#g2c1

“You made it?!”

He nodded, wiping his clammy hands on his jeans. “The colors kinda reminded me of you. Gold, an’ orange…” He cringed. That was too much, and still not enough. If he was telling the truth, he’d admit that he’d picked the shades that matched the way her hair glinted in the sunlight.

Autumn seemed unfazed by his confession, smiling up at him in that way that always made his heart stop. “I love it.”

“Good. Took me fuckin’ ages,” he teased, and the moment passed. There was so much more he wished he could say. 

He’d tell her, one day. 

Autumn waited for some sarcastic comment, but it never came. She glanced at Cade and saw him staring back, stunned into silence.

“Okay,” he said, after a long moment. “So let's get to know each other.”

“Sounds like you already found everythin’ out online.”

“Not the stuff I wanna know.”

“Like what?”

“I was looking for your art,” he confessed, looking a little shy for once. “Thought you might sell it somewhere.”

Autumn grimaced. “Hell no. I ain’t that good.”

“What d’you paint?”

Reluctantly, they left their table, hands still intertwined, their shared confession wrapped around them like a blanket. 

Over the noise of the music, Autumn could hear a faint tune from Cade’s pocket. “Is someone callin’ you?”

“Nah, I set an alarm so I could make sure you weren’t late back.”

His words hit her square in the chest. A tiny gesture that showed he really did care for her; he didn’t see her as some prize to be won. He wanted to make her laugh, make her happy.

Dani took the stairs two at a time, and in their bedroom, pulled out the dusty box of high school relics. Rifling through the collection of junk, they found what they were looking for. 

They stuck their head around Jewel’s door, begging her to put the boy out of his misery, before racing outside.

It took only moments to swap the tapes, and Dani tried their best to impart some words of wisdom to the flailing, slightly hopeless teen.

Beau paused, taking a moment to piece his ego back together and plaster a nonchalant smile on his face before he turned to his waiting friends.

He would have preferred it if they were laughing. Their sympathetic grimaces confirmed they’d heard it all, and it really was as bad as Beau thought.

“Sorry, dude,” Kit muttered as the disappointed boy joined them.

Jewel stared at him, and Beau couldn’t read her expression as he waited for an answer. Confusion, and maybe… Was that a little hurt?

“No.”

The ground fell away underneath him, sending him into freefall. Watcher, he hoped the boys couldn’t hear. “No?”

“You did it wrong. That’s not how humans do it.”

“Do what?”

“Ask each other out. I’ve seen all the movies. You’re s’posed to give me flowers, or stand outside my bedroom with a boombox, or–”

“What movies are you watchin’?!”

Austin was a perfectly normal teenage boy.

He liked all the things that teenage boys do. Music. His skateboard. Gaming until dawn turned the sky silver, then gold, then bright, blinding blue.

He was never short on time; all of his hobbies fueled by a burgeoning caffeine addiction and the acceptance that he’d rather be anywhere but his bed.

After their third lap without any stumble or injury, the pair decided their luck was probably due to run out, and they made a quick exit from the rink.

Sitting down with a smoothie should have felt safer, but Autumn's heart raced faster now than it ever had while she’d been twirling in her skates.

“D’you skip school much?”

“We’re not skipping school,” Cade snorted. “It’s only practice. You never ditched class before?”