One week before school started
“I can’t believe I agreed on this”, Lucas said as Ransley was guiding him forward because Lucas couldn’t walk on his own, he couldn’t see, because he had a blindfold. “I don’t even know you and I let you blindfold me.”
Ransley laughed and Lucas couldn’t help but smile because his laugh was still the most beautiful thing he had ever heard. But Lucas had more important things to concentrate on than Ransley’s laugh, like example where the hell the lad was taking him. Lucas couldn’t see anything, but he could hear and feel. He tried listening if there were other people, but he didn’t hear anything else but Ransley and his footsteps. All Lucas could feel was the wind hitting his face and Ransley’s arm wrapped around his shoulders. They were outside, that much Lucas knew. They had drove in a car for some time before starting to walk.
“Are you sure you won’t tell me where we are going?” Lucas asked.
“I’m sure”, Ransley answered. His breath hit Lucas’ cheek and Lucas realised that Ransley was looking at him.
“Look ahead”, Lucas said, “not me. I don’t want to bump into anything.”
“Don’t worry”, Ransley said and Lucas could hear the smirk in his voice. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”
They kept walking for a long time. Or at least that’s how it felt for Lucas because he was nervous and couldn’t see. He couldn’t believe that he had agreed to go on a date with Ransley just like that. Sure, he had said that he would have to wrap his head around the whole… hi, I might be gay -thing, but he had thought he would have patience to deal with his sexuality and maybe, you know, tell his best friend that he was gay before agreeing on going on a date, but he had done none of that. He had waited literally a day before he had basically begged Ransley to take him on a date. But then again, one date never hurt anyone, right? No biggie, right? It was just a date. With a random guy. While he still hadn’t told Ronald, or his parents, about his sexuality. Fuck.
“We are almost there”, Ransley said. “Are you ready?”
“Sure”, Lucas said even though he wasn’t sure if he was ready. He was so nervous and he had no idea what would happen. Jeez, he didn’t even know where he was or what they were going to do.
Suddenly Ransley stopped Lucas and whispered in his ear: “Keep your eyes closed.” Then he took the blindfold off and squeezed Lucas’ shoulder. “Open your eyes.”
Lucas did and then he gasped for air.
“Seriously?” he yelled. “Are you serious?”
“You like it?” Ransley asked hopefully.
“Are you kidding me?” Lucas asked. “I fucking love paintball!”
“So you have played before?”
“Well… we, Ronald and I, tried playing once but Ronald is… frankly, a pussy and he chickened out after he got hit for the first time. We were playing against some kids and Ronald couldn’t handle the stress. So no, technically I haven’t had a chance to play properly.”
Ransley laughed. “Well, I assure you that I can handle the stress.”
“Who are we playing against?”
“Each other”, Ransley grinned. “I booked the whole arena to us.”
“Oh, you’re going down”, Lucas promised, cracking his knuckles. The nervousness was long gone. Ransley winked at him and tried coming closer, but Lucas jumped away from him. “Safe distance! Don’t try to distract me.”
Ransley tilted his head. “Do I distract you?”
“Only if you come too close”, Lucas admitted, but left out the part where he thought that Ransley’s cologne drove him crazy, the good kind of crazy. Ransley smelled so good it was unbelievable. “So no touching, okay? I take all games seriously.”
“Okay”, Ransley said, amused. “I won’t come near you so you can keep your focus.”
“Are you making fun of me?”
“Nooo, I just think it’s cute how I have such a strong effect on you.”
“Don’t flatter yourself”, Lucas said, rolling his eyes.
“You said it yourself, you are not normally awkward around people but near me you can barely speak”, Ransley pointed out. Lucas felt embarrassment filling his body and he looked away from Ransley and cleared his throat.
“Shall we start then?” he asked, changing not-so-smoothly the subject.
Ransley raised an eyebrow but apparently decided to let it go because he said: “Absolutely”, instead of going back to embarrassing Lucas.
Lucas heart was beating fast as they geared up and got ready to play.
“Are you a sore loser?” Ransley asked.
“No!” Lucas denied. “Okay, maybe a little.”
“Should I let you win?”
“Don’t you dare! I want to win fair and square.”
Ransley smirked at Lucas and pulled the mask over his face. Lucas smiled like an idiot, pulled the mask over his face too and showed Ransley the thumbs up.
“O, shit!” Lucas yelped as he saw Ransley shooting towards him. Lucas dived out of the way and behind a tree. He was sweating and tired, but also so excited that he didn’t care that his heart was ready to pop out of his chest.
Ransley was not holding back, that was for sure. He was faster than Lucas, stronger than Lucas and apparently he aimed better than Lucas. And Ransley was far smarter than Lucas.
“You are not losing!” Lucas told himself as he was still hiding behind the tree and waiting for Ransley to stop firing at him. “You can do this.”
When he didn’t hear the paintballs hitting the tree he was hiding behind, Lucas peeked from behind the tree, but couldn’t see Ransley anywhere anymore.
“What the...”, Lucas muttered, stepped away from the tree and looked around in the forest arena. Where had Ransley disappeared? He had been right there, shooting the tree Lucas had been hiding behind. Where could he have disappeared?
Suddenly he felt something pressing against his back, and he knew immediately what it was.
“Fuuuck”, Lucas whined and turned slowly around, dropped his paintball gun on the ground, and pulled of the mask from his face, lifting his hands up. Ransley was holding his paintball gun against Lucas’ chest now.
“How did you do that?”
Ransley took the mask off and grinned. “I win.”
“Not yet”, Lucas said, pushed Ransley’s gun aside with one quick move and literally jumped on Ransley. They fell on the ground and started wrestling. They were rolling around and laughing, grunting and yelping. Finally Ransley ended up sitting on top of Lucas, pinning his hands down and face a mere inches away from Lucas’.
Just like in movies, Lucas thought.
“I win”, Ransley repeated.
“Not. Yet”, Lucas whispered, and then he pressed his lips against Ransley’s and holy fuck, Lucas’ stomach exploded with butterflies. Ransley let go immediately from his hands and took a hold of his face, kissing back, but that’s when Lucas mentally pulled himself together, took the paintball gun from the ground and shoot a paintball on Ransley’s ribs, not once breaking the kiss. He couldn’t believe he had given up his first kiss for winning a paintball match.
Ransley pulled away from the kiss and looked at Lucas in a shock. His eyes had widened and his lips were slightly parted.
“Did you just shoot me?” Ransley asked.
“I win”, Lucas grinned, trying desperately to hide how flustered he was. Ransley was clearly out of words and he straightened up, sitting on top of Lucas and touching his own ribs.
“You shot me”, Ransley said again, looking confused. “I have never lost this game. You playedme.”
“It wasn’t against the rules”, Lucas said, and sat up, wrapping one arm around Ransley who was still sitting on top of him and taking a hold of Ransley’s head with the other hand. “Are you mad at me?”
“Kind of”, Ransley admitted.
Lucas pulled Ransley into a quick kiss.
“How about now?”
Ransley pressed their foreheads together and smirked. “Keep doing that and I just might forgive you.”
They were sitting in a corner booth of Poppy’s, eating hamburgers and drinking milkshakes. Lucas had told Ransley everything about his family; how every Saturday his parents and little sister Emily go on a brunch. How they go abroad every summer, this summer the destination had been Amsterdam. How his parents fight all the time and how Emily gets everything she wants because she is the youngest – and sneaky little shit.
Ransley was a good listener, and he stared at Lucas intensively the whole time he was speaking. But Lucas noticed that every time he tried bringing up Ransley’s family, the lad changed the subject very smoothly. But no matter how smooth he was, it didn’t go past Lucas. He figured Ransley wasn’t in a good terms with his family, so he didn’t want to pressure him.
They stayed at Poppy’s for a long, long time, just talking, laughing and drinking milkshakes. Lucas didn’t want the evening to end, he wanted to continue their date forever, but sadly, it had to come to an end at some point. They stayed at Poppy’s so late, and when they finally went outside, Ransley was looking around, seemingly restless. Lucas touched his shoulder lightly.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes, of course.”
“O-kay”, Lucas said, eyeing Ransley. “Are you expecting someone to attack you?”
“What?” Ransley asked, his eyes were the size of a plate.
“You’re looking around like you expect someone to jump on you at any moment”, Lucas clarified and grinned on top of it to make it more casual.
“Hah”, Ransley said. “You’re funny.”
“Am I?” Lucas asked. “Ronald usually says I’m a dickhead.”
“Well, that too”, Ransley said, pushing his hands inside his jean’s pockets, smiling at Lucas. “Did you have fun, pretty boy?”
“I will tell you if you promise to never call me ‘pretty boy’ again”, Lucas said, wrinkling his nose.
“It was a compliment.”
“Promise.”
“Fine”, Ransley huffed, smiling. “I promise to never call you ‘pretty boy’ as long as you live.”
“Thank you”, Lucas said. “And yes, I had fun.”
“Want to do it again?”
Lucas raised an eyebrow. “I thought you were only passing by and didn’t intend to stay?”
“I might stay”, Ransley said, shrugging. “For you.”
Lucas heart was beating faster and faster and he felt dizzy.
“What?” he asked very smartly.
“You heard me”, Ransley said and chuckled. Then he lifted his gaze up. “Look at the stars. Do you know where is the Orion’s belt?”
“I don’t, actually.”
Lucas bit his lip and tried not to shiver when Ransley moved behind him, leaned on his shoulder and showed him where the Orion’s belt was.
“Do you see it?” Ransley whispered in Lucas’ ear.
Shivers ran down on his spine as he nodded. Ransley didn’t move away and then Lucas spun around and kissed him. Ransley kissed back, deepening the kiss and Lucas’ heart was bouncing like crazy. Then Ransley pulled away, keeping his hands wrapped behind Lucas’ neck and stared him deep in the eye.
“Well, Lucas”, Ransley said, smirking. “Did you fall for me in one night?”
Lucas laughed, remembering Ransley’s words from their first meeting and shook his head. “Of course not, I’m not that easy.”
He lied.
“I can’t believe I agreed on this”, Lucas said as Ransley was guiding him forward because Lucas couldn’t walk on his own, he couldn’t see, because he had a blindfold. “I don’t even know you and I let you blindfold me.”
Ransley laughed and Lucas couldn’t help but smile because his laugh was still the most beautiful thing he had ever heard. But Lucas had more important things to concentrate on than Ransley’s laugh, like example where the hell the lad was taking him. Lucas couldn’t see anything, but he could hear and feel. He tried listening if there were other people, but he didn’t hear anything else but Ransley and his footsteps. All Lucas could feel was the wind hitting his face and Ransley’s arm wrapped around his shoulders. They were outside, that much Lucas knew. They had drove in a car for some time before starting to walk.
“Are you sure you won’t tell me where we are going?” Lucas asked.
“I’m sure”, Ransley answered. His breath hit Lucas’ cheek and Lucas realised that Ransley was looking at him.
“Look ahead”, Lucas said, “not me. I don’t want to bump into anything.”
“Don’t worry”, Ransley said and Lucas could hear the smirk in his voice. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”
They kept walking for a long time. Or at least that’s how it felt for Lucas because he was nervous and couldn’t see. He couldn’t believe that he had agreed to go on a date with Ransley just like that. Sure, he had said that he would have to wrap his head around the whole… hi, I might be gay -thing, but he had thought he would have patience to deal with his sexuality and maybe, you know, tell his best friend that he was gay before agreeing on going on a date, but he had done none of that. He had waited literally a day before he had basically begged Ransley to take him on a date. But then again, one date never hurt anyone, right? No biggie, right? It was just a date. With a random guy. While he still hadn’t told Ronald, or his parents, about his sexuality. Fuck.
“We are almost there”, Ransley said. “Are you ready?”
“Sure”, Lucas said even though he wasn’t sure if he was ready. He was so nervous and he had no idea what would happen. Jeez, he didn’t even know where he was or what they were going to do.
Suddenly Ransley stopped Lucas and whispered in his ear: “Keep your eyes closed.” Then he took the blindfold off and squeezed Lucas’ shoulder. “Open your eyes.”
Lucas did and then he gasped for air.
“Seriously?” he yelled. “Are you serious?”
“You like it?” Ransley asked hopefully.
“Are you kidding me?” Lucas asked. “I fucking love paintball!”
“So you have played before?”
“Well… we, Ronald and I, tried playing once but Ronald is… frankly, a pussy and he chickened out after he got hit for the first time. We were playing against some kids and Ronald couldn’t handle the stress. So no, technically I haven’t had a chance to play properly.”
Ransley laughed. “Well, I assure you that I can handle the stress.”
“Who are we playing against?”
“Each other”, Ransley grinned. “I booked the whole arena to us.”
“Oh, you’re going down”, Lucas promised, cracking his knuckles. The nervousness was long gone. Ransley winked at him and tried coming closer, but Lucas jumped away from him. “Safe distance! Don’t try to distract me.”
Ransley tilted his head. “Do I distract you?”
“Only if you come too close”, Lucas admitted, but left out the part where he thought that Ransley’s cologne drove him crazy, the good kind of crazy. Ransley smelled so good it was unbelievable. “So no touching, okay? I take all games seriously.”
“Okay”, Ransley said, amused. “I won’t come near you so you can keep your focus.”
“Are you making fun of me?”
“Nooo, I just think it’s cute how I have such a strong effect on you.”
“Don’t flatter yourself”, Lucas said, rolling his eyes.
“You said it yourself, you are not normally awkward around people but near me you can barely speak”, Ransley pointed out. Lucas felt embarrassment filling his body and he looked away from Ransley and cleared his throat.
“Shall we start then?” he asked, changing not-so-smoothly the subject.
Ransley raised an eyebrow but apparently decided to let it go because he said: “Absolutely”, instead of going back to embarrassing Lucas.
Lucas heart was beating fast as they geared up and got ready to play.
“Are you a sore loser?” Ransley asked.
“No!” Lucas denied. “Okay, maybe a little.”
“Should I let you win?”
“Don’t you dare! I want to win fair and square.”
Ransley smirked at Lucas and pulled the mask over his face. Lucas smiled like an idiot, pulled the mask over his face too and showed Ransley the thumbs up.
“O, shit!” Lucas yelped as he saw Ransley shooting towards him. Lucas dived out of the way and behind a tree. He was sweating and tired, but also so excited that he didn’t care that his heart was ready to pop out of his chest.
Ransley was not holding back, that was for sure. He was faster than Lucas, stronger than Lucas and apparently he aimed better than Lucas. And Ransley was far smarter than Lucas.
“You are not losing!” Lucas told himself as he was still hiding behind the tree and waiting for Ransley to stop firing at him. “You can do this.”
When he didn’t hear the paintballs hitting the tree he was hiding behind, Lucas peeked from behind the tree, but couldn’t see Ransley anywhere anymore.
“What the...”, Lucas muttered, stepped away from the tree and looked around in the forest arena. Where had Ransley disappeared? He had been right there, shooting the tree Lucas had been hiding behind. Where could he have disappeared?
Suddenly he felt something pressing against his back, and he knew immediately what it was.
“Fuuuck”, Lucas whined and turned slowly around, dropped his paintball gun on the ground, and pulled of the mask from his face, lifting his hands up. Ransley was holding his paintball gun against Lucas’ chest now.
“How did you do that?”
Ransley took the mask off and grinned. “I win.”
“Not yet”, Lucas said, pushed Ransley’s gun aside with one quick move and literally jumped on Ransley. They fell on the ground and started wrestling. They were rolling around and laughing, grunting and yelping. Finally Ransley ended up sitting on top of Lucas, pinning his hands down and face a mere inches away from Lucas’.
Just like in movies, Lucas thought.
“I win”, Ransley repeated.
“Not. Yet”, Lucas whispered, and then he pressed his lips against Ransley’s and holy fuck, Lucas’ stomach exploded with butterflies. Ransley let go immediately from his hands and took a hold of his face, kissing back, but that’s when Lucas mentally pulled himself together, took the paintball gun from the ground and shoot a paintball on Ransley’s ribs, not once breaking the kiss. He couldn’t believe he had given up his first kiss for winning a paintball match.
Ransley pulled away from the kiss and looked at Lucas in a shock. His eyes had widened and his lips were slightly parted.
“Did you just shoot me?” Ransley asked.
“I win”, Lucas grinned, trying desperately to hide how flustered he was. Ransley was clearly out of words and he straightened up, sitting on top of Lucas and touching his own ribs.
“You shot me”, Ransley said again, looking confused. “I have never lost this game. You playedme.”
“It wasn’t against the rules”, Lucas said, and sat up, wrapping one arm around Ransley who was still sitting on top of him and taking a hold of Ransley’s head with the other hand. “Are you mad at me?”
“Kind of”, Ransley admitted.
Lucas pulled Ransley into a quick kiss.
“How about now?”
Ransley pressed their foreheads together and smirked. “Keep doing that and I just might forgive you.”
They were sitting in a corner booth of Poppy’s, eating hamburgers and drinking milkshakes. Lucas had told Ransley everything about his family; how every Saturday his parents and little sister Emily go on a brunch. How they go abroad every summer, this summer the destination had been Amsterdam. How his parents fight all the time and how Emily gets everything she wants because she is the youngest – and sneaky little shit.
Ransley was a good listener, and he stared at Lucas intensively the whole time he was speaking. But Lucas noticed that every time he tried bringing up Ransley’s family, the lad changed the subject very smoothly. But no matter how smooth he was, it didn’t go past Lucas. He figured Ransley wasn’t in a good terms with his family, so he didn’t want to pressure him.
They stayed at Poppy’s for a long, long time, just talking, laughing and drinking milkshakes. Lucas didn’t want the evening to end, he wanted to continue their date forever, but sadly, it had to come to an end at some point. They stayed at Poppy’s so late, and when they finally went outside, Ransley was looking around, seemingly restless. Lucas touched his shoulder lightly.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes, of course.”
“O-kay”, Lucas said, eyeing Ransley. “Are you expecting someone to attack you?”
“What?” Ransley asked, his eyes were the size of a plate.
“You’re looking around like you expect someone to jump on you at any moment”, Lucas clarified and grinned on top of it to make it more casual.
“Hah”, Ransley said. “You’re funny.”
“Am I?” Lucas asked. “Ronald usually says I’m a dickhead.”
“Well, that too”, Ransley said, pushing his hands inside his jean’s pockets, smiling at Lucas. “Did you have fun, pretty boy?”
“I will tell you if you promise to never call me ‘pretty boy’ again”, Lucas said, wrinkling his nose.
“It was a compliment.”
“Promise.”
“Fine”, Ransley huffed, smiling. “I promise to never call you ‘pretty boy’ as long as you live.”
“Thank you”, Lucas said. “And yes, I had fun.”
“Want to do it again?”
Lucas raised an eyebrow. “I thought you were only passing by and didn’t intend to stay?”
“I might stay”, Ransley said, shrugging. “For you.”
Lucas heart was beating faster and faster and he felt dizzy.
“What?” he asked very smartly.
“You heard me”, Ransley said and chuckled. Then he lifted his gaze up. “Look at the stars. Do you know where is the Orion’s belt?”
“I don’t, actually.”
Lucas bit his lip and tried not to shiver when Ransley moved behind him, leaned on his shoulder and showed him where the Orion’s belt was.
“Do you see it?” Ransley whispered in Lucas’ ear.
Shivers ran down on his spine as he nodded. Ransley didn’t move away and then Lucas spun around and kissed him. Ransley kissed back, deepening the kiss and Lucas’ heart was bouncing like crazy. Then Ransley pulled away, keeping his hands wrapped behind Lucas’ neck and stared him deep in the eye.
“Well, Lucas”, Ransley said, smirking. “Did you fall for me in one night?”
Lucas laughed, remembering Ransley’s words from their first meeting and shook his head. “Of course not, I’m not that easy.”
He lied.