beetle | unedited ✔️

twelve

Parker Elise Leon

"Stop! You're getting flour everywhere!" I screech, watching him whisk the flour into the eggs and other liquids. There's flour all over the counter and floor. This was a bad idea. "Trust the process, beetle." I huffed as I mixed the ingredients to make frosting. I found a recipe online for it.

"It's not my fault I have a lot of strength." Well, it kind of is if you think about it. "You intentionally work out, which means it is your fault." I snort, putting my frosting into the fridge to get cool. I turned around and was smacked in the face with flour. I paused with my eyes closed and my mouth open, I'm sure you can picture it.

"Oh, you little," I grumbled over to him as he laughed and grabbed flour, spraying him with it as well. He stopped and gasped as I got it all over his sweatshirt. "It's on." I put my hands up and shook them. "No! No, Gabriel, I don't need my house a mess. Please, we're even let's just call a truce." I stepped back and hit the fridge before running out of the kitchen. I heard his thundering footsteps after me as I kept taking sharp turns. He was faster than me, so he caught up to me and grabbed my waist to pull me back.

"No!" I held onto the wall as he tried to pull me back but it just ended up with us falling onto the wooden floor. I felt bad because I fell on top of him. Flour was everywhere and we were both a laughing mess. We both stopped, realizing our position. Neither of us moved, especially not him since he was sitting under me and I was basically frozen, straddling his stomach. My hands were resting on his chest as we breathed in sync and just stared.

My face inched closer to his. Closer, and closer until our lips were almost touching. Our noses were beside each other, and finally he reached up and pulled my face down the rest of the way. Our lips moved together gently and softly for a moment before he pulled my face away. I closed my eyes and stayed where I was. I just gave him my first kiss.

I opened my eyes to his worried face and giggled. Does he seriously think I didn't like that? Loser. "Why do you look so scared." I asked, softly giggling every now and then. He breathed a sigh of relief as I spoke freely. He is the one who pulled away first. Even with my lack of experience I would have kept going. "You taste like flour." He mumbled, making me roll my eyes and laugh. "That's your fault, Gabe." He smiled innocently before standing up with me still attached to him. I squealed as I was lifted off the ground like ten feet. Just kidding, but he is tall.

I tightened my arms around his neck and my legs around his waist as he lead us back to the kitchen. "I'd love to stay and make out with you but we have a cake to bake and a kitchen to clean." I nodded into his chest as he set me down back where I stood ten minutes ago.

"This is so good." After both of us showered and cleaned the mess we made around the house, we let the cake cook for a few hours until putting the frosting on and eating. It's really late now and I only hoped whatever family Gabe has at home isn't worried about him. It feels so wrong to say something like that, but I just want to stay like this for a bit. It feels like a fever dream, everything that happened today I mean.

My chin and hands still hurt because of the shower water hitting my wounds, but other than that I didn't want this day to end. I know that tomorrow morning will be a new day, obviously, and things will go back and he'll have to go back home. It was his rightful place, but I didn't want him to leave.

"You did a good job on the frosting. Tastes like Betty Crocker." He munched on his piece of cake after he spoke. "Thanks, you didn't do so bad either." I smiled when he kept his head down but looked at me with his silvery blue eyes. It should've been scary but I knew he was joking around. Right when he looked up his eyes softened and his head followed them shortly after. "How are your scrapes?" His voice was concerned and soft as he rested his chin on the palm of his hand. I shrugged in response.

"They were hurting in the shower but they're okay. At least they're not bleeding anymore." I had fully taken off the bandages and left them off to let the scrapes heal. Of course I'll still have them in school on Monday but I didn't want to think about that.

"I'm sorry that it happened. I wish I could've been there to stop her." I shrug again. Can we not talk about these depressing times? "It's okay, Gabe. It's not the worst thing she's done to me and it's not your fault." He winced after I ended my sentence. "It kind of is." He muttered, looking down at the table with a guilty look on his face. "Why? Because I hang out with you? That's her psychotic-ness and jealousy, not you. She doesn't choose who others hang out with, she's just a crazy, insecure poopiehead." The smile that sprung to his face made me content.

It was one that I don't think anybody but has seen. That smile that's so real and so bright that it literally lights anything up. I've seen it quite a few times recently, since we actually started to talk and be friends with one another. I liked it a lot, especially when a chuckle or a laugh of some sort came from it. It was so innocent, so mundane, but something I held so dearly to my heart. That's when I knew I was falling. And I was falling hard.