Ba ba ba BOOM!

Taking charge of the situation Anthony declares. “Casey, Jesse, Bianca and I against you four.”

“Fine by us!” Sean says far too eagerly, the other three nodding in agreement.

Bianca leans in and whispers to you. “Hope you don’t mind losing.”

You just chuckle. “It’s all good.”

The opposing four each grab a red ball each and your team does the same by taking a blue ball each. The ball fit nicely into your grip and had a bit of heft to it. The game is explained and the rules are dead simple. Everyone is trying to get their ball closest to the little white ball and at the end of each round points are tallied. The first team to 12 wins that game.

“Got it?” Anthony asks.

“I got it.” You nod. “Seems simple enough.”

“Good.” He says. “As captain I always throw last, that cool?”

Behind him you see his girlfriend smile and roll her eyes. The other team seemed quite pleased with this arrangement as well.

“Yeah, that’s cool.”

“Ha ha!” He exclaims.

You take a sip of your drink and it was delicious, then you set it on a table they had set for them. One by one each person throws their ball, first one of them and then one of you, back and forth. You throw second on your team and actually manage to get your ball pretty close to the pallina, the little white ball. Felix manages to finesse his right in between yours and the pallina.

“Hey!” You protest in jest. “Take it easy on the new guy.”

Felix thinks about it a moment then says. “Nah!” You share a laugh.

Casey responds by adeptly knocking Felix’s ball out from its cozy spot with a masterful throw of her own, leaving yours right where it had been but now the closest one to the center. She and her roommate share an amused little look to one another. Felix just nods as if to say, ‘It’s on now.’, with Casey nodding right back at him accepting the challenge.

As the game goes on there is as much chatting and drinking as there is actual playing. You stay quiet for a time and listen, getting a sense for their personalities. Felix was friendly and easy to get along with, Sean a flamboyant flirt, Jermaine a soft spoken man with a razor wit, Jamil a stereotypical drama nerd, Bianca the organizer and mother hen, and of course the loud and bombastic Anthony. Being drama majors everything was turned up to eleven but all in all they were good people. You wait for an opportunity to get closer to Casey only to be intercepted by the over protective Bianca.

“Sooo, Jesse…”

“Be nice Bianca.” Casey warns her, seeming to know what was coming.

“I’m always nice.” Bianca says innocently. “I was just saying hello.”

“Hello Bianca.” You quip in response.

“Right.” She smiles coolly as she studies you up and down. “You know, we all quite like Casey around here.”

“I quite like Casey too.” You flash your crush a little glance.

“Mmm hmm.” Bianca takes a slow sip of her drink and stares hard at you. “I bet you do.” The not so subtle subtext of ‘if you hurt this girl you’ll have me to answer to’ was coming through loud and clear, the fact that all of the others had fallen quiet told you that they would have her back too. In the face of them all you were a tad intimidated but mostly you were glad to see Casey had friends like these around her. You give her a solemn nod of understanding. With message sent and message received the mood lightens as quickly as it had went somber. “We’ve heard a lot about you these past few weeks. It’s nice to finally see you in person.”

“Well it’s nice to be seen in person.” You say brightly. “I hope what you heard about me wasn’t too bad.”

“No, not too bad.” She smirks. “Maybe a little too good to be true.”

“Bianca!” Casey nudges her, a little blush rising in her cheeks. “I told them that you were a great guy and that you were a good friend. Don’t listen to these trouble makers.”

“Yes, a good friend.” Bianca wasn’t convinced your intentions were so platonic, and she was correct. You had no idea how much Casey had told them but it was enough to garner this special attention from them and that was good sign.

“Hey!” Anthony announces. “If you’re done hen-pecking the new guy…”

“Hen-pecking!?” His girlfriend is aghast, though not actually. “I do NOT hen-peck!” She crosses her arms in a performative flounce.

He steps in and kisses her cheek. “Of course not tesoro mio.”

She lets out a huff and rolls her eyes but a grin plays at the corners of her lips.

“Now, get ready for the boom!” Anthony grips his ball and turns to the center. His is the final throw of the round. He gets super intense as he readies himself.

“Oh Lord!” Bianca groans and looks at you. “Here it comes.” The other team are all smiles and Casey is already giggling.

“Ba…ba…ba…” He pulls his arm all the way back and cocks it into position. “…BOOM!” All seven of them cry out as one.

With an underhand throw that launches the ball like a bullet Anthony sends it hurtling into the cluster surrounding the pallina. It is thrown with such power however that it has piss poor accuracy. It smashes straight into the ball you had thrown sending both balls shooting out into the yard, one hitting the back fence and the other the side fence, and as far from scoring points as it was possible to get. The other team lets out a cheer for Anthony as Casey and Bianca both groan.

“Anthony!” Bianca gripes good-naturedly, then turns to you. “Told you.”

“That usually works.” He assures you as his girlfriend is behind him shaking her head no. He laughs and shrugs it off. “I was only off a bit.” He pats your shoulder. “I’ll get them next time, no worries.”

“No worries.” You laugh.

As the points are tallied, the other team getting three of the four possible points, you motion to Casey that you wanted to talk to her alone for a moment. She nods. The pair of you excuse yourselves and head over to the far corner of the yard.

There are some smiles and knowing glances among the group, and a rather stern motherly look from Bianca, but they let the pair of you fade off to speak alone. You turn to face her, the cold drink she made for you in your hand.

“Hey.” You smile, you couldn’t NOT smile. You’d been waiting for this all day.

“Hey.” She smiles right back.

“You look great.”

She blushes. “Thank you. You too.”

“Um…you didn’t need to…” You nod toward the house. “…do that. I thought you looked really cute in your tweed hat.”

She giggles and blushes even more. “That’s sweet of you to say.”

“I mean it.” You say. “Hey, um, this is probably a bad time and…this is going to sound sudden, maybe even a little crazy.”

“I don’t mind a little crazy.”

“I broke up with Allison this morning.” You blurt out clumsily.

“Oh!” Casey wasn’t quite sure how to respond. “Oh my. That was…quick.”

“I…I just wanted you to know that.” You say softly. There is then a long excruciating pause as Casey turns this news over in her mind. Simply to fill the tense quiet you add. “I didn’t mean for this to get weird but…I just thought you ought to know. I must sound like a crazy person hitting you with this so suddenly.”

“No!” She insists over quick. “No…no, thank you. That’s…good to know.”

“It went well. Allie took it in stride.” You say, not sure if Casey actually wanted to hear this but needing to say something to keep the conversation moving. “She said she knew it wasn’t meant to be. She was happy for me.”

“I see.” You could sense the wheels turning behind those magical emerald eyes. “This…is…because of what we talked about last night?”

You shift ever so slightly closer to her. “It was because Allison and I weren’t right for each other. Though I admit what we talked about may have hurried things a bit.” You laugh nervously. “I couldn’t wait too long…knowing…well…” Your voice fades but the message gets across even without words.

Casey smiles but doesn’t laugh with you. She looked concerned, but mostly she looked happy despite trying her best to hide it. “I didn’t mean to…I hope I didn’t…I feel responsible.”

“Casey.”

“Yeah?”

“It’s already done.”

You stand staring into each other’s eyes, the raw desire and sexual tension between you palpable, and everything goes quiet. The birds, the breeze, the conversation of the others all fade into the background. All at once Casey reaches out to grab you by the head and pulls you into a hard open mouthed kiss! “Mmmmm!” The drink slips from your hand to land in the soft grass at your feet.

What…a…KISS!

Just as suddenly it ends, leaving you staggered by its intensity and abruptness. Your lips reach for her as she pulls away but she pushes you back, looking every bit as flustered as you felt. There is a moment of silence in the yard followed quickly by a few whoo’s and bawdy cheers from the others. “Ba ba ba BOOM!” Anthony bellows, only to be quickly shushed by Bianca.

“Sorry!” Casey says breathlessly as she tucks a long wavy lock of hair back behind her ear and glances embarrassedly toward her friends.

“Don’t be!”

“This is too fast.” She says.

“Way too fast.” You agree…until you think about it a second. “But fast is good too!”

“Nuh uh.” Casey shakes her head. “It’s not going to be that easy Jesse Bailey.”

“No, I understand that but…”

“I’m not that kind of girl.”

“Of course not. But…”

“You haven’t even asked me out. We haven’t even had a proper date.”

“Yeah, but…”

“I want to be romanced.” With a hand on your chest she is keeping you back at arms length. “I want to be swept off my feet.”

“Of course, but…”

“I want our first kiss to be magical.” She steps back with a sweet yet sultry smile on her gorgeous face.

“First kiss?” You say. “What was that then!?”

“An appetizer.” She winks then turns to stroll back toward the group waiting for you, her slender body swaying seductively.