Chapter 7: Hanging out

   "Think 'bout this fer a second, Cass," Cormac said pointing to his head. 

"if zombies took over, who would you save? Me, the strong and witty one," he said flexing his arm muscles. "or Apphia?" 

I laughed and shoved his arm in a friendly way. 

"I'd use you as bait and then run my a*s off from the zombies." I answered still laughing in between. 

Cormac gave a "Why-would-you-do-that" look and pouted. I shoved him once more and we both laughed. 

It was Saturday, finally a day where we could hang out and relax. I had finished my homework with Cress and I'm pretty sure Cormac hadn't yet, but I didn't really care.

We were both sitting in the little porch swing outside the front door of my house, it was about 6:00 and dragonflies were zooming around the sky. 

Cormac was sitting to the left of me, his blonde-brown hair was ruffled in a messy way, and he wore an old hooded jacket and worn out jeans. He felt for something that was to the side of the swing, a small black case that looked like it could fit a pair of his shoes. 

"What's that?" I asked leaning in a bit closer.

"It's my instrument for Band." Cormac said clicking the case open.

"Oooh, Mr. Bad-guy's a part of the school band!" I joked.

"Can it, Cass. I play the fife."

Cormac slid out a long tube, the fife. It was a shiny black and had little wet stains on the hole which meant he must have played it not long ago.

He examined the sides and then held it back in his right fist.

"Mr. Castillo taught us a bunch after school, you wanna hear?"

"Heck yeah!" 

"Sorry! I can't play the fife to girls who aren't nice!" Cormac exclaimed and pushed his fife back in the case and flipped the lid back on. 

"C'mon! That's not nice!"  I complained.

"So's yer' a*s!" Cormac laughed and then blasted off into the house.

"That doesn't make seeeeennnseee!" I said and blasted into the house after him. Cormac tore up the stairs and I heard him bang my door open and into my room. I charged after him and finally reached him. 

Apphia was sitting on my bed, like she was 20 minutes ago, still on her laptop and tap-tapping away. Cormac was spinning on my swivel chair near my dresser holding his fife case to his chest.

"You ain't never gonna get a song outta me!" He yelled and spun around a couple times more until he got dizzy.

Apphia took a look at Cormac's deranged face and me laughing, when I should have been scolding.

"Cormac! Stop it! You're being mean to Cassie!" she snapped.

Cormac knit his eyebrows and gave a puzzled look. "What did I do?" He replied.

Apphia gave her famous mouth-gaping face and began complaining to Cormac about how he was being mean to me. 

"First of all, your spinning on her chair, it's hers! And second! You stole her case of whatever! You're such a b*****d sometimes, you know? Why is Cassia even your friend?!" 

I saw Cormac about to say something that was about to get messy, so I hurried and butted in like my usual self.

"Apphia!" I exclaimed. "It's a chair, he's my friend, I don't care if he spins on it! And that case is his. And he's not a b*****d, he's a friend, gottit?"

Cormac gave a "Ha-Ha" look without saying a word and crossed his arms.

Apphia gave a "Oh-shut-up" face back and slammed her laptop shut, then left the room. Moments later, I heard the front door close in an angry slam, either that or a very large gust.

"Jeezus," Cormac sighed and jumped down on my bed face down.

"Affia cahn bwe swut uh bibth, mright?" his muffled voice said.

"Uh, sure." I said.

By now you are probably thinking:

a) Apphia isn't really my friend and Crescentia is probably replacing her

b) Cormac and I are in the "like-like" phase

c) Draaamaaaaa

 Cormac strained his head up from the bed covers and looked at me.

Poor Cassia Kampens, the girl with the messy chestnut hair and wearing a T-shirt and pajama shorts. The girl who had just out-sassed one of her best friends and was probably down-graded from "Best Buds" to "Worst Friends" on the friend chart.

"So, you wanna hear that fife?" Cormac said, trying to lift my spirits. 

"Yeah, I would like that." I smiled. "I would really like that."

  A minute passed for Cormac to study a folded piece of sheet music that was stuffed in his pockets, then ready his fife.

He then blew into the hole and used one of his hands to press on and off the other holes creating a little tune, which sounded so familiar, but couldn't quite get my finger on it.

After he was done, he looked at me with a sheepish smile and asked "Well? How'd I do?" 

I grinned and held two thumbs up. "Best!" I yelped.

"No way, I messed up on like, half the song."

"No! It was perrrfeect! But what was the song?"

"Oh, it was 'When The Saints Go Marching In', got a nice beat to it."

I smiled. He smiled. We smiled.

The rest of the minute was silent. Just silence. 6:30, and silence. I looked at Cormac, and he looked at me.

"Hi?" I asked nervously.

"Hi."

I tapped my fingers on my cold thigh, and then proceeded to snuggle into my light blue thick blankets. 

Cormac looked at me, he held his hands around his arms, was he cold? 

"Don't be shhhyyy!" I said and tugged a little blanket onto his leg.

He laughed and then snuggled into the bed with me.

Now wasn't this awkward.

  Imagine this, two teenagers, one 14, one 15. Both wearing casual everyday clothes, but snuggled into a tiny twin bed. Both smiling. Not boyfriend and girlfriend, just best buds, or something like that.

My heart was pounding the whole time, feeling the body heat from Cormac near me, hearing his slow breaths, and the steady beat of his heart. Everything was quiet. I looked up at him, since I was lower on the bed, and I looked at his eyes. He looked back at mine.

"You're preeeetty." He moaned.

"Pretty awesome?" I said, completing his sentence.

"No, I mean pretty. Just that."

"Oh! You mean I'm pretty just that?" I joked, then continued.

"I'm pretty just that my eyes are crooked, or my lips are chapped! Maybe my pores are so big I'm a sponge!" 

Okay, I was getting too into this. 

"Or maybe that there's a big bear in the woods, and nobody's around to hear it! Does it make a growl!?"

Okay maybe I was crazy at that point.

"Hey, what if I was a boy, I would be Chris, and you would be Cormac-tina. Ahaha!"

We both were chuckling at the same time I was going insane, but I couldn't shut up.

"Gee whiz, what am I doing, sitting here with you. On this bed. Laying down, actually. Hey? What if we were sitting instead, would that make a difference in our conversation? I think it would, because--"

Mmmfh!

Kiss.

Kissss.

OHMYGODITSAKISS.

Cormac was actually kissing me. 

Someone much cooler than me, kissing me. Smack on the lips. My eyes were wide open the whole time, while Cormac's was not, like he had done this a million times before.

The kiss lasted about 15 seconds, and believe me, I am not the best at holding my breathe, I can't just dive in and out of a kiss to breathe! I had to suck in out of my nose, but I hesitated and kept it in there, I didn't want Cormac to feel my hot stinky booger nose-breathe onto his face! 

When we finally retracted, my face felt Hot-Pocket hot, and Cormac looked like nothing had happened.

"What." I said. "Was. That?"

Cormac smiled and put his hands behind his head.

"Cass, you needed some spark! in your life. See, that smooch was the first ember, then, you're bound to go places!"

"Cormac, did you just read that outta a book? A kiss," I stuttered when I said that word. "doesn't mean I'll go bungee-jumping to China, or solve a mystery, or become an All-Star player on the best basketball team! It's just a kiss!"

"Cass! Poor simple Cass! Listen, Imma help jumpstart your life, beginning with this: Will you be my girlfriend?"