Begin Again (Lukesse)

the sunset in front of us

Lukas's PoV

I aimed and fired a bullet at a tree, narrowly missing Jess. "COME BACK HERE!" I yelled, loading another bullet in my gun. "NO!" Jess darted through the trees, occasionally turning back to fire at me with her own gun.

"You're the one who wants to practice accuracy!" Jess called, hiding behind a tree as I fired another bullet at her. "These are not even close enough to real bullets, Jess!" I darted behind the tree Jess was hiding and shot her leg.

"OW!" she examined, rubbing her ankle. "Jeez, that really hurts. It's like a real bullet." I rolled my eyes. "It's not even a real bullet, Jess. For goodness sake these are just nerf guns." I smirked. "Oh yeah?" Jess threatened, loading her gun and pointing it at my head. "Wanna see how painful that was?"

I rolled my eyes. "Wrong answer!" Jess sang, squeezing the trigger and shooting my head. "OW!" I laughed. But to be honest, it wasn't that painful, but I was just playing along so she wouldn't feel bad. Jess and I were in the woods, our bows resting against a birch tree and today, Jess decided to teach me how shooting works.

With nerf guns, of course, because she called me a, quote, 'An idiot who's never shot before and doesn't know how to load a gun.' Or something along that line. So instead of practicing with real guns, we settled with cheap water guns at first.

Then I graduated to nerf guns. Whoopie. And so far, I've shot her in the leg and in her stomach. (Ouch, I know, but she pelted me with darts EVERYWHERE). "It's still not fair!" I pouted, waving my gun. "Why do I have the girly pink gun and you have that automatic one?" I asked.

Jess stuck her tongue out at me and I took that opportunity to attack. Aiming at her head, I fired. But she was faster, oh my god how did she move so fast, she took hold of a tree branch above her and swung herself up, missing my bullet.

"Can't you just let me shoot you once?" I asked, loading another bullet. "Nope." She said, climbing higher up the tree. I sighed and took a branch to follow her. As we climbed the massive oak tree, I was facing my own fear of heights. (Yeah, I am afraid of heights- no- terrified of heights) But Jess was unknowingly helping me.

"You okay?" Jess asked, taking my hand and pulling me up to sit with her. "If I fall out of this tree, you're gonna pay. Literally." I told her, glancing at the ground far below us. Jess smiled, looking up but I was afraid to, because we were so high up. "Come on Lukas," Jess said, looking at me.

"You can do it." she smiled and pointed to the horizon. Well, because she asked me to, I held on to the tree trunk tightly (it was so obvious I hated heights) and glanced at the horizon. "Whoa." I said, monetarily letting go of the tree. The sunset was beautiful. "Amazing isn't it?" Jess said, leaning against my shoulder a little.

"But I've seen something more amazing," I said, looking at her. Jess smirked a little, knowing what I meant. "Why didn't I be your friend sooner, Jess?" I slowly let go of the trunk and faced her. "Well," Jess laughed, "We were too busy becoming enemies and you keep tripping me every time we meet."

"Nah. I don't trip you anymore do I?" I asked, nudging her. Jess shook her head, smiling a little. "You've helped me a lot Lukas, so-." I leaned in a little, wondering what would happen if I wanted to kiss her. Jess, being a smart person, knew what I wanted.

"Thanks.. for everything, Jess." I said, taking her hand. Here goes. No. Should I? "Jess- I don't know if you're comfortable-." Jess laughed, nudging me, "Don't be such a coward, Lukas." and she leaned in to kiss me. I immediate turned red, but after awhile, I relaxed and kissed her back.

So we kissed on that tree, with the sunset in front of us and a promise to never leave each other.

-End