SOPHIA

"Dam Dam!" Tori squealed with as much energy as she could muster up, even though it wasn't a lot, when Damon and I walked into her hospital room.

We decided to skip school to come see Tori and spend the day with her, and then go on our date.

I felt awkward when Damon picked me up this morning since I was now aware of my feelings for him - feelings I was not at all comfortable with. But I did my best to push them aside so I could enjoy my time with him and Tori. If Damon picked up on to my awkward vibe he didn't mention it, so he was either being unusually polite or I was hiding it well. 

"Hey there princess." Damon greeted her with a wide smile on his face.

Tori giggled and flashed us a bright grin, making her whole face and eyes light up, and making her look like a healthy little girl. If she wasn't in a hospital bed I would forget she was even sick. It was one of her good days today. 

My heart melted at how the two acted around each other, it was clear as day that Tori loved Damon and that he completely adored her.

"How do you feel?" I asked softly as I sat down on one side of her while Damon sat on the other.

"I'm good good good." She said excitedly, giving us two thumbs up.

I gave her a thumbs up in return and looked over at Damon who was still smiling down at her, but something in his eyes was off, he looked heartbroken. I could tell he was devastated that such an amazing little girl was going through such a difficult thing. 

"So what are we doing today?" Damon asked her.

"Painting! Nurse Nancy said she would bring the pretty paints so I could paint something to put on the wall." She told him, her words practically jumbled together in her excitement.

"What are you going to paint?" He asked her.

"I'm gonna paint you and sissy and me!" She declared happily.

I laughed softly at her enthusiasm just as the door opened and nurse Nancy came in with paints, paint brushes, and paper to paint on.

"Yay!" Tori squealed and started squirming in anticipation of the activity.

She had improved a lot since the last time I saw her, which wasn't that long ago. It felt miraculous. 

Nurse Nancy set out the painting supplies and left with a smile. Tori put a smile on everyone's face. 

"What are you gonna paint?" Tori asked Damon.

"It's a surprise." He replied with a cute secretive smile.

"Let's get painting." I said, handing out the supplies and starting on my own picture.

While we painted Damon and I competed to see who could make Tori laugh the most, which he somehow won, but for once I wasn't upset about losing to him. It was worth it to see Tori so happy. 

When we were all done painting I handed mine to Tori, "Do you like it?"

I painted a pink castle named Princess Tori's Palace. 

"Yes yes! But what does that say?" She asked, pointing to where I wrote the name.

I told her what it said and she got really excited and made me pin it up on her wall immediately.

Next we looked at Tori's painting, which was pretty good for someone so young. It was circles and squiggles that vaguely resembled three people holding hands. 

"Very good Tori." I complimented and pinned up her picture beside mine.

"Your turn Dam Dam, I wanna see what you painted!" Tori said.

That nickname Tori gave him was adorable and I'd definitely use it against him.

"Yeah Dam Dam." I teased.

He rolled his eyes and revealed his picture to us.

It was a pink teddy bear that said Tori on the belly, and it was wearing a tiara. It was really cute and well done, which surprised me. The last thing I thought Damon would be good at was painting, but I also though that about music.

"I love it!" Tori squealed and made me pin it up beside hers.

I had to agree with Tori, I loved his painting too.

I looked over at Damon to see that he was already looking at me with a small smile pulling at his lips. I smiled back awkwardly and turned away to talk to Tori.

We spent the whole day just playing with Tori and watching movies until she got tired and fell asleep.

By the time we were back in Damon's car it was seven o'clock in the evening.

"So where are we going now?" I asked once we pulled out of the parking lot.

"It's a surprise." Damon said with the same secretive smile he gave earlier.

"How long is the drive?" I tried to get any information I could.

"Ten minutes or so." He answered.

I didn't reply, instead turning to look out the window for any hint as to where we were going. Too bad nothing we passed helped me, the only guess I had was the beach, but he didn't ask me to bring my swimsuit so I quickly ruled that out.

It wasn't long before the curiosity got the best of me and I opened my mouth to again ask where we were going but the words died in my throat when I saw a tall ferris wheel and bright shining lights in the distance. It was the town's annual fair. I didn't even realize it was happening this week.

The closer we got the more excited I became, and when we pulled into the parking lot I was practically bouncing in my seat.

Damon looked over at me with an eyebrow raised in amusement and shook his head as he stepped out of the car.

I followed suit and soon we were walking side by side to the entrance of the fair where he bought us bracelets that got us on every ride.

"This is so cool!" I squealed, sounding oddly like Tori when she got excited.

He chuckled at my enthusiasm but I knew he was just as excited by the boyish smile on his face and the excited glint in his eyes.

"What do you want to do first?" He asked, taking my hand so we wouldn't get separated in the big crowd.

For a moment I didn't respond because I was so surprised that he was holding my hand.

Once I gained my composure I replied "The scariest ride here."

He looked over at me in surprise but nodded in agreement and led me in the direction of a tall roller coaster that had a steep drop.

The smile on my face was so big it almost hurt.

The wait to get on the ride was surprisingly short and before we knew it we were taking the two front seats. 

Once we were strapped in Damon looked over at me, "If you get scared you can hold my hand."

"I'm not gonna get scared, but it seems like you already are." I said, taking his outstretched hand.

"I'm not scared." He disagreed, but when the ride started to move up the steep incline, his face paled and his eyes went wide.

"So much for not being scared." I muttered to myself as he gripped my hand tighter.

It felt like we teetered at the top of the ride for a lifetime, and then suddenly we were over the edge and dropping towards the ground. An ear piercing high pitch scream ripped through the air and I let out a loud laugh when I realized it came from Damon.

I laughed the whole rest of the ride while he screamed his lungs out. I couldn't believe such a girly sound was coming from him.

Even after we were off the ride and taking a break to explore, I was still laughing. 

"Okay you can shut up now." Damon grumbled, his cheeks heated in embarrassment.

I took a few deep breaths and finally regained my composure enough to suggest we play some games. It would be entertaining to watch Damon struggle to win a game that's probably rigged for him to lose. 

"So what are you gonna win me?" I playfully asked as we browsed the different games. 

"You? Nothing. You're mean for laughing at me." He teased, swinging our entertained hands between us.

The game we ended up choosing was the one where you have to knock down all the cups with two balls. Damon payed the guy running it and we both took our positions in front of the stacks of cups set up.

I went first and ended up knocking all but one cup down, and then missed the last cup on my second try, much to my disappointment.

Then Damon went and knocked all the cups down with his first ball. The proud look on his face made me roll my eyes but I couldn't hold back a small smile. 

When the guy running the game asked what stuffed animal Damon wanted he picked a medium sized pink bear with a white tummy, it actually looked a little bit like the bear he painted for Tori today.

"I thought you weren't winning anything for me?" I said once we were walking to the next game.

"I didn't, this is for Tori." He told me,  a smile tugging on his face when he mentioned her.

It warmed my heart to see how much he loved Tori. Their relationship meant a lot to me. Tori needed loving male figures in her life. 

"I was planning on giving it to her anyway, if it was for me." I said truthfully.

He smiled, "I know." 

I smiled back as we stopped in front of some kind of water gun game. 

"Wanna play?" Damon asked. 

I nodded, "Sure, but how do we play?" 

"You have to shoot the water gun at the target and whoever gets the most water in the target when time is up wins." He explained as he paid for the game.

I would've tried to pay myself since he'd paid for everything so far but from experience with Damon I knew he had some serious man pride and wouldn't let a girl pay for anything.

"Loser buys food." I upped the stakes of the game. 

"You're on." He agreed.

We took our seats in front of the two water guns and started shooting once the game started.

I thought I was doing really well but once the game was done it was clear that Damon won.

"Pick a prize Soph." He said, nodding at the stuffed toys hanging above the game.

"Could we please get that one?" I asked the woman running the game, pointing to a cute purple kangaroo.

She nodded and took the stuffed animal down, handing it to Damon.

"Thank you." Damon said politely before we walked off again.

"Can I have my kangaroo?" I asked when he didn't hand it over to me.

"What? I'm keeping this guy. I just wanted to know which one you thought I should get." He teased.

"Oh." I huffed and crossed my arms like a two year old. That wasn't very nice oh him.

"Aw I'm just kidding." He said, giving me a side hug and placing the kangaroo in my hands.

"You're so mean!" I exclaimed, but I couldn't hold back my smile as I embraced the stuffed animal.

"Yeah, but it was worth it to see your cute little pout." He retorted. 

I rolled my eyes and looked away as my cheeks heated up.

"Is that a blush I see?" He gasped, jumping in front of me to get a better look.

"Shut up." I grumbled and stomped off to the food section of the fair.

"Don't be like that,  I'm just teasing." He called after me, since I was ten feet ahead of him now.

"Whatever." I mumbled when he caught up to me.

I looked over at him to see his face fall when he noticed I was actually upset.

"Gotcha!" I yelled and began laughing. That was payback for the kangaroo. 

"That was cruel." He deadpanned, but he was smiling.

I shrugged, "That's what you get for being mean."

Just then we arrived in front of a funnel cake booth.

"I'm definitely getting one of those." I said as I skipped into line.

"You can get whatever you want, you're paying remember?" He reminded me, taking my hand and interlocking our fingers even though we weren't going to get lost in the crowd while standing in line. He was simply holding my hand because he wanted to, not to prevent us from getting separated. 

I looked down at our hands and smiled. It felt natural to hold his hand, like we'd been doing it our whole lives.

Damon nudged me and I looked up at him, "Are you gonna order?" He asked.

I didn't realize the line was so short. We were already at the front and a girl around our age was waiting impatiently for me to order.

"Yeah." I replied and ordered a cinnamon sugar funnel cake with vanilla ice cream.

Damon ordered the same thing and once we got our food and I paid, we found a picnic table and sat down to eat.

I was excitedly bouncing in my seat as Damon set my food down in front of me. It smelt to good. 

I took my first bite of my funnel cake and moaned in delight at the taste of the heavenly food.

"Don't do that." Damon ordered in a strained tone.

I looked up at him and frowned in confusion, "What?"

"Moan like that. It's distracting." He said in a more composed voice this time.

I was still confused but then it suddenly clicked. I was mortified when I realized it turned him on when I did that. 

"Sorry." I mumbled as my cheeks heated up.

"It's fine." He said quietly as he stuffed his mouth with his funnel cake

We ate in awkward silence until I couldn't take it anymore, "So..." was all I could come up with.

"So..." Damon repeated with a small smile playing on his lips.

"Let's go do something." I suggested, forgetting about our half eaten funnel cakes.

He grabbed my hand, nodding in agreement, and we threw out our food. I felt a little bad about not finishing but I was too excited to care for long.

We walked around the park aimlessly for a while, but when we passed the ferris wheel Damon stopped.

"Don't you want to go on?" He asked, nodding his head in the direction of the ride.

I shrugged, "Why would I?"

"Well girls usually want to go on it, it's supposed to be romantic and crap." He explained with a shrug.

I shook my head in disgust, "That's way too cliché for me. Girl and boy go on the ferris wheel and once it stops at the top they look deeply into each others eyes, confess their undying love for each other, and share a passionate kiss. Yeah no thanks, that's not for me."

He chuckled, "So you don't want to kiss me?"

"Nope, I could live without that." I replied, but it was one of the biggest lies I'd ever told. 

Damon slowly moved closer to me until we were almost touching, and in response my heart beat erratically in my chest.

"Are you sure?" He whispered, gazing down at me with a strange look in his eyes.

I nodded but couldn't say it out loud, the words were caught in my throat.

"Prove it." He challenged, becoming impossibly closer to me without us actually touching

I knew exactly what he meant. The only way to prove that I didn't want to kiss him was to move away from him. But I was rooted to the spot.

I saw him eyeing my lips, the last tell tale sign that a person was about to kiss you, and that was it for me. I let out a frustrated noise and wrapped an arms around his neck to bring his face the rest of the way down to mine until our lips met.

He didn't seem surprised in the slightest by my sudden boldness, and responded immediately. Sparks flew as his lips moved with mine in perfect sync, just like the other two times, and I wanted the feeling to last forever. 

His arms snaked around my waist and pulled me flush against him as my hands toyed with the hair on the nape of his neck. And just as the kiss was about to deepen we heard a disgusted voice yell "Get a room!"

We were both breathless when we broke the kiss and Damon pressed his forehead against mine to catch his breath.

"So much for not wanting to kiss me." He joked.