Vanilla

Twenty Eight

A/N: So I wrote this in like literally two days even though its about 4.6k words and good GOD has it been a busy week but happy new year to every Bean! ;/////; to more ice cream flavours and braised chicken ahead. 

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[Vanilla]

It had been thirteen hours and approximately forty-seven minutes since Leroy and I had fallen into the pool and done a terrible job of recalling the need for oxygen even above water. I blame the idiot, as I always do, who appeared to have eliminated breathing from his list of necessities in life and replaced it with any word representative of 'lip-locking'. The moment resembled some sort of break in his religious fasting, in which Leroy had experienced a lifelong hunger and starved himself to the ends of the earth until the, um... well, the thing.

Naturally, I'd never had the time or proper mind to be fantasizing about any sort of first kiss—let alone my own—and still, should some fortune teller have decided to warn me of something that long or intense of a festival, I would have politely dubbed them insane.

Either way, I had been mildly disappointed.

Leroy's hand-bound recipe book had fallen to the side of the pool during the entire fiasco; back cover thoroughly soaked beyond recognition but fortunately sacrificing itself for the rest of the inner content. Thank goodness I'd come up in time to save the rest of it and mind you, that was after I'd experienced nearly five full minutes of a certain someone pulling me back into his arms for yet another one of his attacks every time I tried to reach for the side of the pool.

"So you guys kissed fourteen times in total," Si Yin was back to exaggerating the very next day only because I hadn't the sanity to keep this inside and stay calm like Leroy obviously could. He'd acted so normal afterwards that I was pretty sure no one else could tell what we'd been doing moments before while they were away. Si Yin, who'd spent so much time with myself, was the only one who noticed my flushed cheeks.

"That is not—! There was no calculation of... I couldn't possibly count the number of times he'd, well I... goodness, I can't think." I stared down at the textbook on my desk and registered the buzzing chatter of our classmates before homeroom. "You don't think romance could have multiple side effects on one's mindfulness?"

Si Yin opted for a reassuring pat on my shoulder. "I'm pretty sure it does. Are you feeling stupid already?"

"More by the minute, yes."

"That's the way," she slapped this right across my back and I positively froze. "Is this a secret, by the way? I'm so bad at keeping secrets but I'll try. I'm having lunch with Nabila and Rosi so this is going to be harder than that product knowledge test by Marseille. Do you want to come and keep me in check?"

I told her that it wasn't all that big of a deal but inside, I was practically quaking. "That is quite alright. You have my complete trust and faith. Also, I've made arrangements for lunch with Leroy. Well, we never really established if it was public in any manner but that's probably because we never got to establish if it was a thing at all. Him and I are dating, a-and... and, um... i-it doesn't... there isn't a... u-um... dear god there it is again. Contagious stupidity!"

My best friend was quick to point out the clear tendencies I'd seemed to have developed all of a sudden: nerves absolutely fried whenever it came to speaking about Leroy and our current relationship. Not a single moment of clarity was involved in a conversation with his name in it.