Shifted #Wattys2016

LVII

Felix

It's the Fourth of July. One of my favorite holidays. And this year I'm spending it with my wonderful girlfriend. And my wonderful family. Minus Ronnie.

Normally, we don't do much. We light a few fireworks and entertain the girls. But this year I want to go big. I want to make this year memorable.

Emmett and I went and bought the biggest and the most extreme fireworks until we had just enough money for gas home. Emmett and I spent half an hour planning which fireworks to set off and when. We wrote numbers on them in big fat Sharpie and moved the fireworks outside to where we'd be shooting them off.

I made sure that we had flashlights, and Emmett made sure we had plenty of punks and lighters. This year we would not dud.

Once it started to get dark, the gang came outside with their drinks and food and we sat in folding chairs and talked. Once it really started getting dark, though, I laid a blanket down on the ground and sat with Maxine.

She told me that she had never be allowed to shoot off fireworks like ours before, and even firework shows weren't that great in Chicago.

"Well, then prepare to be amazed. You're totally going to shoot off a shell." I smiled at her and kissed her. Light flashed and I looked over at Bloom. She lowered her camera and I tried to blink away light spots in my eyes.

"I'm so excited." She said.

I looked over at the field where Emmett was lighting up the first row of fireworks. They were all fountains, and not amazingly exciting. Fountains aren't my favorite, and to me they're mostly the same. But I looked over at Maxine and smiled at the bright, wide-eyed, childish look she had on her face. Her eyes were glowing, her mouth open slightly, lips parted into a smile, and laughter leaking.

When the last fountain finished its display, Maxine hooted.

"THAT WAS GREAT!" She yelled into the night air. She hugged me tight. "Thank you." She whispered. I kissed the top of her head and watched as Emmett lit more fountains.

Once a good amount of the fountains had been gone through, I took Maxine's hand and pulled her up to the table of unlit works. I grabbed a shell and a tube and a lighter. "I'll show you how to do one, then you can do one yourself."

She smiled. I sat the tube on the table and set the shell into the tube—wick straight up, not coiled underneath the shell itself—and clicked the lighter on. Maxine was holding onto my other arm as I lit the wick. Once the spark caught, I grabbed Maxine and we jogged away. The bang was so loud, louder than most, as the shell launched into the sky, erupting in vibrant red, white, and blue.

"Can I try?"

I smiled and handed her another shell.

I watched closely as she put the shell in, making sure that she put it in the correct way. She was shaking with excitement as she went to light the wick. We stood back and watched the firework shoot into the air, this was golden stars that made sizzling noises as the started to fall.

Maxine hugged me tight.

"Thank you."

We helped to light a few more, then Maxine wanted to watch so we sat back down on our blanket. Emmett did another row of fountains with shells on the ends. I wrapped my hand around Maxine's back and heard the click of Bloom's camera. I looked at her and she smiled at me.

"Are you allowed to have sparklers on the Fourth in Chicago?"

Maxine shook her head. "No commercial fireworks."

I pulled her to her feet and lit a sparkler for her. She took it in her hand, slightly mesmerized, slightly scared of the flame. I rolled my eyes and took it from her. "Make shapes." I swirled the sparkler in a circle. Then a star. Then abstract lines.

She now looked slightly more intrigued and took the sparkler back, but by the time she was ready to do anything it went out. I lit another and she made shapes. I lit myself one and smiled and laughed with her.

Watching the fireworks and lighting them off and being there with Maxine made me feel so great. Exhilarated. Happy. Excited. Refreshing. Mind-blown. I never wanted for the night to end or for the fireworks to run out.

I never didn't want to feel this way.

I love her.

I love Maxine Clarke.