salem tried on all five articles of swimwear for ciarán to judge. they ended up deciding on a bold blue one-piece.
salem changed back into her sleepwear—which consisted of one of her mom's old t-shirts and shorts—since the party didn't start until three hours from now.
salem sat in front of her mirror, humming quietly while applying a clay face mask when ciarán suddenly asked, "are you ticklish?"
salem turned around to look at him, since he was laying on his back.
"why do you wanna know?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
he shrugged, "just wondering."
salem turned to look back at the mirror, quickly finishing up applying her face mask. "i'm not answering that."
during the process of putting her face mask on, salem was so concentrated that she hadn't heard her bed creak from ciarán's shifted weight.
he was about to find out if she was ticklish or not anyway.
his nimble fingers found her sides, and he tickled her until she fell onto her back.
"s-stop!" she cried breathlessly. "my face mask; i-it's still wet!" salem was trying her best to get him to stop, but it was hard to speak through her laughter.
he was on top of her, with his legs on either side of her body. his face was centimeters away from her's, and he exclaimed victoriously, "so you are ticklish!"
salem rolled her eyes, "the majority of the population is, ciarán." salem moved her head forward slightly, so that her nose touched his.
then, she sought revenge.
she started tickling his sides, and to her surprise, he was actually ticklish too.
he fell off of her, laughing and clutching his stomach.
salem stopped tickling him, distracted by how cute he was. she wished he would laugh more, since he looked sad all the time.
"you're ticklish too!" salem giggled. "you have some clay face mask on your nose."
"thanks to you." he grumbled, looking at himself in the mirror. he was about to wipe it off, but salem stopped him.
"wait!" she said, stopping his hand. "you look cute, like a little reindeer." she pulled out her phone, taking a photo of him. instead of sticking out his tongue like he usually does, he just pouted. "can i do your whole face?"
ciarán just gave her a really? look.
"pretty please?" she gave him her best puppy dog eyes.
ciarán sighed, "fine." he gave in to her too way easily, and she just took it to her advantage.
"thank you!" she threw her arms around him. "your skin's gonna be glowing."
she sat criss crossed in front of him as she applied the face mask. she was careful not to get it in his hair, eyebrows, and beard.
"you have so much facial hair." she said as she pushed his hair out of his face.
"yeah, and i'm not planning on shaving anytime soon."
"but your skin is so soft." there was a hint of disappointment in her voice.
"i look like a pubescent boy without my beard." ciarán mumbled, which caused salem to laugh hysterically.
"oh my god! i never told you about how kevin showed me old photos of you." she wheezed.
"he what now?"
"oh fuck." salem stopped to catch her breath. "when i went out to eat with him, we were looking at photos of you from a couple of years ago." she wiped away tears that were beginning to form in her eyes.
ciarán groaned, "i'm gonna kill him."
salem gasped, "you're gonna have to get through me first. that's my best friend you're talking about." she put her hands on her hips.
ciarán just scoffed. "that's my best friend too, and you're not intimidating."
"oh really?" ciarán didn't get a chance to respond, because in an instant, she was on top of him tickling his sides again.
"salem!" he cried out as he tried to stop her hands.
salem just kept tickling him, until her own sides hurt from laughing so hard.
ciarán took a deep breath. then, he sat up, causing salem to fall off of him and hit the floor with a thud.
"i'm gonna get you back." he narrowed his eyes at her.
"you can try all you want, baby." salem smirked.
then, salem's door suddenly opened, and the two of them diverted their attention awy from each other and to the door.
it was matt, who was leaning halfway into her room. tavia stood behind him, peeking over his shoulder. "what's with all the ruckus? we thought you two were having—" matt started, but tavia interrupted him by punching his arm.
ciarán's eyes widened and salem could feel the heat rushing to her cheeks. thank god she had a face mask on.
"we're just tickling each other." salem hadn't realized how weird her words sounded until they left her mouth.
"yeah, i'm sure that's all you did." matt said, earning another punch from tavia. "ow!" he yelped, his hand flying to the spot tavia punched him.
"tell us when you're done with the face masks. we plan on leaving for the party soon." tavia said, closing the door behind her.
"tickling each other? really?" ciarán snorted.
"that's what we were doing!" salem countered.
"but it sounded weird!"
"you think i didn't notice that?!" salem hissed.
"how about you get changed instead of arguing with me." ciarán suddenly suggested, causing her to roll her eyes.
she got up though, getting her swimsuit and a pair of shorts.
she quickly changed in her bathroom, being careful not to get any of the face mask on her swimwear.
once she opened the bathroom door, she heard ciarán catcall. her face contorted in disgust.
"don't fucking do that!" she smacked him on the arm, but not too hard.
"i was kidding!" ciarán rubbed his arm, hoping the pain would go away.
"i don't take that shit lightly, ciarán." the serious tone in salem's voice caused his face to soften.
"i'm sorry, salem. i promise i won't do that again." the change in ciarán's attitude made a small smile appear on salem's face.
"it's fine, you didn't know." she put her hand on his, reassuring him as she sat down next to him. "maybe you should sing summer to me so we can forget this ever happened." salem tried to change the topic, which worked, since ciarán chuckled.
"you really want me to sing summer, huh?"
"i mean, i can look it up on youtube and listen to it, but i'd rather have my own little, private concert." she put her head on his shoulder. "i'm in awe of your voice."
ciarán was taken aback, and his cheeks started to grow pink. "oh, uh, thanks. i appreciate it."
and so once again, ciarán sang summer to her. as he sang, salem stared up at him intently. she wanted to deny it, but deep down, somewhere, she could feel the spark that was infatuation.
