Page 99 of Clichés & Curses

‘What is it?’ I furrowed my eyebrows.

‘Miles texted me,’ she said, a slight blush appearing on her cheeks at her admission. ‘They’re throwing a celebratory party tonight at the baseball team’s house. And he invited us.’

‘I mean, I’m not saying no to free booze,’ Claudia said.

‘I’m down but I think we should head for dinner first before we go,’ Lily suggested. ‘What about you, Clara?’

I thought about it for a second. I mean, I would have loved to go and hopefully hang out with Colton there. But at the sametime, I wasn’t really looking forward to being in another tightly packed space filled with people that soon.

‘I don’t think I’m in the mood for it,’ I admitted. ‘But ask me again after dinner.’

The crowd had finally started to decrease to a smaller amount, giving us enough space to leave the stadium without having to squeeze through.

‘I’m gonna head to the bathroom first before we leave,’ Lily announced once we reached the entrance.

‘Oh wait, I wanna go with,’ Claudia replied, hooking her arm with Lily’s.

‘We’ll just wait for you two out here,’ I told them.

Lily gave me a nod while Claudia said, ‘Got it.’ Turning her head to Lily, she added, ‘Let’s go.’ And off they went.

The crowd might have lessened, but that didn’t mean the cars had too. Honks sounded everywhere in the parking lot, as everyone was impatient to leave and go back home. The noise eventually died down once the cars started moving again.

We ran into some of Nina’s friends from her class, and I stood on the side while she talked to them, enjoying the quieted noise on my own.

But the clamour of sounds was only replaced by the racket of the college baseball team that was high on the adrenaline of winning that night’s game.

I automatically looked down at the ground to avoid eye contact with any of them, until I heard his voice, and my head tilted up immediately hearing it get louder. My eyes finally found him among the other players, with Miles walking right beside him, talking animatedly.

Colton was laughing at what Miles just said, with a massive smile plastered on his face. As if he could sense my eyes on him, his head turned to where I was standing.

His eyes immediately lit up when he saw me.

I’m pretty sure mine did too.

His tall frame started making its way to me, stopping just a few steps in front of me.

‘Hey,’ he breathed out.

‘Hi,’ I greeted him back, my voice soft. ‘Congratulations on winning! You guys were great out there.’

‘Thanks,’ he answered sheepishly, a bit shy from the compliment.

His hair was still slightly wet from the shower he had after the game, I presumed. Whatever parts that were already dry were a mess—just like during those brief moments I saw him without a cap or a helmet on, when he was on the field.

And it lookedso soft. Without even thinking about it, my hand went up to his hair, my fingers slowly untangling it.

My unexpected intrusion caused Colton to freeze for a beat, and my eyes widened in horror as my brain finally realized what I was doing.

I was about to pull my hand away when he reached up his hand and gently wrapped it around my wrist.

For a second, I thought he was going to drop it at my side. But, instead, he slid my hand lightly across his cheek, before giving a soft kiss in the middle of my palm.

My stomach instantly erupted with butterflies at his sweet gesture. It continued as he slid his hand the rest of the way and intertwined it with mine, his thumb softly brushing the back of my hand.

‘Is this okay?’ he asked nervously.

‘It’s perfect,’ I replied.

---