopped raining now so we were just lying on the grass near the beginning of the hill.

"Can you imagine if you'd never gone to Ella's party?" I asked watching the sky clear up slowly. 

"We definitely wouldn't be here right now." Benny replied, "I wouldn't be close to my brother either andnot to forget that Maine would have been hell." 

I grimaced at the idea, "jesus you're right, Maine would have fucking sucked. I guess it's a good thing Nika convinced me to let you come." 

"I still have the invitation by the way, with my name on it in the angriest scrawl ever." He said snickering. 

"Yeah I was pretty pissed off I had to invite you, I threw such a fit when Nika asked oh my gosh." I shook my head remembering how I'd made her get on her knees and beg me to prove how much she wanted it. She did of course and then I was screwed. 

"Yeah well it was the first day I realized just how fucking pretty you are." Benny told me. 

Jesus anymore compliments and I would spontaneously combust, "aw, aren't you a charmer. Anymore of this and I might think you have a crush on me." 

"Would that be so bad?" I heard him ask. 

I shifted around to find that he was already looking at me, "no. Not at all." 

He was watching me so intensly I thought he might kiss me, I really fucking wanted him too, but he didn't. Instead he got up and pulled me to my feet, "you look freezing, let me take you home." 

I was freezing, but going home was the last thing I wanted but clearly kissing me wasn't on his agenda. So standing my ground and potentially really embarassing myself sounded a lot worse than not getting my kiss so I nodded and lamely said, "yeah it's pretty cold isn't it." 

I pulled on my T-shirt before walking up the hill, "where are you going?" Benny called, I'd kind of left before he was done. 

"You said let's go home, so let's go." I muttered sourly. 

He handed me his jacket but I shook my head, "no thanks."

"Seriously? Put it on I can see your goose bumps." Benny pushed holding it out to me again, he was smiling and I cold see he was trying to be friendly but now I was pissed off. 

"I'd really rather not thanks." I snapped before walking off again. Luckily the cinema wasn't far from here so it wouldn't take long for us to get back to his moped and me to get home and wallow in misery with a huge tub of ice cream. 

Benny. 

I had done something wrong, I had no idea what it was but that was the only explanation because there was no other reason for her to switch up to quickly. She spent the whole rest of the walk and the drive back glaring and not talking to me. Everytime I said something she snapped at me no matter what it was that I said to her. 

As soon as we reached her house she all but leapt of the bike and started storming down her driveway. I didn't want tonight to end like this because it had been amazing, and if it ended on a fucked up note then it was like moving back all the steps I'd managed forwards. 

I chased after her pulling her back, "why are you so mad at me?" 

"I'm not." She lied shrugging my hand off. 

"Don't bullshit me, I can tell your pissed off so tell me what I did wrong so I can fix it." I pressed.

She shifted uncomfortably, "it's embarassing." 

I frowned, "what I did is embarassing?" 

"No why I'm mad is embarassing," Blanca muttered not meeting my eyes.

"Try me." 

This time when she looked up she looked pissed off again, "do you not like me or something?" 

"I'm pretty sure we established that I like you a fucking lot." I responded confused. 

"Then why won't you kiss me already?" She exclaimed, "you had the perfect opportunity and you totally blew me off!" 

"So your mad at me because I didn't kiss you or because you thought I didn't like you?" I was still not completely sure what this was about.

She crossed her arms glaring at the ground, "both! But now I feel like an idiot because it seems completely isignificant and pathetic now!" 

I was going to kiss her, I really was but it didn't seem right. We were soaking wet, covered in cakey neon paint, it was freezing and we were lying in a kind of muddy field. There was just no way that I was having my first kiss with this girl in those circumstances. It had to be better than that.

"I didn't not kiss you because I didn't want to, I didn't kiss you because our first kiss needed to be better than that." I told her. "I mean, you were half naked and we were lying in a wet field. Our first kiss is going to be better than that."

"Oh." Blanca brushed her curls out of her face smiling softly, "I guess that's fair enough." 

Her curly hair was so pretty, she rarely wore it like that. I'd only seen it a few times after we'd gone swimming and stuff but never at school she always straightened it. "You should wear your hair like that more often, it suits you."

"What?" 

"Sorry I got distracted. Look, tomorrow I'm going to pick you up and I'm going to take you on a real date and it's going to be fucking perfect and then I'm going to kiss you. How does that sound?" 

I swear to god she was beaming and it was the cutest thing I'd ever seen, "pretty good. I have to go before my brother has an aneurysm because it's almost midnight but, I'll see you tomorrow okay?" 

"See you tomorrow."