Tumors And Hearts

Xx-nikki-xX

“Shannon, are you ready yet?” I called up the stairs.

“Almost!” he called back from his room.

“Hurry up! I’m hungry!” my stomach growled as if to prove my point.

“Just give me five more minutes!”

I sighed and headed back into Shannon’s living room. I plopped down on the leather couch and started flipping through the channels again. How could it take Shannon so long to get ready? We were just going out for dinner.

After the tapings this week Shannon had insisted on me spending a few days in Whispering Pines with him. He was getting more clingy with every week that passed since I told him about my tumor. Not like I cared, though, I was just happy to be spending time with him.

I continued to flip through the channels till I hit MTV. Teen Wolf was on and Tyler Posey had his shirt off. My attention was hooked for the rest of the episode.

When Teen Wolf ended and Jersey Shore came on I turned off the TV. I sighed in boredom and tried to be patient.

“Shannon!” I called over my shoulder and up the stairs. “If you’re not ready in five minutes I’m coming up there and dragging you out!”

What can I say? I’m not a very patient person.

“Relax. I’m ready.”

“About damn ti-”

I turned around and saw him coming down the stairs. Saying he looked hot was a major understatement. He wasn’t wearing a hat. His mohawk was parted down the middle and his hair looked so soft I wanted to run my fingers through it. He was wearing a black satin button up shirt and jeans. The silver necklace I had gotten him stood out against the color of his shirt.

“What?” he asked looking down at himself.

“Nothing.” I stood up from the couch and made my way over to him. “You look…”

He smirked. “Hot? Sexy? Irresistible?”

“Cocky much?” I asked.

He grabbed me around the waist and pulled in close so our bodies were touching. I inhaled his amazing scent as he leaned down and kissed me.

We were both breathing heavily when we broke apart. “We should get going.” Shannon said. “I’m starving!”

I nodded, unable to think of anything to say. He smiled and let go of me except for my hand. I let him lead the way out of his house and to his truck.

x-later-x

“Ugh. I’m so stuffed!” I said as we exited the fancy restaurant.

Shannon laughed and slipped an arm around my waist. We walked in silence to his truck. I smiled when he opened my door and helped me up into my seat. He must have still been in gentleman-mode.

He shut my door and walked over to the driver’s side, a small smile on his lips. He got in and started the truck. As we pulled out of the parking lot he reached over and laced his fingers through mine. Our connected hands rested in my lap as we drove in silence.

“Weren’t we supposed to turn back there?” I asked as we missed our road.

The small smiled that had been lingering on his lips widened a bit. “We have to make a stop somewhere.”

“Where?” I asked looking out the window at our surroundings.

“You’ll see.” His smile got bigger.

A few minutes later we pulled into the parking lot of the local grocery store.

“What are we doing here?” I asked.

“You’ll see.” Shannon said again.

He got out of the truck and come over to my side to help me out. My tumor suddenly gave a nasty throb and I slipped. I almost hit the ground but Shannon was quick enough to catch me up in his arms. He situated me so that he was holding me bridal style and looked down at me.

“You okay?” he asked.

“Yeah. I just slipped.” I lied.

Shannon carried me to the entrance of the store before setting me down. He kissed me on the cheek and told me he would be right back before going inside. He came back out a few minutes later and grabbed my hand. I let him lead me over to a bunch of pumpkins sitting in front of the grocery store.

I turned to look at Shannon with a confused look on my face. “Pumpkins?”

“I thought we could get a few and carve them.” he scratched the back of his neck with his free hand. “It’s getting close to Halloween…”

I smiled and kissed him on the cheek. “I like that idea.”

We looked through the small batch of pumpkins and picked out two. It was kind of hard to find good ones since it was so late in October and everyone else had already taken the good ones. I managed to find one that was perfectly round. There were a few dark spots, but I would figure out something. Shannon’s pumpkin was more oval-shaped and had a large scratch on the side.

When we got back to Shannon’s house we took the pumpkins into the kitchen and got to work. We cut the tops off and pulled out all the guts. It took a little longer than we thought because Oz kept trying to eat everything.

“No Oz!” I said for the millionth time.

I picked up the bowl full of pumpkin guts with a little more force than necessary. It flew out of my hand and landed on Shannon’s head.

“Oops.” I felt my eyes grow wide.

A glob of guts slid down Shannon’s face and fell to the floor with a loud splat! He took the bowl off his head as more started to fall.

“I am so sorry Shannon!” I said as Oz started lapping up what was on the floor. “I didn’t mean too!”

Shannon’s face was blank. I couldn’t tell if he was angry or not. He looked from me to the now empty bowl sitting on the table next to our pumpkins. He reached up into his hair, where there was still a huge glob stuck in his mohawk. He combed it out and looked at it in his hands.

And then he threw it at me.

It hit me right in the face and fell to the floor with another loud splat! I wiped off the bit that was covering my eyes and saw Shannon smiling at me.

“I guess I deserved that.” I said smiling back.

I reached into my pumpkin and grabbed another handful of guts. But before I could throw it Shannon dropped a big glob on my hair. I cringed as he started rubbing it into my hair.

“I bet that feels nice.” he smirked.

“You are so dead.”

I chased him out of the kitchen with my own glob of pumpkin guts, Oz following after us barking and his tail wagging like crazy.