Smile - CrankGameplays

43. Ready

Nine o'clock could not come any sooner. She checked the clock again, finding the awaited hour to finally be mere minutes away. The big hand on her watch ticked its way around the dial agonizingly slow and as each minute passed, she found herself becoming more and more impatient.

She stood in front of the mirror, pulling up the neck to her oversized maroon sweater. The color fit nicely along her skin tone as she plucked away the lingering pieces of lint. Her faded light blue jeans were cropped right at the ankle and her white slip-ons were fitted firmly on her feet.

Reese shuffled around in the mirror, seeing how the outfit complimented her body. She leaned forward and widened her eyes, making sure her mascara didn't look too clumpy. She wasn't one to wear makeup but on the occasion, she would dab her eyes with a little bit of color and smack on a light lipgloss.

She pursed her mouth and traced the edges of her lips, following the lines of her cupid's bow with the small tube of color. She rubbed the pink gloss together, smothering the product on her bottom lip and kissing the air.

Regardless of the weather and the freezing temperatures, she decided to dress for a cool winter evening. If she was cold - there was always Ethan.

Her phone began buzzing as she ran to her phone, finding Ethan's name light up the screen with a new text message;

"Hey! I'm here, do you want me to come inside?"

Reese pulled the phone into her chest and blushed at the gesture.

"How did I get so lucky?" she whispered to herself before plucking the phone away and replying;

"I'll come down! :)"

And his reply was almost instant;

":D"

She giggled helplessly at his attempt with flirting before she hurried down the staircase to meet him at his car.

"Bye, Sof!" she chirped before walking outside into the January air, softly closing the door behind her as she saw Ethan's Mini Cooper parked alongside the curb.

She could feel her heart skip beats as she neared the passenger door of his tight car, the black tint of the vehicle blending in with the night. She tucked a lone strand of hair as she lunged for the car door, but before she could tug it open, Ethan had already reached over and opened the door from inside.

"Thank you," she whispered into the night, sinking into the cushion of the seat.

"Reese," Ethan immediately blushed when his eyes shamelessly traced her figure, "You look... great."

She scratched the bridge of her nose, afraid to make eye contact with him because of her bottled nerves.

"I-I got you these," Ethan carefully gazed over, pressing his fingers into the plastic wrapping. "The other one has got to be dead by now, so I picked you up eleven more."

Her eyes finally found his trembling fingers, tightly wrapped around the plastic encasing that swallowed the bright sunflowers. She wondered how he was able to pick such nice ones, considering this wasn't their time of season. She daringly reached for the bundle of flowers and pulled them up to her nose, breathing in the freshness of what smelt like a bright summer day.

"This is so sweet of you..."

Ethan chuckled lightly, "Oh come on, don't act like I'm the only one who's given you flowers."

Sure, she's received flowers from a couple of boys in her lifetime. And they were always red roses, never sunflowers. The difference between her receiving flowers from a boy and him was that she was a lot more delighted that she had crossed his mind enough for him to go out and think to buy them for her... and that alone spoke volumes.