Casey snagged a blanket from the couch to place it over the other covers of blankets enveloping the chairs and then one more. He stepped back to inspect how the fort looked. Usually, he'd wait until his girlfriend would arrive so they could build it together but he wanted to surprise her.

The chairs were wide apart so they could create a large amount of space. Multicolored blankets sheltered as a roof above their heads. The books he had on the shelves in the living room was used to secure the blankets from falling off. Everything was well-ordered.

The doorbell rang and Casey knew whom he was expecting. He walked to the front door and opened up, revealing his girlfriend. "Hey," she said.

Raquel tucked a strand of her long black wavy hair behind her ear. She gazed at him with her dark brown eyes, the eyes he was always drawn to as it glistened under her voluminous eyelashes. The black Strappy Camisole top she wore was showing off her bare arms. Her right arm displayed a Botanical Tattoo which included the Daisies, Forget Me Nots, and Gypsophila. The top coupled with a pair of faded blue denim shorts.

Just by seeing her, his smile gently brought onto his lips.

Casey stepped aside so Raquel could enter. He closed the door behind her and saw her took off her shoes near the shoe rack.

He left no hesitation as his arms wrapped around Raquel and pulled her in for a hug. Raquel wrapped her delicate hands around his back to return it. Her touch increased the level of endorphins which put him at ease. They haven't seen each other for a couple of days so he was glad for this.

Raquel pulled back from the hug a bit but her arms clutched onto his elbows. "Hey Casey."

"Hey. How's your day?" Casey asked softly.

"Tiring," Raquel answered, her saccharine voice sounding weary.

She leaned her head against his chest and her arms came back to wrap around him once again. Casey made small soothing circles on her back as he comforted her. He breathed in her scent which smell of sweet Jasmine, her signature scent.

"I miss you," she said.

"I miss you too," he said back to her.

When Casey met with Raquel's eyes, he lowered his head so their faces could draw closer. His lips then softly landed on hers to which she responded by kissing back, their eyes closing steadily. He held her waist close to him, tightly enough that his hands held on strong for she moved her arms up higher to catch a fast grip around his neck.

He loved the taste of her coralline-red lips that filled with such comfort. They stood holding each other with rapture and their skin ablaze. Raquel went into deepening the kiss and Casey made a slight grin. She had always been the audacious one, but he enjoyed it.

They pulled away from each other softly after another minute.

Raquel's head turned and she saw the setup of the fort. "You did not."

Casey watched her astonished reaction. The blanket fort was like their secret base. It was established in their relationship that if one comes over to the other's house, they build the fort together.

"You were supposed to wait for me." Raquel narrowed her eyes at him.

"Just this once, I want to do it for you," Casey said, with smug content.

Raquel grinned adorably. "You're so sweet," she said and gave him a peck on his lips.

She went ahead and slipped inside the fort first and he followed behind her. Fairy lights surrounded the inside, the glow of a soft warm white illuminated and filled the bright intensity. White Blanket Comforter became their padding and comfort, flooring the carpet alongside with the surplus of pillows. The fort was built nearby the television screen so they could watch the shows on there.

As they got into a comfortable position laying down, Casey wrapped his arm around her as she snuggled on the front of his shoulder. They looked at all the lights gleamed above them.

"You could never get tired looking at it," Raquel commented.

"Not as I'm around with you." Casey glanced at her. She had a light smile and he asked, "So what goes on in that brain of yours?"

"I don't know where to begin. It could be with work or such. Just the usual, you know. Helping with my dad run his business in the shop," Raquel sighed softly.

Her father ran a Tattoo Parlor, he's a good guy and very humorous. Occasionally, Raquel assisted her dad since she needed the money. She worked full time since she already graduated from college but hadn't found a job for herself yet.

"Anything happened with work?" Casey asked.

"Ugh," Raquel groaned. "There was this one girl who keeps complaining about the needle and how rough I was being and not "gentle," she gestured with an air quote, "for her. She was shrilling the whole time."

She made a bewildered look. "I mean, she does know if you're getting a tattoo, it's going to hurt. The needle has pressure point."

Casey laughed. "No way?"

"Yes! I also heard her talking on the phone, I think a friend, she was saying "it's gonna be a piece of cake,"" Raquel mocked in an inane manner.

A funny grin played on his lips as he looked at her. "Aww, is that true?"

"Believe it, Casey. I wanted to rip her throat out." She shook her head.

"But you survived," Casey pointed out.

"Luckily," she said, sounding relieved.

Casey played with a few strands of her hair and she wrapped her arms around his waist, hugging him. "How's school?" she asked.

He shrugged his shoulder in respond. "It's okay. I'm getting by."

"How about your friends?"

"They're cool. This one girl in their group, however...." He trailed off, finding the right word to say for her.

She looked at him, waiting as his eyes just looked like it's processing.

"I don't know," Casey said, finally.

"What?" 

"There's nothing to say about her."

"Yeah, okay. I believe you." Her eyes rolled.

"But the two guys are pretty cool, they're something," Casey said.

"Sounds nice. I'm sure they like you too," Raquel teased, a smile playing on her lips.

He was used to her tasteful quirks. "At least you don't have school."

"You're right, I don't," she chuckled. "I'm lucky to not stress out... except for job hunting. I can't find anything."

"I know you will."

Casey reassured her doubts and told her that the time would come, but she just had to give it time and something could happen. Raquel had the mindset that even your best effort wouldn't make it far in life because of expectation and harsh evaluation. He would be lying if he said that it wasn't true because he partly knew it himself but he didn't want her to believe it.

Raquel told him that she didn't want to talk about real life right now and that she wanted to talk about other things that weren't discouraging.

"I recently watched this one tv show. It's funny. It was just about showing off random animals with talents," Casey said and Raquel widened her eyes with sudden interest.

"Really?" she asked.

"Yeah, there was this cat doing a ballet."

Raquel bit her lip to hold back laughter. "Yeah? I never heard anything like that."

"Uh, it's really interesting." Casey nodded idly.

"Then maybe it's not a surprise. Cats are... flexible," Raquel said, tilting her head thinking about it.

Casey talked more about the other kinds of animals with tricks and talents that he never really knew about. It made Raquel laugh.

"Do you want to watch some tv?" Casey asked, glancing at her.

"Oh yeah, let's find something that's on," Raquel said as Casey grabbed the remote by the TV stand.

Casey pressed the power button on the remote and the television flashed up. He used the Netflix program so they could find something they could watch.

After debating with each other about what show they could watch, they settled for BoJack Horseman and began watching.

❥

Casey had his eyes on the screen as they're continuing the Netflix series. They were both fixated on watching funny and random things.

"Casey?" Raquel looked at him.

Casey glanced at her, watching as her eyes turned inquisitive. "Yeah Kell?"

Kell was the nickname that he had for her. Casey thought it was cute to call her that.

"Can I ask you something?" Raquel had the look of worriment in her eyes.

"Yeah sure. What is it?"

"This is just random, but do you think there's a future for us?" Raquel asked and bit her bottom lip.

"What do you mean?" Casey questioned.

"Like... do you think you'll still like me later on?" Raquel said, which made Casey wonder why she'd ask that.

"Yeah, why do you think that?"

Raquel was about to open her mouth to say something, but decided against it and stayed tight-lipped, forcing out a weak smile. "Never mind. It's just a thought."

Casey was just about to ask, but her eyes were trained back to the screen. He didn't want to make it anything tense with her so he decided to disregard and look back at the television.

Three hours had passed and Casey checked on his phone to identify the time. He crawled out of the fort and saw the sky dimmed to a powder blue with orange hues which meant the sun was coming down.

"Kell, you should go now." Casey gazed at the view from the transparent sliding door.

Raquel went out of the blanket fort and looked at Casey. "Why?" she questioned.

"It's almost becoming dark so you should head home and I should start on my homework now," Casey said.

Raquel slowly nodded. "Okay."

Casey walked over to the side of the living room to close the curtains and turned on the lights.

"I wish you didn't have to." Raquel looked at him sadly.

"I wish that too," Casey said with a grimace.

Raquel walked near to the front door to put her shoes back on. Casey went towards her direction and swooped in for a kiss on the cheek. "Bye."

"Bye," Raquel said, slightly smiling before she went out and the door shut.  

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Why am I uploading this when it's midnight here where people are asleep? Idk. I can't handle the temptation so here the chapter is. Also, this is shorter than I expected, but I don't think I need to add much to it since it's just a little bit about Casey's love life. This chapter wasn't even originally created but I decided that adding it might make sense to readers than continuing the next thing happening without any identification of his girlfriend so boom. The next chapter hopefully can be out when I don't die in Summer School, ahahaha. And even though this story is new, I already have some people adding this to the reading list? Um, thank you. You are enjoyable and I really hope you can stick around with me. I'm a dull writer, lol. But yeah! 

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