Page 35 of A Twist in Fate
“Ivy. I will pin you down and tickle you in front of all these strangers if you continue and I know how ticklish you are." I step closer to her, placing my hands on her waist, my fingers brushing over the area on it that she is the most ticklish. She squirms under my touch, and I quickly take her hand and pull her over to continue walking towards the field.
“This is completely unfair. You aren't even ticklish which means I can never win this fight." She looks down, pretending to be mad and as we step on the grass, I think her refusal to look up stops her from noticing what we are even doing here. We walk over to the bench where thepaper pens and lighters are held, and I pick up one of each and only as I do does Ivy notice what we are doing here.
“Wait? We are at a lantern festival!” She squeals loudly, grabbing my arm and jumps a little. I smile instantly. She looks probably the happiest I have ever seen her as she stares up at me before she spins around to watch everyone else and the few people who are letting their lanterns into the sky. “Thank you so much, Lucas. No one has done anything like this for me before.” She pulls me into a warm hug, squeezing me tightly.
“Your welcome, sweetheart.” She blushes slightly but it's still noticeable in the dark. I pick up another lantern and we walk over to a blank patch of grass before sitting down.
“One each or share both?” I ask, before I move all the supplies to be placed in front of us. The light from the other lanterns mean we can see the ground perfectly.
“Let's share them.” She places one in front of us and picks up both pens, handing me one. I thank her and we start drawing on opposite sides. She covers her side with her hand, trying to stop me from seeing it. When she notices me watching she says, “I just want to surprise you for once.”
I laugh lightly and continue drawing. The pens scratch slightly against the fabric and when I look up to Ivy, she looks breathtaking. She is so focused and her whole face is illuminated by the lights around us. The corner of her lip is turned up slightly and all I want to do is kiss her.
“I'm done!” she says, placing the cap on the pen, with a smug expression. Ivy sits up straight and I instantly peer over to her to see what she has drawn. She has drawn stars all across the right side and ironically, I drew sunshines on the left. She has drawn stars of all sizes and shapes, but they are all perfect. They kind of remind me of the freckles she has.
“You drew sunshines,” she says softly, looking at where I drew.
“They remind me of you.” I stare at her, and her eyes meet mine.
“I drew stars because they feel like you. They bring hope and show a connection to something greater in this world. You make me feel like that. It's like everything is going a certain way when I was on my way here but now things have changed because of you. For the better. It's almost like I was meant to find these moments with youto find myself." I am shocked. I can't think of a single worthy reply to the beautiful words she just said to me.
“Like a twist in fate,” I whisper so quietly I can barely even hear my own voice. She smiles shyly at my words, and I won't waste another second on speaking. I kiss her lips lightly, my hands cupping her face. The words run around my brain as I do.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
For a moment I wonder if this is my moment. My time to tell her but as she pulls away, she says “Thank you for letting me spend this summer with you. I'm sorry it can't last forever.” My chest deflates. This isn't forever. Telling her I love you will not change a thing no matter how much I want it to. I feel as if I've woken up. Saying those three words would complicate everything. She wouldn't say them back and any time spent with her after would be awkward. She wouldn't spend it happily. She wouldn't let me stay in bed with her. She wouldn't let me kiss her. She wouldn't let me love her. Those three words are not worth losing her right now.To say those three words would be selfish.
“What's wrong?” she asks, and I snap back to reality.
“Nothing.” I take her hand in mine, placing light kisses across her knuckles. “I'm okay.”
“Are you sure?”
“Definitely,” I say, but something in me wants to yell. Something in me wants to say how unfair this is. Everything in me wants to tell her that she might be the love of my life. She might be the one I'm meant to be with. I pick up the other lantern and hand her the pen.
“You're definitely better at this than me. This is your surprise, and I want you to do this one,” I say.
She smiles and takes the pen from my hand. She starts drawing and I shift where I’m sitting so that I’m slightly behind her, watching over her shoulder. I place my hands against her hips breathing in her fresh scent. I place a small line of kisses against her shoulder and up towards her neck, my lips grazing the cold metal of the necklace I got her.
“Hey! That tickles. I won't be able to concentrate,” she says, and I can hear the smile in the way she says it. Her curls are covering my face, and I move them over her shoulder and continue to pepper kisses across her exposed skin. She shivers lightly under my touch, and I stop.
“Sorry,” I say, and I lift my head up and away from her shoulder, drawing circles on her hips and thighs every few seconds.
“Okay, I’m done.” I peer over her shoulder again as she lifts up the lantern. Surrounded by a love heart there are our initials. She puts stars near my name and sunshines by her own.
“It's perfect.” I kiss her cheek, and we get up, lifting up both lanterns. We open up the lanterns and move them around in circles until they expand. She's practically jumping with excitement and the look on her face is completely irreplaceable. She laughs a little and the sound moves through the air around us effortlessly.I place the one with our initials on the floor as I move closer to Ivy to hold out the corners of the lantern. Ivy reaches one of her hands out take the lighter when I hold the it towards the wick.
“Can I trust you with a lighter?” I say, moving my hand away from her.
She rolls her eyes at me. “I'm not five years old Lucas,” she huffs slightly.
I laugh quietly. “I never said you were. It's just that this is fire, and you are my sister's best friend.”
If she wasn’t holding the lantern, I think she would cross her arms as she huffs again. “So?”
