⛧𝖇𝖑𝖔𝖔𝖉 𝖗𝖊𝖉⛧

Days had passed before Shiloh had even mentioned the situation to anyone aside from Ghost, although she’d told Ji-Woon about it next. Rory had been more than willing to give her some time off to go see the place and she’d even managed to convince him to give her an advance on her next paycheck, simply so that she could afford to make the spontaneous four-hour trip. She’d wanted to take Ji-Woon with her, but due to his rigorous work schedule, a trip to the countryside simply wasn’t plausible, and so she’d ended up taking Felix up on his offer to accompany her after a little bit of coaxing. The bitterness that she’d felt for him had subsided slightly since everything had come to a boiling point and then abruptly stopped between them, although the trust that she’d once had with him was still left in a crumbling pile of rubble.

After packing a small suitcase, Shiloh picked Felix up in her old taxi cab and they began their trip into the countryside, the drive filled with a lot of music and the usual laughter that the two of them used to share when they’d been friends. It had been a while since they’d spent such a lengthy amount of time together, let alone one on one, but it was a refreshing and welcome change from the icy silence and the cold shoulders that she’d been giving him for the last four months or so.

Upon arriving at the estate, Shiloh came to a slow stop with her foot on the brake, her brown eyes wide as she took in the site of the enormous estate that sat behind the tall stone wall and black iron gate in front of them. “Is this the right address? Holy fuck…” she muttered almost breathlessly. Stepping out of the car, she approached the keypad and punched in the lengthy code that she’d been given by the lawyer, the gates opening for them after she’d clicked the ‘verify’ button.

The brunette turned, the grin on her face widening as the reality of her new possession finally started to settle in. “Take my picture!” She called to Felix, raising both of her hands in front of her to flash two thumbs up at his camera before she returned to the driver’s seat to pull the vehicle down the pathway and up the driveway that led to the estate. Both sides of the pathway were lined with single rows of tall columnar trees, their uniform shapes casting silhouettes of long shadows across the dirt until they opened up into a clearing with an elegant fountain in the middle. After rounding that, Shiloh put the car in park and turned the ignition off in front of the sandstone-colored building, falling silent as she gawked at it in amazement. It looked even more gargantuan up close.

“I have a feeling that picking rooms isn’t going to be an issue anymore,” Shiloh told him, bringing up a conversation that she’d started hours ago when they’d been discussing sleeping arrangements. She’d wanted the master bedroom, but from what she could tell, every bedroom was going to seem like a master bedroom. Especially compared to what the two of them had gotten used to sleeping in.

Breathing a laugh at Shiloh’s nerdy way of saluting him, the smile on his face gradually faded at the mention of Hunter. It wasn’t an unpleasant topic and he didn’t hate the guy, but he wasn’t exactly his biggest fan either. Or maybe, just maybe, he actually had something to thank him for. If it wasn’t for him telling him to back off of Shiloh, Felix probably wouldn’t have pursued her as much as he had. He would’ve simply seen her as uninterested and left it at that. Now that he’d actually gotten to know her though, he could confirm that she was a pretty cool chick.

“We’re dicks on and off to each other, but y’know, if we start throwing punches at each other while on the clock, our asses are gonna get fired,” Felix shrugged, a slight grin returning to his lips as he remembered Hunter’s first day of work, when he’d given him the majority of the less favored jobs like cleaning the bathroom. That had been pretty funny.

“Someitmes we say fuck work and just sit in the back and play cards until a customer comes up to the counter. I guess he’s doing alright?” They ran with the same crowd so they’d see each other every now and then, depending on the group and event, but neither of them went out of their way to converse with each other and catch up. “I wouldn’t really know though.”

Although Shiloh knew that she had every right to be upset with Hunter for the mess that he’d gotten her into, a part of her still felt badly about completely ignoring all of his phone calls and text messages. She worried about him, just as she’d always done, and she knew that sooner or later she would have to stop giving him the silent treatment and start talking to him again. After all, she couldn’t exactly rely on Felix for information. It was a miracle that they hadn’t killed one another yet, so asking him to check up on him was simply out of the question.

“Makes sense,” Shiloh answered, offering a nod of her head, a grin pulling at the corners of her lips at the thought of them playing card games while on the clock. It seemed pretty fitting for the two of them, although it probably wouldn’t help them much in the future.

Because Shiloh hadn’t dressed up since she was a child, she’d actually put thought into her costume this year and she’d even splurged a little while shopping for it. Dipping into her tiny jar of savings was something that she rarely did, but she’d thought it to be for a special occasion after she’d fallen in love with the plague doctor costume that she’d found in the thrift shop.

Pulling up in front of Felix’s lot, Shiloh parked her old taxi cab, slipped her mask on and then proceeded to make her way over towards his trailer, arriving just in time to watch three playboy bunnies leaving through the front door in skimpy outfits. She didn’t recognize two of them, but she knew that the third, the one with the pink hair, was Phoenix. She wasn’t shocked to see that Felix was going as Hugh Hefner. “Cool costume,” she spoke sarcastically after the three girls had left, her voice muffled slightly by the coverage from her mask. She glanced up at him. “You’re kind of just a lonely old man in fancy pajamas now though. Hopefully Jake and Rylan show up as bunnies.”

Since knowing Shiloh, Felix knew that she was an oddball. It was in the best way possible though because her weird tended to match his weird, and that always made for fun conversations. Normal bored him, which was why the crowd he hung out with tended to be pretty out there. He got along well with the freaks and outcasts, but Shiloh probably took the cake for being the weirdest due to being haunted by ghosts.

“Damn, dude,” Felix started, his eyebrows raising and head nodding slowly to silently commend Shiloh for her made up accomplishment. That definitely wasn’t something he liked to hear from a girl he had just been trying to sleep with, but he could appreciate her sense of humor and was down to let the conversation go in whatever crazy, random direction they decided to take it.

“You must have some killer orgies with several dicks.” It was a statement that had been delivered pretty seriously, as if he was actually considering the possibility that such a thing existed, but soon his grin was mirroring Shiloh’s own. “Just don’t probe me with any of ‘em and we’re cool.”

It wasn’t long after the words had left her mouth that Shiloh had begun to regret saying them, the comment about having multiple penises being made before she’d had the time to process it. It wasn’t as though she was actively trying to impress him or anything, but she also wasn’t trying to repulse him into never wanting to speak to her again either. Much to her relief, however, he only laughed and played along, even going as far as to further the joke with a playful comment about probing.

“No probing, I swear,” Shiloh assured him, the grin on her face widening as she held up a hand, her fingers positioned in a Vulcan salute. To avoid talking further about any more phallic-related topics, she pivoted the direction of the conversation towards something a little more tame.

Felix hadn’t expected the silly line to work on Shiloh, so it came as no surprise when she told him that she wasn’t going to give him a real response to it. She’d shot down the idea of sleeping with him from day one, which was both admirable and frustrating all the same. If he’d actually been trying, he would’ve done a hell of a lot more than just throw the idea out into the open in the form of a joke. Alas, he didn’t want to fuck up and have it result in the night ending early. Depending on how things played out, maybe he’d make a real attempt later.

Blue eyes watched the brunette closely as she started to say that she wanted to be open with him about something, his curiosity piqued. He already knew that Shiloh was haunted by ghosts, and the way he’d discovered it was probably something that would be burned into his memory until the day he died. The whole thing kind of felt like a fever dream or like he was having a bad trip, but it was real. Thinking about it still blew his mind and made him question a lot of things. What else existed out there that he didn’t know about?

A silence had fallen after Shiloh went on to state that aliens existed existed and that she wasn’t even from this planet, Felix’s gaze studying her face to look for any giveaways that she was lying. She was bullshitting him, she had to be. He could accept that ghosts were real, but aliens? “Fuck off, E.T,” he laughed, lifting one of his hands from the center of the ring to gently flick water in Shiloh’s face. “I thought you were getting real with me for a second there. But I’m not gonna believe your bullshit just because ghosts exist. Your personality makes you alien enough, you fuckin’ weirdo. And…Wait, holy shit. Is that an antenna I see poking out from under your hair?”

Out of all of Shiloh’s gifts and abilities, the skill of lying was not among them, the brunette’s lips beginning to crack into a smile as soon as she saw Felix’s eyes scanning her features as he prepared to call her bluff. Her poker face was practically non-existent, making it almost impossible for her to lie about most things. It made her a pretty poor prankster, but that never really stopped her from trying.

At the mention of the name ‘E.T’, Shiloh’s smile cracked wider and she instantly started to laugh, her eyes squinting as water was flicked toward her face. It wasn’t as though she’d been hopeful that Felix would actually believe her silly little lie, but she was still disappointed that her acting skills had prevented her from taking the whole thing a little further. The thought of convincing the blond that aliens existed would have been too funny, she thought.

At the mention of having no friends, Felix frowned as if to challenge the statement. He remembered Shiloh telling him that little fact a while back, but did she literally mean none? Not a single friend? He thought it was just a figure of speech, a way of saying that she had very few friends. If that really was the truth, he felt a little sad for her. It would probably get pretty lonely to have nobody to hang out with, and he knew that he would personally be driven insane pretty quickly. For the most part, he needed conversation and company to be at least somewhat functional.

“Right, right. If I remember,” Felix laughed, knowing fully well that there was a chance he would end up forgetting Shiloh’s birthday. It wasn’t because he didn’t care, but because of the type of lifestyle he lived. His plans were usually pretty sporatic and in the moment, and being drunk or high out of his mind would often lead to a vague memory when he sobered up. If the two continued to hang out regularly though, then there was a higher chance of him remembering the date since she’d be less of an afterthought.

“Whoa, hold up, who the fuck is goin’ around spreading rumors about me?” Felix began to say in answer to her question, his tone remaining light and playful. Of course he knew what kind of reputation he had, and while some wouldn’t want those kinds of titles attached to them, it really didn’t bother him any since they were all true. “I’m a goddamn angel. Is this your way of stroking my ego to try n’ steal my virtue?” He paused, but not for long enough to allow Shiloh to give him an answer. “Okay, if you insist. Since it’s my birthday and all.”

It shouldn’t have surprised her by now, but Shiloh couldn’t help but to exhale an audible sigh at the mention of Felix’s birthday once again, the phrase seeming to be on an endless loop tonight as the blond used it as a constant reminder to get away with things. Her brown eyes rolled but she couldn’t help but to grin, slumping back down into the water on her side of the pool floatie. Between his phony denial about his reputation or his over-used excuse, she didn’t know which was more laughable.

“Not even going to humor you with a real response to that,” Shiloh told him, giving a small shake of her head before she rested her chin atop her folded arms. For a moment, she found herself once again caught up in the vision of his face, his crystal-blue eyes looking brighter than ever, even beneath the veil of night. She’d always found him attractive, of course, but now he was dangerously so, because they were closer than they’d ever been and with far fewer clothes. Worst of all, he was making her laugh. To say that she was falling for him would be an understatement, and she was lucky that she had her self-respect and standards to lean on and keep her from falling all over him like a desperate harlot. Oh, how those pretty eyes and that devious smile made it hard though.

Once Shiloh had joined him on the opposite side of the inner tube and gotten comfortable, Felix gently pushed them away from the side of the pool to allow them to slowly float into the center of it. It was more comfortable to be actually sitting on the floatie, but for obvious reasons they weren’t going to do that; not that he would personally have a problem with it, being as shameless as he was, but Shiloh would probably have something to say about it. He was content with staying where they were, his gaze meeting with eyes that shone in the dark of the night.

There was something to be said about brown eyes, the way they could appear like a captivating liquid gold in a certain light while appearing invitingly warm and expressive in another. The dimples Shiloh had that deepened whenever she smiled only went to add to her charm. Of course, he knew she was a catch right off the bat when he’d spotted her at the beach. It was why he’d gone ahead and ditched the woman he’d been talking to to instead talk to her. A natural beauty who would surely turn heads when all dolled up. Sucks to suck, Hunter.

“Your birthday is on the fourth of July?” Felix asked, torn between thinking that was both cool and unfortunate. Always having fireworks on your birthday sounded kind of awesome, and yet having it be overshadowed by people celebrating a totally different occasion seemed a little sad. Well, at least for people who liked to celebrate their birthday. If it had been his own, it really wouldn’t make any difference, but he wasn’t sure how she personally felt about them. He knew some people who liked to turn a birthday into a whole birthweek.

“Pfff. Fuck no, I think we’ve both suffered enough with a taste of that salty abomination,” Felix laughed. “I dunno. I guess since you hung out with me on my birthday, I thought we could do something for yours.” He shrugged, hoping the suggestion didn’t come across as him pitying her or feeling obligated to do something in return. “If you’re not sick of me or don’t have other plans by then. I know it’s months away.”

At the mention of a birthday celebration proposal, Shiloh could feel herself grow both excited and apprehensive at the same time, the smile on her face growing a little and causing her to avert her gaze momentarily downward. On one hand, the fact that Felix wanted to keep spending time with her at all, especially months down the line, was flattering, but on the other hand, she knew better than to get too excited about something that had such a high possibility of never coming to fruition. The fear that she was setting herself up for disappointment kept her from getting too invested in the idea, but still, the fact that he’d stuck around after witnessing the truth of her cursed existence kept her from completely closing that door.

“I won’t have plans. I have no friends, remember?” Shiloh answered, a soft laugh following as she shook her head. Normally, she would spend her birthdays with Hunter, but being that she was no longer in a relationship with him, she knew for certain that she wouldn’t have any commitments this year. It was rare that she ever made any new connections. Certainly none that she would make birthday plans with. “I’ll tell you what,” she began. “If you remember that it’s my birthday when the day rolls around and you don’t have any other plans, we can do something.”

Initially, Felix had plans of finding other things to do after Shiloh inevitably parted ways with him for the night. At this rate, however, he would probably head straight home and go straight to bed–or even just end up sleeping in his car if he felt like he was too tired to drive. On the other hand, there was always a chance that the effects of the chlorine would wear off and he’d be right back where he started.

“Wait, what?” Felix asked, frowning as he tried to sort through the repeated words Shiloh was saying. There was a lot of crash and car, and he couldn’t quite make sense of it. “What I’m hearing is that either I fall asleep and end up crashing, or I crash my car first and then sleep. Or die. Right? Actually, don’t answer that. We’re just gonna move along to a new topic.” There were far more interesting things to talk about than sleeping in cars or dying in cars or whatever with cars.

Lifting himself out of the water a little, the lanky blond leaned forwards and reached for an inner tube that he’d noticed out of the corner of his eye. It was a translucent blue that had a nearby light reflecting off of it. After dragging it closer, he pulled it into the water and draped his arms over one side to hold onto it. He assumed Shiloh would grab onto the other side without a vocal invitation, but just in case, he nodded pointedly at the other side. He didn’t wanna end up drifting too far away from her since they had to keep their voices low, and this was more fun than just staying by the edge anyway. “Hey, I can’t remember if I’ve asked you this or not…” Maybe he already had the answer, maybe he didn’t, but after tonight he wanted to at least try to keep it in mind. “When’s your birthday?”

Hearing Felix attempt to make sense of everything that she’d just said only ended up making it sound more confusing, a frown etching itself onto the features of Shiloh’s face as she tried to wrap her head around the conversation. She was glad that he’d decided to drop the topic, because while it was funny, she didn’t have the energy to decode such things.

When the inner tube had been pulled over, Shiloh had remained at the side of the pool, only joining him in using the floatation device after he’d given her a physical invitation in the form of a nod of his head. Even then, she’d taken a moment to think about it before she’d floated over, deciding that there couldn’t be any harm in being opposite him on an inflated ring. After folding her arms on it, she was able to get comfortable, her dark gaze settling on the male that was looking back at her. 

Although Shiloh had known him for a couple of weeks now, this was the closest that she’d ever been to him, and for the first time, she was carefully taking in the details of his appearance, starting with the cute mess of blond locks that sat atop his head. Even while wet, each strand still seemed to defy a definitive pattern, sticking out in various directions in an unruly mound of adorable chaos. His eyes were much prettier than she’d initially thought too; a pale blue that looked even bluer with the reflection of the water, the lights from below highlighting them perfectly and causing her to momentarily fixate. Even his tattoos were much more extensive than she’d ever noticed, covering the bulk of his body in a maze of patterns and artwork. A nice surprise, she thought. She’d never seen him shirtless until now, let alone naked, and so she hadn’t known what to expect. It wasn’t as though she’d been blind or never found him attractive, but this was the first time that she’d ever allowed herself to really think about it and enjoy looking at him.

"My birthday?” Shiloh asked after a moment, zoning back into their conversation. “It’s stupid. The fourth of July,” she answered, a roll of her eyes accompanying the mention of the date. It had always seemed ridiculous to her that her birthday was always accompanied by fireworks and a ridiculous number of parties; most of them overshadowing her own special event. Not that she’d ever really cared though.

As expected, tickling Shiloh to make her run out of energy was far more satisfying than simply holding her under the water for a few seconds. Being tickled mercilessly by someone while begging them to stop was one of the most obnoxious experiences. He knew first hand what it was like, because he’d been in that boat before too. Despite her laughter, he could tell that she was getting exhausted and annoyed, but he had no intentions of stopping. At least not yet. He wanted to make her suffer a little longer.

Well, that had been the plan until Shiloh had called him a weird naked man and spit a mouthful of chlorine water in his face. Of all things to happen, he wasn’t expecting that. It was the comment, really, that had surprised him the most. Hands removed from the brunette’s slender waist, he again wiped the water from his face for a third time.

“That was oddly specific,” Felix laughed, his hand skimming the top of the water to splash some of it in Shiloh’s face. He then moved away from her to go towards the end of the pool, where he folded his arms atop the edge. His gaze settled on the shadowed table and chairs beneath one of the umbrellas, which looked so much more unsettling at night compared to in the day, when pools were bright and active and fun-filled. It just had a completely different vibe at night, when it was so quiet and still. “My eyes are gonna be so tired from this, I’m probably gonna end up doing one of two things: Crashing my car, or crashing in my car. Place your bets.”

Flinching away when the water was splashed in her face, the faintest of frowns briefly crossing her expression, Shiloh followed the tattooed male over to the edge of the pool. She was still feeling out of breath from the struggle and she’d swallowed enough pool water that she was certain she’d be too full to go to Taco Bell now, but all in all, it had only put her in a better mood.

“If the shoe fits,” Shiloh answered him with a shrug. “You’re weird, you’re naked, and you’re a man.” She said no more on the topic, her gaze briefly skimming over the umbrellas that she saw Felix looking at. Her attention only lingered on them for a moment though, as it was soon stolen by the provoking of an answer to a question. Her eyes were already sore too, so she could relate to his dilemma.

Rather than correcting Shiloh to her answer about being timid, Felix decided to just shrug it off and let the topic pass. She’d proven that she had some balls on her by breaking into the impound zone and now the pool, but she hadn’t bothered stripping down to her birthday suit. That was what his comment was directed towards, but maybe she simply didn’t feel comfortable undressing with a guy that she barely even knew. Not all girls were like that. Most of the ones he knew were pretty trashy, admittedly. Trash attracted more trash, he supposed.

Watching Shiloh disappear under the water, he’d half expected her to appear all the way at the other end. There was no telling where she was going to come up though, for the water was too dark at night and the only lights were the ones around the outside of the pool. A few seconds later, she had sprung out of the water behind him and a pressure was immediately felt atop his shoulders. Catching him off guard had been enough for her attempt to shove him under the water to work, the blond’s head once again being submerged beneath the water. He wasn’t kept under for long (he would easily overpower her even if she tried), and soon he came up sputtering, his hands wiping at his eyes before blinking the excess water away. Again, his hair was pushed out of his eyes and he immediately turned to look at the young woman who was behind the playful attack.

“Huh,” Felix began, the tattooed male both shocked and impressed with the unexpected prank. After all the playful insults about her height and stealth, maybe he deserved it. Lips pursed, he crossed his arms and gave a slow shake of his head. He was visibily fighting back a smile, teeth biting down on the inside of his lip. “Now you’ve gone and started something.” When it came to competitions, he could be absolutely relentless and would keep going until the other surrendered first. Rather than shoving Shiloh back under the water in return, he placed his hands on either side of her waist and teasingly ran his fingers along her ribs. Finally, the devilish grin he’d been hiding was on full display. A split second later, his touch was more firm and he was finding her sensitive spots to tickle her.

As soon as Felix came out of the water and cleared his face of the water droplets that were trickling down his features, Shiloh immediately realized that she’d started a war that she probably couldn’t win. She’d done went and fucked up. The grin on her face remained, however, it had faded a little to make room for the fear that was quickly creeping into her expression. “Felix,” she began, holding her hands out in front of her while her gaze remained trained on his own, as though that would put some distance between them and stop him from following through with whatever plan he was concocting in that little blond head of his. ”Felix, fuck off... We’re even now. Fuck off...”

Without any chance to get away, Felix had already closed the gap between them, his hands finding their way to her waist. “Whoa,” she gasped, her heart immediately jumping into her chest. She had no idea what he was doing, but this wasn’t what she’d been expecting. His hands on her head, maybe, or even on her shoulders, but he certainly wouldn’t be dunking her under the water by her waist. Before she could ponder aloud any further, one of his hands had found her ribcage and he was tickling her obnoxiously, causing her to squirm and writhe in a fit of laughter.

“Drowning? What a lame death. That’s not memorable at all. If I’m gonna die, I want it to be some sort of action-movie-worthy type of death filmed from multiple angles,” Felix teased, his gaze locked onto Shiloh while she continued to rid of her garments. He wasn’t trying to make her uncomfortable, it was just the most interesting thing to look at for obvious reasons. Apparently she was too shy to fully strip too, but that was her call. She at least lived close enough to her apartment to not have to walk far at all to get out of her chlorine-soaked clothes.

“Besides, good luck drowning me in anything that’s not the shallow end, short stuff.” If anything, Shiloh would probably end up drowning herself in her sad attempts to push him under. That would be an unfortunate way to end the night, as unrealistic as it was, but it made him wonder when or if they’d be hanging out again. For the most part, he’d been the one making all the plans and forcing his presence onto her. Still, he was pretty sure that she liked his company. They shared a lot of laughs together, and if she really didn’t want to be around him, all she had to do was ignore him.

At the question of whether he was bold or stupid, Felix paused to think of an answer. Some of the decisions he made were undoubtedly stupid, but he supposed he had a pretty bold and shameless personality too. Even in his youth, he was that kid on the playground that parents would warn their children to stay away from. He’d never been well behaved, and that wasn’t changing anytime soon. “Both, probably,” he decided with a shrug of his shoulders. He had many stories he could tell about his bold or stupid ideas and adventures. “What about you? Are you timid or do you have an overabundance of brain cells that prevent you from skinny dipping?”

“Neither?” Shiloh answered after taking little more than a moment to think of a response, her body coming to a stop a few feet away from Felix as she floated comfortably in the lukewarm water. “I definitely don’t have an overabundance of brain cells. I’m so fucking stupid for doing this,” she laughed. “I’m not timid either though. I’m just not shameless like you are,” she explained, offering a small shrug of her bare shoulders. “Not that there’s anything wrong with being shameless,” she added, the grin on her face returning.

“Nah, I’ll grow up by the end of the night. Maybe. Until then…” Felix replied with a playful grin before he leaned over, his fingers lacing together to allow Shiloh to use him for a boost. Once her foot was properly positioned, he lifted her up towards the top of the fence with ease. He figured she was capable of handling the rest on her own, but just in case she were to fall, he kept his hands near her. Within a few seconds, she had made it safely and quietly to the other side.

“How tall are you anyway? Five feet? Most people look short next to me, but you’re full on bite-sized.” Felix was excessively tall, where Shiloh seemed to be excessively short. Or in other words, above and below average. Arms reaching up, he gripped at the top of the fence, checked his footing, and then pulled himself up. He was lucky that he wasn’t short, which made it a lot easier, but he’d also had a lot of practice with climbing fences by trespassing and taking shortcuts. After dropping down onto the other side, he paused to take a quick look around and make sure that nobody was going to kick them out before they even got started. For now, it was safe. They would just have to make sure not to be too loud, otherwise they’d be asking to get caught.

Not wanting to bother wasting any more time, especially if they still wanted to go to Taco Bell before they grew too tired or it grew to be too late, Felix shrugged his hoodie off his shoulders and tossed the article of the weed-scented clothing to the side. In this case, he would make sure that his clothes were all in a pile, since it would be a pain in the ass to run around collecting all of it in the event that he had to make an emergency exit. His shirt was next to come off, exposing a fully tattooed torso, followed by his shoes, socks, jeans and underwear. Whether Shiloh wanted to fully undress or not was up to her; he just personally didn’t feel like getting dressed back into wet clothing. It was uncomfortable and he hated the scent of chlorine lingering on clothes. For him, going commando would be preferred over it. Now fully undressed, Felix went ahead and jumped into the deep end of the pool. Due to the hot sun beating down on the water all day, it still retained the heat and remained as a comfortable temperature to swim in.

Running his hand over his face and pushing his soaking wet hair from his eyes after he’d resurfaced, the tattooed blond glanced over his shoulder to look at Shiloh. He could tell that she was a little bit nervous, but he hoped that she’d be able to loosen up a little and have fun with it. “C’mon, Skinny. Get your ass in here before I pull you in myself.”

If it wasn’t for the fact that Shiloh had been in the process of using Felix as a ladder to climb the fence, she probably would have given him a smack across the back of his head for throwing a height-related insult at her. He’d been poking fun at her all night and getting away with it by using the excuse of it being his birthday, but there was only a little over an hour now before the clock struck midnight, and little tattooed, messy-haired Cinderella’s carriage would turn back into a weed-scented pumpkin. Thank fuck. It wasn’t as though she hadn’t been roasting him relentlessly too though. In fact, Shy was glad that their senses of humor resonated so well with one another’s. She enjoyed the back and forth banter.

The comment had rolled off of Shiloh’s back with no more than a quiet scoff exiting her lips, her focus stolen by the pool as it came into her line of vision and she approached the edge of it. Although Felix had been the last to climb over the fence, he was the first one to begin stripping, making confident and quick work of removing his clothes. Shiloh could feel her face rising in temperature as it was tinted with a blush, her gaze lingering on his bare form only in short bursts, but ultimately averting entirely when it came time for him to slip out of his underwear. By then, she’d only managed to remove her jacket, boots and socks, the bulk of her clothes still remaining when the now-nude male called to her from the water.

Had she been thinking, Shiloh would have undressed faster and gotten into the water, but because she’d been nervously taking her time, she felt as though she was now putting on some sort of uncomfortable show for her company. Luckily, the nickname ‘skinny’ that he’d just referred to her as broke the ice a little and loosened her up, pulling a grin from her lips as she fiddled awkwardly with an earing; a nervous habit of hers. 

“I don’t care if it’s your birthday,” she began, pulling her top off from over her head and throwing it into a pile to join her other clothing pieces, “-if you pull me in fully clothed, I’ll make sure you drown before your special day is over. Happy birthday to me.” She flashed him a smile, her delicate fingers unfastening the button of her jeans before she tugged them down over her hips and kicked them off of her ankles, leaving her in a black bra and a pair of plain, black cotton panties. She wished that she’d been wearing something nicer, but alas, she’d been living the single life for so long that her only goal was comfort. Regardless, it wasn’t as though she was trying to impress Felix anyhow. At this point, she didn’t even know what her intentions were with him, aside from simply enjoying his company.

As if it wasn’t funny enough to begin with, Shiloh’s laughter, which was so intense that it had her hunching over and leaning into him, just went to further fuel his own. He had a good sense of humor, but more often than not, he ended up laughing like this when he was high. It made everything so much funnier, but this was just top-tier funny all on its own. The definition of his name had been so absurdly weird and far from who he was, which made it comical, but it was Shiloh’s definition that really got him because it was so accurate to the definition he’d previously given. Not to mention the fact that the rest of it all added up too. It was too perfect.

Hands resting atop her shoulders to steady her while she laughed uncontrollably against him, Felix worked to try to calm himself back down. It felt nice to be able to laugh like this though, and he was growing increasingly fond of the brunette and her ridiculous sense of humor. She had a fun personality, one that he only saw brief glimpses of during their first few meetings when she seemed to want so little to do with him. Once they’d gotten the majority of the laughing bug out of their system, he straightened back up a little and watched the shorter wipe the tears from her eyes. “Fuck, that was funny. I think I spoke it into existence,” he said, a seemingly permanent grin still worn on his face. “I might just end up actually remembering this birthday.” Very few of them actually stood out to him, simply because he didn’t tend to celebrate it.

“Skinny Shiloh sounds like a guilty name. Like you’re trying to distract from the fact that you’re getting takeout all the time,” Felix pointed out, his hands coming to rest in the pockets of his hoodie. “Now shut up before we end up having a laugh attack all over again.” It was a playful warning, but he didn’t doubt that it very well could happen again if they continued on with their shenanigans.

Not long had passed before Felix was stopping in front of the gated-off area of a motel’s outdoor pool. It was closed for the night, but it wasn’t as if trespassing had detered them before. “Yo, Skinny Shiloh, wanna add to your twenty-four-hour crime streak and go swimming?” He asked, his head turning to look over at her. “Unless you want me to be left with the shitty impression of you leaving your Ninja Turtles key in the lock of the trunk. And I can and will keep using the birthday excuse until the sun comes up.”

It took a little while for the effects of the overdose of serotonin to wear off, the brunette repeatedly catching herself grinning for no reason, but she eventually managed to get herself under control enough to where she didn’t look like an absolute clown while strolling down the street. Perhaps she would have been able to cut it out earlier, had Felix not told her to shut up and stop laughing, but knowing that she had to stop just made it so much funnier. Everything was funnier when you weren’t supposed to laugh. Everyone knew that. When the pair had approached the gated-off area of a motel pool, Shiloh’s pace slowed to match Felix’s until they were at a complete stop. The mention of her new nickname had her grinning, but she held back her laughter, her eyebrow quirking quizzically instead. “You know,” she began, stepping closer. “You keep referencing my Ninja Turtles lanyard as though it’s some sort of insult, and I’m gonna need you to grow up and cut that the fuck out.” She paused. “Give me a boost, birthday boy.”

The brunette stepped closer, her arms reaching upward to allow her to settle her hands on the shoulders of the lanky male, a gentle pressure added to encourage him to stoop down to her level. There was no way that she would be able to get over the fence by herself. It had been a miracle that she’d made it over the one at the impound lot, but she guessed that she had the adrenaline and threat of being thrown into jail to thank for it.

The reaction Felix received from Shiloh was even better than he thought it would be, her feigned look of offense making it especially funny–even if he could see her fighting to hold back the grin that threatened to pull up the corners of her lips. What he hadn’t been expecting was for her to pull out her phone and actually put in a definition of his name. He’d made up the one about Shiloh on the spot, but his curiosity had now been piqued. It had drawn some pretty genuine and hard laughter from the brunette, so it had to be pretty funny.

“The fuck is so funny?” Felix asked, his hand reaching out to take the phone from Shiloh after it had been handed to him. Eyes on the screen, he began to read the definition out loud. The first part didn’t sound so bad. He wasn’t sure if he had a warm smile, exactly, but his voice was decently deep. It was from there on out that the definition got increasingly stupid and hilarious, resulting in laughter being mixed in with his words. “We’ll do Fortnite dances until we break our ankles. Dude, yes. We’re gonna floss from sun up ‘til sun down,” he laughed, his finger tapping the top of the other’s screen to instead search up Shiloh’s name. The result was way better than he’d been expecting it to be, and for a moment all he could do was practically shake with laughter before finding the words to speak.

“No fucking way! I shit you not, this is the real definition and I’m not making it up. Listen to this,” Felix chuckled, his hand gently grabbing onto Shiloh’s arm to stop her, as if they were incapable of walking and talking at the same time. With the phone held in his free hand, he again began to read the definition. “Shiloh is a quiet, food-loving, cute ass gurl. She loves to eat food,” he paused again to laugh, though only briefly, “and she’s skinny. Her laugh makes you wanna laugh. Can be a pain in the ass sometimes but she’s still nice af.”

As though the laughter was completely sapping the energy from her body, Shiloh’s footsteps came to a halt alongside Felix’s, her posture hunched over as she continued to involuntarily laugh. She didn’t need him to grab her hand to stop her, but she appreciated that he was on the same wavelength as her, which was evident by the way that laughter was now erupting from his chest.

Truly, Shiloh didn’t think that it could get any better, but as she heard the definition of her own name from the disreputable website, she was immediately proven wrong. While she didn’t necessarily agree with the ‘cute’ part of the definition, the rest of it actually added up, which made it even funnier. It only further proved the definition that Felix had already made up, and the legitimacy of it all had her in stitches.

“Holy fuck,” Shiloh wheezed through her laughter, which was now coming out in silent bursts as she fought for air, her brown eyes squinted through her smile as she maintained eye-contact with Felix. Looking at him just made it all funnier. Slowly, she began to lean into him, seemingly incapable of holding herself up as the laughter began to spiral out of control. By the time she finally got herself to settle down, she was gasping for air and she had to wipe a tear away from her cheek.