Sugar And Smoke Rings

4: Lighters And Candy

[Wes' Point Of View]

I got home and immediately went up to my room, texting Rhett and staring out of my window at the rain. "It's raining."

"I noticed."

"Sorry, I love rain."

"It's okay. I literally just got home."

"Same here. I want to nap, but then I'd have to set an alarm so I wake up before you pick me up. And then I'd probably snooze it and make you hate me for being late."

"Aw, poor baby. I don't know you well enough to judge if it's impossible to hate you, but it seems like it is."

"Whatever." I felt myself going pink.

"You're cute when you're snarky, by the way. I love it when the good little boy tells me off."

"Really? 'Good little boy'?"

"Yep."

"Shut up, Rhett."

"You know you don't want that."

"You can't hear, but I'm sighing."

"That's the snarky kid I'm crushing on."

"Someone's overconfident."

"You only have an hour to get ready, my friend. I'll leave you to it." I rolled my eyes playfully and put my phone away. It was just then that I realized that I'd forgotten to give Rhett his hoodie back. That made me glad I'd walked home. But then again, I did that because my mom forgot to get me.

I brushed my hair and re-styled it, then got changed because I had gotten soaked and also didn't like my outfit. I went downstairs to my parents, making sure I wasn't wearing Rhett's hoodie. I just shouted "I have a study date. I'll be back in a couple hours!" I then ran back up to my room and waited for Rhett to say that he was almost there.

"I'm down the street. Better run, beautiful." I snuck out of my window, then made sure the coast was clear before hopping the fence outside of my house and running to go find him. I didn't stop until I ran into him.

"Hey." I looked at the tall boy, dark-haired and blue-eyed, perfect face. He was so perfect. What did he see in me?

"Hey, Wes. Ready to go?" I nodded and he looked in his pockets for his keys. "Shit. I messed up."

"What did you do this time?"

"Locked my keys in my car. So, looks like you're running even more."

"Aw, c'mon."

"I kid you not." He wrapped a hand around my wrist and dragged me away. I tried to keep up with him, and we were both laughing. I loved his laugh, I realized that then. We finally stopped outside of my local convenience store. We sat down together outside, and he looked at me, specifically at my lips. I was smiling a lot.

"So..."

"Right. C'mere." He extended a hand to me, and I took it, standing with him. He took me inside, and then looked at me. "Pick out anything you want, and I'll get it for you."

"Really?" My eyes lit up and I looked at his smile. I liked his smile.

"Yeah. Go." I handed him his hoodie and walked off, and he came after me and draped his leather jacket over my shoulders. "Would you rather have this?"

"Oh, I just forgot to give your hoodie back."

"I didn't want you to."

"O-oh, okay. But I kinda do like this better." I put it on fully and walked off to look. I came back to Rhett with some gummy worms and handed them to him. He had a pack of strawberries. He paid for the stuff and we sat back outside. I still had on his jacket, ignoring the fact that it smelled like smoke. I liked it.

I shared my gummy worms and he fed me strawberries, and at one point we had the weird idea to split a gummy worm like we were doing the Pocky challenge. I almost kissed him then, but I was much too nervous. I realized that day just how much I liked him.