'This slope is treacherous

This path is reckless

This slope is treacherous

I, I, I like it.'

*ALTHEA'S POV*

October 22, 2016.

"Don't you think you went a little... extra?"

I stared in disbelief at the supply list we had already checked thoroughly at the first hardware store, and yet we'd still stopped by a craft shop and supermarket along our tour of Lotus Bay, which had been an interesting ride—a car ride, as we hadn't walked more than through the various shops.

I didn't know if he'd done it out of thoughtfulness for my feet however, or just because the suffocating AC-filled compartment allowed us more closeness, his hand brushing my thigh almost every time he shifted gear before he leaned closer to point at the 'famous' Lotus Bay landmarks from the small marina to the old movies theater.

I was surprised we hadn't arrived at the legendary diner yet.

"Gotta do what you gotta do to not get beheaded by the Queen."

"You could also work seriously maybe and—" My words were interrupted by the Grill diner sign, the neon light flashing like a warning reminder of whom I was talking to.

He'd joined the art club for only one reason, and once he would understand he wouldn't get anything more from this date, he probably wouldn't even be back next Friday.

I'd prepared myself for this already, like I'd braced for Troy's disappointed frown when we would walk into this diner, and like I'd planned an excuse to leave before dessert.

And if Asher didn't want to drive me home, I could even take the shuttle, whose stop was a few feet behind the diner and... we'd just driven by.

"Wait, didn't you say we were going to eat?" I turned to him, my gaze still trailing to the windshield, where in the distance, the Lotus Bay exit sign was standing out in the shadowed surroundings, letting me take in how dim it was getting around.

Even the sharp angles of his face appeared darker as the sun had disappeared behind the wooded hillside, and the town lights would soon do the same if we continued this way.

"Yes, I hope you like pizza?"

His green eyes were still clear and sparkling though, and I let out a sigh of relief as he put on his blinker before the Lotus Bay sign, and a pizza drive-through came into view.

It was better than getting lost in some creepy wood or ending up in his famous diner.

"No green juice?"

"No, I promised to show you what's really interesting, and the tour isn't finished." He flashed both his eyebrows up in reply to my cocked one as he slowed down behind the line of cars that diminished quickly. "So which topping for you?"

"Hawaiian," I said instantly, even if he was even faster as his smirk crumbled down into a serious line.

"No."

"They don't have it?" I glanced at the large menu on our left, spotting the aforesaid topping at the same time that he seethed,

"They do sadly, but I'm not paying for that."

"Well, I've planned to pay, don't worry." My fingers were already reaching for the few bills in my wallet, including a particular one dollar, when he stopped me, also interrupting the waiter's welcome through the speaker.

"No way. You're not paying, and even less for this insult to pizza."

Oh... He was one of these militants against pineapple.

Well, once again, he went beyond clichés, and his protest was more passionate than any I'd ever heard, as he defended his Italian origins and complained that the restaurant hadn't taken it off their menu, his voice rising above the honks from the growing line behind us, while the poor waiter was left speechless.

Though the guy couldn't see Asher's grand gestures on the steering wheel. Only I did, and I gaped at him when he finally stopped to ask me casually.

"Do you like Four Seasons?"

He waited for my nod before ordering two of those, even if it was obvious he wouldn't have accepted any pineapple topping, which was ironic when he suggested fruity-flavored water as a drink.

"I would've thought you'd like salty-sweet since you're so obsessed with fruits," I noted, mostly to take off the dimple that had started peeking again as we waited for our order.

To think I'd searched for a way to get on his nerves, and it was as simple as 'pineapple'. Maybe I could even turn him off?

"If in Italy, there's no 'Hawaiian' topping, it's for a reason. Sweet is for dessert," he argued, his narrowed gaze landing on my pinching lips, where a laugh was threatening to slip out.

It didn't turn him off, however. On the contrary, his darkening jade eyes only sparkled more once we'd got our order, and he stopped the car near the end of the parking lot.

"But we'll get to that later. For now, let's go before the pizze get cold."

He was out of the car before I could ask where we were going, and when I opened my door, all I got were his extended hand and Cheshire cat smile.

"I wanna show you my favorite place in town, but we can only go by foot. Think you can walk?"

"I already told you the heels are no problem, and I thought your favorite place was the basketball field?" I stepped out of the car, ignoring his hand as I glanced around, not spotting anything that resembled a basketball hoop around, though, beyond the brightly-lit parking lot, everything appeared like dark shadows.

"Okay, my second favorite then."

Should I've been reassured or scared?

I wasn't sure as I tried to guess what could be his second favorite place. A gymnasium? A bowling alley? A strip tease club?

Anything was possible with him, and the truth was that I barely knew him. He could have been a dangerous psychopath planning to bury me in the woods.

Otherwise, why would he have led me in the direction of the dark hill?

Well, as my hand slid discreetly into my purse, locating my phone and pepper spray, many possible scenarios crossed my mind, more than we glimpsed cars on the side road we followed. 

To scare me as a bullying ritual? To lock me up in a creepy cabin? To introduce me at an exclusive white campfire?

I was prepared for everything. Everything, except what met us after our next turn.

No, it wasn't possible. I must have been hallucinating.

Yet no matter how many times I blinked, the metal gate was still there, tall, arching, and rusted.

"Don't worry. It's not the cemetery." He glanced over his shoulder, probably noticing the thuds of my heels on the pavement had stopped, like the ones inside my chest, dead in their tracks. "We just walk through, and then there's a straight track up there."

"No, thanks, I'm not going there. Your car's compartment is fine with me."

The back of the car, the diner, even the gloomy woods as I focused my attention there, trying to focus on the faintest breeze through the leaves. But everything was too still, including my ribcage.

"Come on, I've come here a thousand times, even at night, and I swear all the ghosts are friendly," he assured, with, undoubtedly, an impish smile to accompany his hyperbole, although I didn't risk a glance in his direction.

If he'd been there a thousand times, he would have known there was no friend here. Only cold stones, angular shadows, welting flowers, and this oppressive emptiness you could never escape.

I saw it all before his hand reached mine, and not even the tickle of his touch could erase the images as he spun me around.

"I'm kidding. Come on, don't tell me you're scared."

"N-no, I'm not scared. I just can't go... there." I shook my head frantically; however, it wasn't to answer him anymore.

It might have been his deep and smooth voice in my ears, his rugged fingers on my skin, yet it was her hand trying to tug me toward the creaking gate, her thin and scarred wrist I held onto with all my small strength as I tried to get away.

"You know ghosts don't exist?"

***

*ASHER'S POV*

"You know ghosts don't exist?"

My chuckle died down when it wasn't one of her usual unimpressed comebacks that fell out of her peachy lips, but... sobs?

"I w-won't... n-never again."

She wasn't crying though. Her eyes were dry and staring so blankly behind that I glanced back to find nothing and no one—that I could see, at least.

If at first, I thought she was trying to bullshit me, when I turned to her again, the shiver running down my spine made me question the occult.

She was standing rigid with terror, while still shaking faintly her head and whispering, in a voice that wasn't hers, variations of 'can't' and 'won't' like an incantation.

In a nutshell, she looked haunted.

"Okay, okay, we won't go in there then." I raised both my hands in surrender, even if the left one was starting to go numb from the grip she wasn't loosening.

At this point, her nails were searing my skin, and when I managed to free my wrist, her fingers were still crippled in the same strained position. All of her was, even her chest.

"Hey, hey, Peachy, breathe. I said we won't go."

Still, she kept shaking her head, her gaze fixated somewhere beyond the metal gate, completely ignoring me. I would have been offended if I hadn't been too busy counting the seconds I had left before she would pass out on me.

"Look at me, Althea. Breathe." I spun us around, cupping her burning cheeks and pulling her closer.

And fuck, she really wasn't herself because she didn't tug back, her doe eyes helpless behind her glasses as she gazed up at me, gasping empty pants.

"N-no, I c-can't. I c-can't."

"Yes, you can. It's easy. In and out." I chuckled, even if the oxygen was lacking in my lungs too as I followed the ragged lifts of her ribcage—and for once, it wasn't because I was checking her out.

Fuck, I didn't even have any dirty thoughts as I carefully reached for her hand and brought it against my chest, breathing slowly with her.

"You push out the tensions, and... pull in the air... Push out the tensions... Pull in the air..."

If someone had told me that would be the kind of 'pull in and push out' I'd be teaching her tonight...

We were far from my usual Saturday nights.

Still, when the tattered puffs tickling my lips turned into steady breaths, and her body relaxed under my voice, I did feel a warmth similar to orgasm wash over my chest: relief.

"Push out the tensions... Pull in the air..." I repeated one more time, heaving out a sigh as my forehead rested on hers, my gaze staying in the brown shades, long enough to take in how dark her eyes actually were, and still, she averted them down too soon.

Then, I could only read the jump of her eyebrows as her gaze landed on her hand, intertwined between mine and my tee shirt, and she noticed how bunched the fabric was.

"Sorry," she croaked, clearing her throat as she quickly released my shirt, frantically smoothing the creases with the tips of her fingers.

"Never apologize for tugging at my clothes." I smirked, trying to lighten the mood, although between our shallow breaths, the loud thuds of my heart, and the crescent marks from her nails on my wrists, it could have indeed looked like we'd been making out, wildly.

Even more when she rolled her lips together, her dark eyes flickering up through her lashes for a glance, just enough for her to catch where my thoughts were going, and me, a glimpse of the fierce Peachy I knew.

"Um, I should go..."

She was coming back to me, and ironically, she was pulling away.

So I tugged back on her hand. "Wait, we haven't finished our tour, and there's the pizza."

"I'm not hungry anymore, and I'm not going in... there."

That, I'd got it. Not even her gaze trailed there.

"There's another path through the woods, steep and rocky, not heel-friendly, but I promised you a ride, so I can carry you."

"Carry me up the hill?"

It was great to see her eyes light up with a laugh, but she should have known I was dead serious as I nodded.

"Um, no, thanks. I'll pass your rocky ride. I prefer to walk back home."

"I'm used to lifting weights way heavier than you at the gym. You can check if you want. It'll be a smooth ride."

Much smoother than she would have been on her wobbly heels and knees to climb up there or just walk home, seeing they wavered already when I stepped closer with my flexed bicep for her to feel.

"I got it. You've got muscles, and you can do it. But it's still no."

"Listen, I'm a man of my word. So I promised you a ride, and you'll get one. Now, I let you choose: you either hop on my back, or I'll get your peachy booty up there caveman style."

You wouldn't dare?

The question was on the line of her lifted eyebrows, and I let her guess the answer as I cocked one of mine, my gaze sliding down her body.

I hadn't even reached her peachy booty when she gave in.

"Fine, but your hands better not wander."

"I swear." I raised my left hand before gesturing it in a fake bow as I bent down. "Be my guest."

"Why did I have to wear these stupid heels," she muttered to herself, yet as she climbed onto my back, her mouth ended up right next to my ear, and I could catch everything that slipped out of her plump lips, even her shaky exhale when I snaked my hands under her knees and got up.

"Personally, I really like those heels."

And what I loved even more was that short skirt riding up her thighs and leaving room for my big hands to feel her soft and warm skin.

"Yeah, let's go, if you don't want to get one where the sun doesn't shine."

"Ooh, getting kinky now, Peachy?" I laughed, while she pretended not to hear, offering to take the bags, and only wrapping her arms tighter around my neck when I told her to hold the phone for lighting and nothing else.

It was like that the whole way. Me, making a funny hint or squeezing her thighs when there was a slippery spot. She, tightening her hold around me. Her sweet perfume engulfing me more. Her boobs pressing more in my back. Her breaths teasing more my neck.

All of that spurring me to do it again and again... until we reached the top of the hill.

That detour had never gone by so fast, and never had I been that disappointed to get a clingy girl off my back as when her heels found the flat path.

"So this is your second favorite place?"

Her question made me blink away from the pale pink fabric she smoothed down her thighs and up to the dim orange light of the horizon.

"Yeah, but we were supposed to be here earlier and see the full sunset. I swear it looks better with all the colors."

"It's already beautiful, and there's still all the rainbow colors if you look closely. Blue and violet with the ocean and night sky, just a little bit of yellow, orange, and red with what remains of the sun, and for the green..."

She turned back to me, her gaze flickering to mine with a sparkle of color I couldn't name, though it was the brightest around.

"There's the fields lower there."

And... she glanced away with a coy smile.

She was such a tease. Lucky for her, I loved to play and... win.

"Yeah, and there's pink too." I smirked, letting my gaze roam down her body—I wasn't getting tired of her peachy body, and nor of her pursed lips as I climbed back from her crossed arms to her raised eyebrow. "With the lotus flowers."

"Lotus flowers here?"

"That's what the legend says."

With an enigmatic smile and a shrug, I stepped away, casually pulling out my jacket from the duffle bag, and it was almost too easy how before I'd laid it onto the dried grass, the crunches of her footsteps echoed closer.

"What legend?" She knelt next to me, hesitantly sitting down as my hand tapped on the jacket on the ground.

"Once upon a time—Wait, we need food with the story." I grabbed the pizza boxes, also setting the bottles and a lantern in front of us.

"Much better. So... there were two young people from a neighboring town who fell madly in love, and they would always meet up here, on this hill, to savor their passionate love, if you get what I mean."

From the deadpan stare she gave me above her slice of pizza, I would say yes, she got it.

"But then one day, he had to leave for war. So he promised to his beloved that he would send her letters every day, and she vowed to wait for his return. They both kept their words for one year until no letter came."

I paused again for effect, and to savor the heavenly salty mix of tomato, mozzarella, mushrooms, and nothing else.

"She waited for days, weeks, months, but not even one little letter. Her family wanted her to find someone else and get married, but she always refused, coming every day on that hill to cry. So much that she created a flood down the fields there.

"Don't worry, there's a happy ending." I felt the need to add as she put down her half-slice of pizza, swallowing dryly.

"Right when she was about to give up, a lotus flower bloomed here, the exact same flower as the pendant he'd given her. So she took it as a sign that he was still alive, and she waited more. 20 more days, like the number of petals on that flower, and then, boom!"

My hands jumped for the grand finale, and Althea too when I leaned closer.

"On the 20th, when she came on the hill, he was already here waiting for her, and that's how Lotus Bay was born."

Now, I waited for the applause.

Still, all I got was a cricket silence, literally, along with a few hoots.

"You're really a great storyteller. Tell me, how many girls did you take here and sweet-talked with this 'legend'?"

Oh... now, I understood her glare better. She was jealous.

"You really think so lowly of me?" I faked a gasp with a hand over my chest. But really, I was offended she believed I needed to put that much effort into a date to get a girl. "Zero. I swear I've never taken any girl here."

She was the first one...

And I'd only brought her here because she wasn't the kind to stick like a gum under my shoes if I sweet-talked her. She was Peachy, and seeing how she was sitting half on the grass to avoid being too close, I knew she wouldn't get the wrong message.

"It's the true legend of the town. You can google it. My parents told my brother and me that story every time we came to picnic here, and to be honest, I think the 'maiden' must have sniffed something strong to see a lotus in the area!"

"Love is a dangerous drug..." she hummed, and even that saying, which could have been romantic from most girls' glossy lips, through her peachy ones, it held a sinister edge.

Like her eyes, as they trailed toward the path we should have taken in the first place.

Whatever she saw there, it crippled her stomach like her lungs had been in front of the cemetery because she barely nibbled on her slice of pizza after that.

"How about we get to the dessert?" I pushed away the half-eaten boxes of pizza to grab the bag, where I'd stuffed all the necessary for tonight, and pulled out two small packets.

"Really? It's what you call a dessert?" She gaped between me and the yellow bag I was handing her, her plump lips parted in disbelief drawing me closer as I replied,

"Yes, unless you have something sweeter to suggest, Peachy?"

Not that I lacked ideas. I knew exactly what I was craving, but something told me the time wasn't... ripe yet—her squinting eyes told me that.

"You really need to stop calling me Peachy."

"Come on, we both know you love it." I reached out my hand, stopping my fingers before touching her lips, and just flaunting my new wristband. "And from what I saw so far, it fits you 'cause you're sweet, soft, and... peachy."

Even more than the fabric I traced with one finger.

I'd felt her hand, her cheeks, and from the foretaste I'd got kissing the corner of her lips, I knew her mouth was too. That peach-scented lipstick... I couldn't wait to taste it, smear it...

"Okay, then, I'll find you a nickname too," she retorted, bringing me out of my fantasies. Not really, when her lips pursing so tightly and her chest pushing out above her folded arms made the images more vivid and tingling.

Fuck, and contrary to girls like Christina, she didn't look like she was even conscious of what she was doing, or was she?

"Go ahead, Peachy." I leaned back on my arm, taking a handful of chocolates to occupy my fingers and my mouth, even if it did nothing to satisfy the craving tickling lower than my stomach when she opened her peachy lips.

"M&M's."

"What?"

"I found your nickname: M&M's." She grinned proudly, the largest smile I'd seen her wearing so far, and looking between the open packet in my hand and the tiny dimple peeking on her cheek, I didn't know how to take that nickname. "Yes, you're always eating them from what I saw so far, and it fits you 'cause they're sugarcoated and chemical."

At least, she didn't mention the little peanuts inside, but her imitation of my voice was really bad, and maybe I'd been too kind so far if she thought I was all sugar.

"Nah, if I'm a sweet, I'm sure I taste..." Bringing one more chocolate between my teeth, this time, I pulled much closer, much, much closer, so that my next word was traced in goosebumps on the soft skin under her ear before I even pronounced it. "Spicier."

And I pulled at one of the curls framing her face, waiting for her to...

"I don't know. I didn't try." She tugged away. Not that much though, because her words still tickled my lips. "And I have no intention to."

So confident... and still, she didn't move an inch, her eyes wavering down to my smirk for a long second, their dark brown shades more intense than the chocolate melting on my tongue, and already making me wet my lips.

"Wait, are they the town's lights here?" Her attention flickered to something over my shoulder, the lights from one of my favorite parts of the view quickly reflecting in her dark eyes, while I didn't even turn away to reply with a 'yeah' that sounded too much like a painful groan.

She'd once more whiplashed me, and so smoothly, with that same smile that was still so close. Just a few inches I could easily cross and I would pull it between my teeth, tug her onto my lap, and she would feel how far from a little sugar-coated peanut I was.

"And are these... attraction rides? And you didn't include them in your tour?" She gasped, the perfect O of her lips appearing even more tempting.

But no, I liked to win fairly. It would be even sweeter when she would crawl onto my lap, craving for a taste, even if it took more time than I'd imagined.

"They aren't opened yet. It's for the Charity Fair, but I can show you tomorrow. I'm volunteering in a booth."

"I said one date. One and only time. So thanks, but n—"

"You can't say no if it's for charity." I tilted my head, watching her eyes pass from narrowed to wide and even more narrowed as I explained, "And it's for a great cause. The money collected is to open a physiotherapy clinic for kids."

She couldn't say no.

What I didn't realize, however, trying to get around her 'one and only date' rule was that I was also going beyond mine too.

And it's just starting... 😏

So what did you think of this terrific first date? Is it what you expected? Or did it go beyond? 😉

We've got lots of fun, emotions, and thrill... but no kiss, sorry Asher! 😅 

If you liked it and are excited for more, don't forget to vote ⭐ and comment all your thoughts!!

I love you my little Peaches, and HAPPY HALLOWEEN! 🎃😈😘✨