Make It Count | ✓

07 - cloudburst

[ iris ]
goo goo dolls;
alex goot cover
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—seven—

cloudburst

I WAS NO romanticist, but I wanted to go out of my way—put my cards on the table for Belle to see. To put my best foot forward, not wanting to mess things up, given the fact that this was going to be the first time I would confess my feelings to a girl; a remarkable turn of events of my life, or to put things differently, the first time I fell in love.

Right after the game, Belle and I went to the cottage where we first met. I was already sporting my casual clothes—black v-neck shirt and jeans. She had been interrogating me for the umpteenth time about what we were going to do or something.

If she were any other girl, I would just probably walk out on her. Unfortunately, sorry, as luck would have it, I was mad about her and kept my silence, tossing her a smile now and then during the entire ride to the place.

It was raining, and we fled towards the gazebo but were completely drenched when we reached it. The atmosphere was frigid though couldn't suffice to chill us to the bones. As a normalcy, I pulled out my pack of cigarettes, quickly lighting up a stick, but not before taking out a spare mask and put it on for her. I always brought one since I didn't want her to get the second-hand smoke, not like she didn't do it long before anywise. I then flicked that cute, button nose of hers and she grimaced.

"I don't exactly get it how you managed to run that fast on the field when you smoke a lot." Belle crossed her arms, giving me a flat look.

"My lungs are tough. I'm a badass like that." I smirked before huffing, playing with my fidgeting fingers on my lap. I was scanning some good lines on how to start that it was rather making me want to piss myself, but over and over again, I told myself that either I had to shit or get off the pot. Take heart, Chase.

"Were you supposed not to smoke? Does your coach even have the balls to tell you off?"

"Only if I get caught, babe." I winked at her as I tried to occupy myself with doing some smoke rings like clockwork. I suddenly wanted to get my hands on my vape once I get home. It was better to do the tricks with it by a wide margin.

She rolled her eyes. "Figures."

We looked up at the rain and Belle extracted a gasp. "Hey! Remember what I said about the rain?"

"Course, I do. You want to strip off and dance naked," I lamely quipped.

She shot me a very straight face. "No, idiot," she uttered, then her face fell before I could say Jack Robinson. "Oh, you can't. You just got out of a game. Some people say you could get a fever after sweating a lot then take a bath afterwards."

I snorted. "We always shower after the game, Belle." I deadpanned like I was talking to a stupid kid. "And there's this thing called medicine."

She quaked her head. "No. Just stay here, I'll do it alone."

I chucked my cigarette to somewhere, yanked her mask off and pulled her out of the shed tout de suite. "Hey!" she chuckled, "you sure about this?" she yelled in between the split and splat the rain was producing. Her eyes turned into small slits as her hair hugged the sides of her face.

"Yup. A girl named Belle Hastings said to me that you only live once. Live life a little!" I responded, cracking a smile.

She gazed at me rather wistfully as a tinge of redness gathered around her nose. I presumed then that she was going to have the flu sooner, but there was something deep inside me that it was the other way around. Her eyes were red; I couldn't faultlessly tell if she had been crying or not.