CHAPTER 4: Puppy love
THEN:
"What do you think of Barry Allen?" I ask Leah.
She looks up from her laptop. "Whuh? I don't know." She shrugs and looks back down at her work. "He's smart."
"Yeah..." I nod. "And he asked me out."
"Yeah...that too..." Leah mumbles, putting one of her painted nails between her lips and chewing in concentration.
I wait. She'll realize in a moment.
"WHAT?" She exclaims, her head whipping up so fast her head scarf jerks.
I can't help the grin that spreads across my face. "Yup. Just this morning at school!"
"Barry Allen." She says, her eyes finding mine. "The guy you talked to for the first time like a week ago. The nerdy dude. He asked you out and you're...excited?" She asks it genuinely, and I know she's trying not to judge me.
"Well...yeah! And it was two weeks ago!" I say somewhat defensively as I curling myself deeper into my beanbag chair.
"And you said yes?"
"Yeah..." I shrug. "He's cute. Why not."
Leah laughs. "Giiiiiirl."
Our fourth date is the carnival. The day after my birthday.
Before Barry I'd only been on one date before, Chris Yale from middle school. Luckily that is all changing now. I'm 17! Something I will now remind my mother of when she tells me to be careful about something.
I smile up at Barry. The carnival music is so loud and I'm feeling giddy. Everywhere we walk people can see our intertwined hands. I have someone! I feel like proclaiming to the world. My hand is beginning to sweat, and Barry's is kind of sticky from cotton candy, but if he doesn't care, neither do I.
I like this top. The roses match the new necklace Randall gave to me for my birthday. Randall has never, ever, bought me anything in my whole life. This is the first birthday present he's ever given me. I don't know why, but we've always had so much to spare that ever since I turned 12 Dad's always just given me money so I can buy whatever present I want for my birthday. Randall said it was because sometime soon he'll be going into the service, and that it is something for me to remember him by.
I like even more the gift Barry gave me. Mom said that two months of knowing some guy was too short a time for me to accept birthday gifts from him, but Barry somehow talked my mom into letting him do it. That is Barry, so sweet and nice that no one can resist him. I certainly feel it!
Barry got me a bottle of cherry blossom scented perfume! I don't normally wear perfume, but now I will wear it all the time because it reminds me of him. Iris, who is basically a sister to him, probably helped him pick it out.
"What do you want to do next?" He asks, his holly colored eyes sparkling when he looks down at me.
"Ummmm..." I look around at the rides and concession stands that surround us. The "House of Mirror's" catches my eye. It doesn't look very busy. "Let's go in there."
We enter the tent after giving our tickets. I was right, we are all alone as we walk through the path, large mirrors on either side of us. "This reminds me of something in one of those horror movies!" I laugh.
Barry smiles. "Back in ancient times the scariest thing about a mirror was that you might break it. Originally mirrors were made out of bronze or silver by the Egyptians, and obviously unbreakable, but what started the whole superstition was when they used bowls of water for Divination in Greek culture." Barry says as he stares at his already lanky frame being slimmed to a twig in one of the panes. "They called them mirrors, and if your bowl broke then that meant that your future was bad. Now the 7 years of bad luck was started by the Romans because they believed that life—"
I look up at him. He talks too much.
"—came in 7 cycles. But that was long before the Venetians started making glass mirrors, but by then the superstition had already—"
I decide to make my move. I pull him down and kiss him.
I press my lips against his for a moment, not quite sure what to do. Then he gets over his surprise and his hands come up to frame my face. I part my lips softly and take his upper lip between mine.
My first kiss.
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Flashback (A Road to Redemption follow up story)
FanficSlade and Chastity are back! But so is a character from Chastity's past. Barry Allen. This story explores Chastity's aforementioned past, and also her new future with Slade Wilson.