Chasing Ellie

48. Spontaneous Moments

Ellie Hope

I have Darren's map spread out across his bed, studying all the places he has marked. A lot of the spots are places I want to go to also but there's some obscure places that seem almost in the middle of nowhere. Like a spot lingering on the boarder of Colorado and Wyoming.

"What's here?" I ask, pointing to the map.

He leans closer, my shoulder touching his chest faintly. Just a brush really, but everytime we bump into each other or sit close or graze each other I can't stop my heart from spluttering around in my chest.

"That's Sand Wash Basin. There's wild horses there."

He starts in about this whole following some of the horses have, a group of people that document and photograph and know some of the lineage of the horses that roam the area. There's one in horse in particular he calls by name, Picasso, but he quickly tells me no ones spotted him for a year so he's probably dead.

But the whole time Darren spouts off information I watch him. Studying his profile, his light hair combed to the side, styled so perfectly you can see each individual strand, his freckles that are faded to just a shade or two darker than his pale milky skin. How currently his cheeks aren't flushed because he's concentrated on something he knows, something he's comfortable with. Dark eyes focused on the map, his finger pointing out certain areas that relate to the horses but I've long stopped listening. I watch his mouth, how his lips move fluidly and the desire to kiss him overwhelms me.

I'm sure if I asked Darren, he'd probably have some list of statistics and fact about who's supposed to kiss who first. But facts and statistics don't usually lend themselves to spontaneous moments.

So with my heart in my throat I say "Darren". Mostly to get him to look at me but also to stop his monologue. He doesn't fail me, his blue eyes meeting mine as he stops himself mid sentence.  He's obviously not expecting me to kiss him, I can see it in the way he's mostly relaxed, a little crease between his eyebrows as he looks at me with slight concern because I've asked for his attention.

Everyone always says that time slows down when you kiss someone. I'd like to disagree.

My lips press against his, his body frozen and I'm sure if I opened my eyes he'd be staring at me in shock. And just as quickly as I planted my lips to his I pull away, sure enough Darren is in the exact position he was in before I kissed him.

He looks like a deer in headlights and I suddenly feel like maybe I shouldn't have kissed him. Maybe I should have waited for him to kiss me. Maybe Sawyer was lying.

But as I go to open my mouth and apologize, to brush it off, Darren says "I think my heart just stopped."

Trying to ease some of the embarrassment that's seeping through my body I press my palm to his chest. His heart is in fact doing the opposite, it slams against my palm so hard it feels like it might burst out.

"Nope still beating." I quip.

He nods his head, "good, th-that's good. Can we do that again?"

He breathes the words like there's no air left in his lungs and the sound of him breathless makes me grin.

"Yeah." A giggle falls out of me, something I'd normally cringe at but I want to kiss Darren again. "Yeah we can."

This time when our lips meet, Darren kisses me back.

                            ————————

There's nothing like a kiss with a boy you like to ramp up your good mood. Literally nothing could bring me down.