The Beating of Our Hearts

It had been two weeks since my dinner with the guys. I hadn’t been able to see them since then, the last two weeks of school before summer are always the most hectic. I had been staying at school till six every evening trying to get everything sorted for the last day. And now the day had arrived...finally. The last day of school had come.

Since we could do basically anything on the last day, I had arranged with Mrs. Cunningham for our two classes to get together to have a mini Olympics. We had a relay race, an obstacle course, egg and spoon race, scavenger hunt and loads more. It was hilarious.
For the last hour of the day, we went back inside to cool down and clean off. Just as I was about to announce that the kids could start to pack up, Poppy came up to me.

“Hey Poppy, what’s up?” I asked, kneeling down to her height level.

“We wanted to give you this. It’s from everyone.” She said, holding out a package.
I took it from her hands, curiosity taking over.

“What is it?”

“Open it.” She giggled.

I tore at the wrapping which revealed a scrap book. Opening it, I found that each page had a picture of each of the kids in the class, next to which was a hand written message from each of them.

“My mom made it for me and I brought it in for everyone to write in.” Poppy beamed.

“This is gorgeous. Thank you everyone.” I said to the class.

Just at that moment the final bell rung.

“Summer! C’mon guys, give me a hug and then get going. I’ll see you next year.” I called out.

There was a rush of small bodies surging towards me to hug me. Slowly they left the classroom, until only Poppy was left standing by the door.

“C’mon Miss Dawson.” She said eagerly.

“I’m coming, I’m coming.” I laughed, grabbing the last of my stuff and leaving with the little girl.

As we walked down the hallway, Poppy was chattering about where her and her mom were going on holiday and what they were going to do.

“...but she’s still sorting it all out now. So my Uncle Tomo is picking me up.” She finished.

“Your Uncle Tomo? That’s cool.” I answered as we walked out of the doors.
Sure enough, Tomo was stood waiting by his car.

“Hey Pops.” He said, scooping up the happy little girl and spinning her around.

“Hey Miss Dawson.” He laughed, noticing me stood there smiling.

“Hey Tomo. How’s things?”

“Good thanks. Just here to pick up Poppy and celebrate summer before her and her mom go off to Disney World Florida.”

“Awesome. Well I’ll see you later.” I said, turning to go to my own car.

“I’m sure you will.” He said with a knowing smile.

I wonder what he meant by that. Ah well, I’m just going to go home and relax for the first time in weeks. My daydreaming came to an abrupt halt when I saw who was leaning against my car.

“Having a good summer so far?” Jared asked, pushing himself off my car door.

“I think it just got better.” I smiled.

“You busy?”

“Not at all, I’m free for the next three months.” I laughed. I loved my job, but having loads of time off was a definite perk.

“Awesome. Well in that case, care to join me in celebrating your freedom?” He asked, offering me a hand.

“Sounds perfect. Did you drive here? You could follow me back to mine.”

“I got a ride with Tomo.” He smirked, getting in the passenger side.

I just laughed, throwing my stuff in the back seat and getting in the car myself. The car ride home consisted of music and laughter. Jared was so easy to get along with. We finally got back to mine and I led the way up the stairs and opened my front door.

“Ahhh summer. Thank fuck.” I sighed, falling into the nearest chair.

“Haha. So do you wanna do something? Or just chill?” Jared asked as he made his way into my kitchen.

“Chill. Definitely chill.”

“Then it’s time for hot chocolate.” I heard from somewhere in a cupboard.

I stood up to go help him, he’d never find everything. We spent the next 15 minutes making the most amazing hot chocolates ever. They had whipped cream, chocolate sprinkles and even mini marshmallows.

“Come on, let’s go into the living room.” I said, moving away from the counter.

“And don’t forget the whipped cream and marshmallows.” I added, calling from the sofa.

“Here we are.” He said, placing the bag of marshmallows and the can of whipped cream on the coffee table.

“Yum!”

We spent all afternoon drinking our hot chocolate and watching TV.

“Aww, I’m out of hot chocolate.” I said, looking desolately into the bottom of my mug.

“You want some more?” Jared asked.

“Nah, I’ll just have some marshmallows.” I grabbed the bag of fluffy pink yummyness.

“I bet you can’t catch them in your mouth.” Jared challenged.

“Oh yeah? I bet you can’t do it.”

“You’re on.”

We each took a handful of marshmallows and took turns throwing them into each other’s mouths. I must say, I was awesome at this game. We were neck and neck on scores.

“OK, last one wins.” Jared said, reaching into the bag, but coming up with nothing.

“We’re all out.” He said sadly.

“Looks like it’s a draw then.” I said reaching for the whipped cream.

“You’re not full yet?” Jared asked surprisingly.

“No way.” I smiled, spraying some whipped cream into my mouth.

He just laughed at me, pulling the can out of my hands and repeating my action into his own mouth. We passed the can back and forth, squirting whipped cream into our mouths. Pretty soon, that was almost gone as well. Jared let me have the last squirt. Unfortunately, it decided to explode all over my face.
My shocked face must’ve looked hilarious. Jared burst out laughing so hard, he almost fell off the sofa.

“Your...face!” He gasped between laughing.

“Yeah, yeah, really funny.” I said, laughing as well. Wiping some whipped cream of my cheek.

“You missed a bit.” He said, finally calming down. Reaching across to wipe some whipped cream from next to my lips. His fingers lingered along my jaw line. Jared’s eyes flickered from my eyes to my lips and back.

My breathing hitched, realising the sudden turn in the situation. My skin had a burning sensation where Jared’s calloused hand still gently held my face.

“Hey.” Jared whispered, leaning slightly closer.

“Hey.” I replied, equally as quiet, leaning in as well.

Our faces were inches apart; Jared’s hand moved to the back of my neck to slowly pull me closer.

ZZzzZZzzZZ

We jumped to opposite sides of the sofa and looked around for the source of the noise; it was Jared’s phone. He reached out a grabbed it.

“It’s Shannon. Apparently we have a last minute phone interview. I gotta go.” He said regrettably.

“Oh OK.” I said, my eyes downcast.

“Can I call you tomorrow.”

“Sounds good.”

“OK, I’ll see you later.” He hesitated, then came back over and gave me a gentle kiss on the top of my head. “Bye.”

“Bye.”

I sat on the sofa, reliving the past 60 seconds. This memory was going to be branded in my brain for the rest of my life.