The Dating Game

THIRTY-FOUR

There's a moment of stillness between us. A silence that fills the space up here in the sky wraps around both Chase and me and to speak feels like a bullet to a fragile forcefield. Time seems to stop around us and all that we can see is each other. His eyes are so green tonight, despite the lack of light, and I find myself with a new appreciation for them.

"This isn't too high, is it?" Chase asks suddenly, shooting right into that forcefield. His eyes don't shift expressions; it's like his mouth is moving just to move. "I wanted to get higher ground to see it better, but I didn't wanna go somewhere too high because of your irrational fear—"

"It's not irrational!" I immediately defend myself, falling back into our typical motion. "It's perfectly rational.  A lot of people are afraid of heights."

"Okay, sure," he agrees with me calmly and takes his black duffel bag off of his shoulder. He opens it and pulls out a soft-looking, green fleece blanket. He hands it to me and orders me to lay it out on the floor of the roof so that we have something to sit on while we watch the meteor shower. I do as he says, against my better judgment, and lay it flat down, making sure to spread it out as far as I can. Then, he pulls out a portable telescope from his bag and I immediately grab it from him.

"Where did you get this?" I ask him, analyzing it carefully. I've never owned one but I did have an obsession with them for a while in middle school when I first discovered my love for all things space. The one Chase brought is so sleek and fancy—it's gotta be high-end.

"It's my dad's," he answers slowly and carefully, probably watching himself because of how quickly I grabbed the telescope. "I just borrowed it for tonight. I read somewhere that it's a lot easier to see stuff like meteor showers with a telescope."

"Oh, yeah, you read," I recall, handing him back the telescope as I take a seat beside him. "I forgot."

He rolls his eyes with a smile and I allow a quiet chuckle to escape my lips. I watch him with close eyes—the way he smiles, the way he moves, the way he breathes. I watch the collar of his shirt against his tan skin, I watch his hands as they reach into the bag and pull out some water bottles and potato chips; it's like all I can see is Chase and it terrifies me.

My cheeks flush once I realize I've been staring at him. I try to stop my mind from racing by taking a sip from one of the water bottles but I manage to miss my mouth almost completely and water drips down my chin and neck. Chase notices, reaching a hand out to wipe the water from my chin, but allowing his fingers to linger along my jawline.

My body freezes and my eyes refuse to look anywhere but his, and apparently he can't seem to look away either. My hand lowers the bottle from my lips and that seems to be Chase's cue to remove his hand from my face. Despite my heart's reaction, I'm glad he pulled away; I finally have time to think and direct my brain away from thinking about him.

"You okay?" he asks, knowing damn well I'm not okay. I'm having an internal crisis and rethinking my attraction for a man who's been nothing but irritating to me for three weeks straight when it's supposed to be illegal in this game we're playing for a prize that I still don't know about. At this point, it's useless trying to compete for a prize in a game with no stakes. But God damn it, there's not a single quitter bone in my body. So I guess it's back to internalizing these feelings and pretending they don't exist.

Instead, I focus on Miles. The very definition of tall, dark, and handsome. My crush since grade school and the guy who's actually shown interest in me without a prize or his pride on the line. I'm not sure how or why he's interested in me, but he's made it very clear that he is, and at the end of this week, we can finally act on those feelings.

Yeah. At the end of this week, I can finally be with Miles, just like I've been wanting this entire month; just like I've been wanting for the last half of my entire life. Miles, Miles, Miles—

Suddenly, I feel a nudge on my shoulder that shakes me out of my Miles trance. I look over at Chase, trying my best to be annoyed with him for elbowing me, but then he hands me the telescope. I take it and look through it inquisitively, searching for any sign of meteorites.

"What am I looking at?" I ask him when the magnified version shows me nothing but a dark sky. I try to adjust the position, wagging the scope back and forth in hopes of finding something.

"You're moving it too fast," he tells me, gently taking hold of the telescope with one hand and placing his other hand on top of mine. The touch of his hand makes my face hot and I try to focus on the sky as he moves it around slower for me. "Stop me when you see it," he says softly, right into my ear. Shivers crawl down my spine and paying attention suddenly seems impossible.

"Okay, but I don't know where it—" All of a sudden, I see it. The glimpse of something sparkling in the distance. "Stop!" I gasp, placing my other hand on his to stop him from moving the telescope any further.

I focus my eyes on it—the streak of bright white flying across the sky quicker than I can catch it. It dazzles the dark night, only visible through this tiny telescope. It's just the start of a meteor shower, but one more flies across the sky, a little brighter and a little bigger than the first, and thus begins the most beautiful light show I could ever watch.

Eventually, the meteorites get large enough to see without the telescope. My eyes are glued to their excellence as they shoot across the sky and I gently set the telescope down on the blanket between Chase and me and watch the stars in awe. I've never seen anything quite like this, and I'm lucky to get this opportunity. I guess I should thank Chase for taking me here, even after I've been such a jerk to him for the entirety of this month.

When I turn to give him my gratitude, he's just as entranced by the show as I am. There's a small, open smile on his face as he keeps his eyes glued to the sky and I can't help the smile forming on my own face. There's such a childlike joy to Chase Matthews and he somehow finds a way to rub it off on me whenever he's around. I've really been taking advantage of him and his positive energy, and for what? Some silly prize that probably doesn't even exist? He's not even all that bad. He's not bad at all. He's...

I wonder how he would react if—

"Did you know that meteors are considered shooting stars?" Chase asks suddenly, not even bothering to rip his eyes away from the stars. My breath gets caught in my throat before I can answer but I let out a soft sigh before answering him.

"Yeah," I answer plainly, directing my eyes back to the sky. I watch how the stars align with the meteors and how the moon balances them all out in all of its brilliance—everything fits so perfectly.

I glance back down at the blanket. Chase's hand is by his side, holding him up as he leans back. I try to fight the urge to place my hand on his and feel the warmth of his skin on mine, I try to fight the urge to bite my cheek as I watch him smile, and I try my very best to ignore the way my heart is beating when I look at how happy he is. So, instead, I make a wish on the shooting stars.

I hope it won't hurt too much when this all ends.