Of Competition and Cuteness

The evening had passed almost in a blur. Cards, laughter, Brenda making semi-regular suggestive statements at the pair of teenagers - John could have done without that last one, admittedly.

Despite that, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d had this much fun. Well, if he didn’t count the unexpected time he’d spent with Velvet in the Lost Garden. Did that… Was that a date? He didn’t want to call it a date and embarrass himself when Velvet shot it down, but at the same time… He really wanted it to be a date. Really really. Was that unreasonable of him? To want it to be that the first time he’d spent time alone with a girl other than his mom since he’d started school to be a date?

It wasn’t totally implausible that she might see it as a date. They’d spent the whole time laughing and having fun with one another, although it hadn’t been planned or anything, and they hadn’t done any date-y stuff, really. Well, unless you counted running through what was essentially a hedge maze, chasing after her, and eventually collapsing beside her and lying together on the grass for a while as romantic.… nah, he must be overthinking it. There’s no chance that she would actually think of him that way. For God’s sake, look at the girl!

John glanced over as his inner monologue continued. Velvet was pouting slightly, turning the corners of her unreasonably enticing pink lips downwards and scrunching up the corners of her eyes ever so slightly as she ran her fingertips over the cards to read them. It turned out that Velvet was terrible, truly terrible, at card games. Her tells were obvious, even to John, who had more or less never played these games. She was still drawing even with him though. That was because while those tells were obvious, they were also incredibly attractive and distracting. Just like her. She was just so-

“-ohn!” He startled back to reality as Brenda half-shouted his name. He pulled his eyes away from Velvet, who remained unaware of his attention’s focus, and looked at his mother. She was sat smirking wickedly at him, with a single eyebrow raised in the most suggestive way he had ever seen, an expression he would have hoped to never see from his own mother. “Are you alright, sweetie? You seemed to be a bit lost in your own world there. Were you imagining anything… fun?” The last word felt as if it burned the air it travelled through from the implication it was loaded with, and John flinched slightly from the metaphorical impact.

“N-n-no! I-I was just, er, zoned out!” John could feel his cheeks burning, and prayed to whatever deity that he now belonged to for an easy way out of this.

Achievement Unlocked! - Good Boy
Pray to your new patron goddess for a boon.
Rewards: Nothing
Yes, grovel before my power, puny one! Well, this isn’t quite what I’d hoped for with your first request to me, but that makes me feel much better about rejecting it!

‘Fuck,’ John thought ‘It was worth a try, at least.’

Brenda finished her wicked smirk with a wink at him, then turned back to Velvet and threw down her cards. “Try though I might, darling, I can’t match whatever you’ve got in your hand. It’s a shame, you know? You’ve got such lovely expressions when you’re concentrating, after all.”

As Velvet began to blush and stammer, much like John had done only a moment ago, Brenda glanced at the clock. “Goodness, is that the time? I guess it really does fly when you’re with the people you… ’like’.” Brenda paused to take another moment to bask in the embarrassed reactions she got out of the pair of teenagers, before letting out a rhetorical sigh and standing.

“Well, I suppose we should clean this place up now. I imagine your father will be around to pick you up soon, Velvet, and you’ve still got school tomorrow, John. C’mon, chop chop! Velvet, you put the cards back into their sleeve, please. Sweetie, grab those dishes; I’ll grab all this trash and join you.”

They each got to what was asked of them. John managed to get all the cups in one go, and carried them through to the kitchen, carefully placing them on the countertop. He was about to go and sit around, but paused as he heard his mother still collecting their discarded wrappers and such. With barely a debating thought in his mind, he turned back and unloaded the dishwasher. He’d just begun loading it with the various dishes when his mom joined him again.

She paused, leaning against the countertop as she looked at her son. After a moment, she spoke, “Velvet’s just cleaning up in the bathroom.” Another pause filled the air, before her voice came again, softly spoken and gentle now, “You know… she’s a really sweet girl, John. And whenever I teased her about you, I could see that little flare in her eyes. She was always so close to defending you.”

There was another long pause in the room, broken by the clatter of steel cutlery and the clack of ceramics. Then a low, throaty laugh from the only woman who had been in his life for so many years, which finally drew his attention to her fully. She was smiling. The most open and honest expression he’d seen in an evening of openness and honesty, her eyes twinkled in a way he simply didn’t understand. “Oh, sweetie, you just don’t have a clue, do you?”

Her mirth continued to grow, eventually coming in bursts. John just stood there, a mug forgotten in his hand as he watched his mother steadily break down into a laughing fit at something only she knew. Eventually, she got a hold of herself, that twinkle stronger than ever. “That girl… you just don’t see it, do you, sweetie? The way she is around you…?” She laughed again at John’s expression of baffled confusion. “Oh, you’re going to have so much fun. Especially after… Heh, you really are in for a wild ride, sweetie.”

John had just gathered his wits again to begin asking, “What do you-” when the sound of the bathroom door opening echoed on the hardwood floors, followed by the sound of light footsteps.

Velvet’s raised voice called out, “He’s almost here, Miss Newman.”

Brenda smiled broadly again, and stepped over to where John was, taking the mug from his hand. “Go see her out, okay, sweetie? I’ll finish up here.”

“B-But-” John managed to sutter, then she gently pushed him into the hall. He took a moment to collect himself again, and then turned to find Velvet waiting down the hall at the door already. He walked over and said, “H-hiya!” then immediately cursed the awkwardness and high pitch that had crept into his voice because of the nervousness.

Yet, despite that, Velvet had the brightest of smiles blossom on her face on hearing his voice, and quickly said, “Oh! Hi John! Er, again, heh.”

John pulled on a casual jacket he’d left hanging on the hall stand at some point, feeling a light cool now that he was so close to the exterior door. After that, the two teenagers stood together for a few seconds, neither speaking, before John eventually asked, “S-so, er… shall we, you know…?” and gestured towards the door, before mentally facepalming as he remembered that she couldn’t see that.

“Oh, yes!”

John opened and held the door for her to exit, then joined her after, the pair of them waiting at the sidewalk for Eion’s imminent arrival.

They stood in silence for several minutes, letting John slowly regain his calm. The night air was cool and quiet, broken only by the occasional suburban noise, a dog’s bark, the distant rumble of a car’s engine, the slight chattering of teeth.

Wait, what was that last one? John turned to look at the blind brunette beside him, and after a moment of observation, saw her shiver from the cold. Almost without thinking, John reached out and took her hand to check, then said, “Velvet, what the hell, why are you so cold?” Before she could respond, he quickly pulled off his jacket and was in the process of draping it over her shoulders when it struck him that this wasn’t his mother who had forgotten her coat, as she was so prone to do, but actually Velvet.

And of course it was that moment that her ride apparently showed up, because why wouldn’t it be?

Forcing himself to ignore the headlights slowing down and coming to a stop beside them, and the shaking of his hands, John finished placing the jacket on the slender girl’s shoulders. Just as he finished, Velvet finally spoke up. “Hey, John…?” She said it quietly, and almost as if she wasn’t sure why she was speaking.

He noted how the car had just stopped in front of them, and paid it special attention. Until he saw Eion, or someone else he recognised, inside, he wasn’t going to trust them. It was still too soon for him not to feel anxiety at the possibility of another ****, and with this berserker stuff, it seemed that he got angry when anxious. He started to turn to the blind brunette at his side, his attention still half on the car for signs of someone he recognised.

“Yeah? What’s up, Vel-HMMM?!” Anxiety? Anger? Fear? Basic thought? Nope. John suddenly completely stopped functioning. No words formulated in his mind, no overthinking, nothing. Right then, all of his brain functions were directed entirely at comprehending the pair of soft, pink lips pressed against his own. She inexplicably tasted like some kind of berry, and her lips felt as if they had never needed chapstick and somehow maintained this perfection naturally.

In comparison, John felt woefully inadequate, but he was pretty sure that he’d feel that way regardless of the condition of his own lips. The way her body pressed ever so lightly against his own, a source of warmth in the chill night air, filled him with an almost overwhelming desire for more.

Her lips only pressed against his for a brief few seconds, just barely enough for John to ingrain that taste, that feeling, the emotions it stirred in him, that **** wish for more, and then they pulled away. John barely registered her stammering, “I-I-I-I’ll see you tomorrow!” but could have painted a detailed portrait of the beauty of her heavy blush upon her pale skin, lit by the cool light of the moon and the warm yellow glow of the streetlight. A single glimpse, but it was one of those memories that he could tell would stay with him.

And then she was in the car, Eion was grinning from ear to ear, the car was leaving, and John was left still standing on the sidewalk, a tent barely concealed in his pants, his fingers barely grazing where her lips had pressed against his own,