A R I A

"I think I just blew up the sky."

I follow Miles' voice outside of the house and find him standing in the backyard, staring at the stars with his eyes full of wonder.

"How the hell can someone blow up the sky?" I laugh.

"With these," He points to the grass. I tilt my head in confusion. What the heck? "Fireworks!"

"But there's nothing there," I tell him.

"Don't you see the fireworks? It's so beautiful." He shakes his head and juts his chin back in the direction of the sky, then turns to face me again. "Like you."

My breath hitches, and for a second I'm left dumbfounded. Did he really just call me beautiful? No, he's just messing with me. He's Miles, after all.

"Funny," I say, kicking at the pebbles and stuffing my hands into my pockets.

He frowns and stuffs another brownie into his mouth. Wait—where the hell did he get the whole bowl from? He wasn't holding anything a minute ago. Miles notices me staring at the bowl and holds it out for me. "Want swome?"

I smile and take one, but just as I'm about to pop it into my mouth, a stench hits my nose. Oh, shit. No wonder Miles and Lizzy had been acting odd for the past half an hour. They've been stuffing their faces with Hash brownies.

"I'm going to take this away from you." I snatch the bowl, but he starts to pout and it's just so cute.

"Give me!" He yells, reaching out to grab it. I stumble back and shake my head.

"Never!" I say. There's no way I'm letting him or Liz eat any more of these brownies. I doubt Ashley even knew about it.

Miles' pout turns into a sneer. "You have ten seconds to run, Shortcake."

"What do you mean?" I stand there, stupidly.

He smirks. "One."

"Oh, come on, dude. Are you really going to—"

"Two,"

"Can't we just—"

"Ten!" He yells, running towards me. I yelp and quietly beg my feet not to betray me while I dash into the house, clutching onto the bowl. The brownies swish inside, making me even more nervous as I run. Of course he skipped to ten instead of giving me an actual headstart. He's Miles, after all.

Just as I enter the kitchen, I slam into Lizzy. The brownies go sliding in all directions on the floor. I land on my butt, as does Liz. Zoe lends me a hand while Lizzy refuses to get up.

"No, no. The fairies are flying! They told me that they will turn me into one of them. I'm not moving until I can fly!"

"I guess you're going to be sitting on the floor for the rest of your life, then," Ryan says.

I sputter a laugh. "Come on, Liz. Stand up."

She shakes her head childishly until she spots one of the brownies. "Ooh, I want more!"

"No, it's mine!" Miles argues.

"You're not a fairy, you're a big ugly troll! The brownies are mine!" Liz squeals, lunging for one of the deserts.

Miles pouts and turns to me, giving me the puppy eyes. "Shortcake, she's being mean to me. I'm not ugly, right? I'm the hottest thing you've ever seen."

He's right about that.

A sudden gasp from Hunter silences everyone. "Who dropped all the brownies?"

"It most definitely wasn't me. It was Ryan." I say, biting back a grin.

"I love brownies, why would I do that?" Ryan protests.

"Because they're Hash Brownies. Have you not noticed how weird these two have been acting?" I point at Miles and Liz.

"That is a plastic bag, Lizzy! Not a freaking tub of popcorn!" Zoe yells, snatching a bag away from Liz's grip.

"But it smells like it!" She says.

"It's a plastic bag full of dog shit!" Zoe gags and throws it at Hunter. "You don't even have a dog. Why do you have this?"

"Uh, research purposes?" Hunter goes red, shrugging. Zoe gives him a bored look.

Miles taps my shoulder. "I want more brownies."

I smile and flick his nose. "Well, you're not getting them."

"Why?"

"For one, you're high," I say, crouching down to collect all of the deserts I dropped and dump them in the trash. "And I can't bake you any, because if I do, I'll probably burn this house down."

He frowns. "I'm not high. You are! And you're pretty. Really, really pretty."

Don't you dare blush.

"Dude! Stop exposing yourself." Hunter shows up behind Miles and playfully punches his shoulder.

What the heck?

"But she's pretty!" He announces, grinning at me. I seriously hope he doesn't remember any of this tomorrow.

"You know what, Miles? I think it's time for you to sleep." I say.

He yawns just as he says, "I'm not tired."

"I'll take care of Liz." Zoe sighs and grabs Lizzy's arm while she goes on and on about fairies again. The two of them travel up the stairs and leave me with the boys.

"Hunt, you should probably let your mom know what kind of brownies those were," I suggest.

"It's almost one in the morning, I don't think she's awake." He leans against the fridge.

"I'm going to bed." Ryan rubs his eyes.

"Can you deal with him, then?" I ask, gesturing to the boy who's resting his head on my shoulder, almost asleep.

"Nope, he's all yours." Ryan chuckles and follows after Liz and Zoe.

I turn to Hunter and give him a desperate look. "Come on, Hunt. I'll give you chocolate."

"Noooo," Miles mumbles, lifting his head from my shoulder to look at me. "I want to stay with you."

"Shut up, idiot." I try ignoring the insanely cute faces he keeps making. Miles goes back to his earlier position and rests his head on my shoulder again.

"Chocolate sounds tempting," Hunter says, tapping his chin and arching a brow. "But it looks like you're stuck with him for the night."

"Or forever." Miles comments.

"Well, I'll see you in the morning. Goodnight, and don't forget to use protection!" Hunter smirks while I go bright red.

"Hunter!" I groan, scrunching up my nose.

"It's okay, I will protect my Shortcake from all the demons," Miles says, his eyes drooping.

Hunter doesn't let his smirk falter when he winks and leaves as well. I'm going to kill him.

I sigh and take Miles' hand, going on a little adventure to find an empty guest bedroom. "Come on, baby. It's time to sleep."

"Did you just call me 'baby'?" Miles gapes at me.

My eyes grow wide. Oh, shit. "That's not what I meant! You're acting like a baby, so I called you a baby. That's what I meant."

He says something else, but I don't catch it because, probably for the first time in his life, he says it quietly. When I finally find a room, I shut the door behind us.

"You're sleeping on the floor," I tell Miles, turning the lights off and jump into bed, holding Stitch to my chest.

He shakes his head. "I want to cuddle."

I wasn't expecting that reply.

"Well, I don't."

Miles gives me his puppy eyes again, and this time it's so hard to resist with his eyes twinkling in the darkness. So, I don't.

"Fine."

He beams at me, satisfied with my answer. The next thing I know, the two of us are spooning. My heart races and my grip on Stitch tightens. If he were alive, I would be choking him to death.

"Your hair is all over my face right now." Miles laughs and moves it, then continues to sniff it. "Why do you always smell so good?"

This time, it's my turn to laugh. "I don't know. Maybe it's because I shower every day."

"Are you saying that I stink?"

"I could be," My smile widens. "Now, stop talking. I want to sleep."

"Your wish is my command." But he doesn't stay true to his words because a few minutes later, he says, "I like you, Shortcake. A lot. I'm saying this now because I'm probably not going to remember this really embarrassing moment when I wake up."

Holy shit. Did he just say what I think he said? What the hell do I even say to that?

"Goodnight, Shortcake," Miles says. I can feel his heart beating, and it's going as fast as mine.

I want to say something. I want to say something so bad. He's not going to remember it, but at least I'll admit it. I'll admit it to him, and to myself.

In barely a whisper, I say, "I like you too, Miles."

But he's already asleep.

___

Heyo!

What do you think of this chapter? Gah! They finally admitted that they like each other! Does it seem too rushed? I want to hear your thoughts.

Anyways, I am still so amazed, because LMA hit 10k reads!! Thank you all sooo much, I love you gummies 😭❤.

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❤ Chloe