A/N: AU fic, had to take down my other one for reasons (makes me very angry) but if you wanna read it I'll post it on my livejournal -link is on my profile- but you gotta' request for it to be on there, okay? Well let's begin, afterwards read the author's note, I have a few things regarding my other fics. Enjoy.
They met on one of those scorching hot summer nights.
The sun barely setting, the lights on the porch becoming more visible as time passed. He was leaning back on the steps of his lame excuse for a friend's porch. He was far too troubled to move or do anything at all as people climbed the steps to get into said house, a house that was to contain a 'crazy' party, or so his friend has put it.
"You bored too, huh?"
He froze slightly at the unfamiliar voice, and looked to his right slowly. He was met with a very cheerful expression, the expression belonged to a girl who seemed roughly his age but she could be younger. Said girl had a head full of wavy brown hair that seemed to reach her waist, not that he could tell with the wind blowing it every which way. She had a small hand holding the bangs from falling from her face as she looked at him with a very friendly expression. She was wearing a red crop top with black shorts, and as his gaze traveled further down he noticed the anklet she was wearing, it had one charm, a feather. His gaze continued stopping at her feet, she wasn't wearing any shoes.
He concluded that this girl wasn't like the ones he'd come to meet in his life. No, she seemed far more interesting and slightly odd.
Noticing his gaze on her feet she giggles, wiggling her small toes in the process. This cause him to look up at her, his face still nothing but an blank look. "I'm guessing you don't like parties."
He doesn't reply, merely looks towards whatever he was looking at before. After short seconds he mutters a small, "not really."
She doesn't say anything in return and for a second he thought the girl had left him alone. However the small thud to his right got rid of any theories he had, she was still here. They stay silent for a few minutes before he clears his throat.
"Tampa, huh?"
"For the summer.." she began, "I'm staying here with my cousin, she's the one who planned this stupid party, you may know her, I think, her name is Maria Kanell-"
"Red."
"-is?"
She only manages a small smile, "guess you do know each other. She said it was her future boyfriend's birthday so she had to make it special and she made me come so I could "meet new people", as she put it," the small girl chuckled, "but she should know by now I dislike parties, they are too loud and I like to think."
So he was right, she wasn't like most, not in the slightest.
He notices the girl is now starring at the sky above them, how the sun seemed to have disappear in the middle of their small talk.
"Today's my birthday," he spoke suddenly
This caused her to look at him and grin, "so you're the future boyfriend, Phil?"
"I prefer Punk," he smirked
"Punk, huh?" she chuckled
He only gives her a small nod before looking away and towards the sky she was formally looking at.
"Charmed, I'm April," she smiled
He turns to her and smirks, "April, huh?"
"I like A.J better," she speaks a small blush forming on her cheeks
He doesn't say anything in return but instead turns back to the sky, she does the same as they stare at the sky. The stars seemed brighter that night for some reason, not that he knew why.
"Happy birthday, by the way."
"Okay, now we go to war," she smirks
He looked at her with an arched eyebrow as she walks -or more like waddles- towards the balcony of her room. The cause of her waddling? A large bucket filled with different colored water balloons. She was thrilled with the idea, he however wasn't too keen on it. She placed the basket on the edge and laid slightly behind, out of sight from any intruders.
"Come on, Punk!" she giggles softly, "come or you'll get us caught."
He merely rolls his green eyes at the brunette before laying next to her, he watches her arm dig into the basket and pull out a green water balloon. He doesn't notice who she is aiming at before she lunges it and it catches his friend Daniel, who in turns screams like a little girl before looking around for the culprit.
A.J is now in a fit of giggles as she hides behind the large bucket. She digs in again and hands him an orange ballon, he frowns at the object in her hand and shakes his head.
"Not going to happen, A.J," he frowns
"Come on, Punk," she giggled, "I'm trying to teach you how to live."
"How to live?" he frowned, "I'm guessing you mean how to die, someone is just bound to be that angry."
"You're no fun," she frowns getting up from the floor
He watches her as she is now in full height and he can't help but notice the anklet she has on, the same one with the small silver feather. From his place on the floor he watches her roll her eyes and place her hands on her hips.
"I'm going to find John," she smirked, "I'm sure he'd love to help me."
At her words he freezes, John? No, anything but that idiot.
"Fine, fine," he mutters, "hand me one."
At this she smirks before laying back down and handing him another water balloon, this time it's red. He hears footsteps but not really knowing who it was he throws it straight down. A shriek makes A.J laugh even harder as they look over the railing, Punk feels all the color drain from his face at the glimpse of red hair.
"A.J!" the red haired girl screams, "Punk! I'll kill you both!"
Before he could even register A.J is dragging him along away from the balcony and towards the back door. Maria's screams echoing the large house. Once they're in the backyard A.J leads him through the gate and they head over to his house. Once they are safe from the angered red head, Punk gives her a scowl.
"See what I mean?"
"Fun, wasn't it?" she laughs
And for once he agrees.
He feels slightly anxious as he watches her from his porch. Today she's wearing a pale yellow sundress and she's dancing, dancing in the middle of the rain. He doesn't want to know she got sick because of this, but he also doesn't want her to know he cares this much.
"Come on, you can dance some other time!" he calls out from his porch
She merely shakes her head and continues to run in the rain. Sometimes he had to admit she was too much of a pain to deal with, he watched the way she twirled and the way the dress seemed to poof upwards. What made him feel even more uneasy was the fact that she had no shoes on, not that he should of been surprised. Even from where he was he noticed the anklet she had on, the same one from that night.
"Join me!" she calls back
He frowns, why doesn't he just go, pick her up and bring her to his porch. It seemed far less trouble than calling out to her and hoping she'd stop being so foolish. He sighed and ran in the rain hoping to catch her, but as he reaches her she notices his intentions and squeals as she runs.
"Come on A.J, you'll get sick out here!" he tells her as she runs away
"This is fun, isn't it?" she giggles
"No, this is just bound to get you sick!" he calls out once again
This time he stops, mostly because she stopped as well. She looks at him with a small smile and slowly makes her way towards him, was she finally going to stop being difficult? Well he sure hoped so. She stops once she is about three inches away from him and giggles.
"Aw, Punk," she smiles, "I won't get sick, pink promise."
He watches her extend her pinky out to him and he looks at her curiously. She only shakes her pinky in his face and he sighs in defeat taking his pinky out and wrapping it around hers. He could only hope she was going to go inside and dry off now, but instead he was met with her jumping in a nearby puddle, making mud splatter all over her legs and onto his shorts.
"Oops," she giggles covering her mouth
He only sighs and chases after her, all the time she's twirling while he's trying his best to catch up to her. Once he does he wraps his arms around her stomach and turns her to him. Before either of them could say something they heard a loud 'boom' in the air.
"Thunder," they both said simultaneously
They quickly grabbed each other's hands and ran towards his porch. Once there they laughed and laughed. He then turned and noticed two towels with a small sticky note on them, it read:
For you and your 'friend', don't get sick! - Mom (;
He could of gone inside to demand the meaning of the note but instead the small girl took a towel from him and laughed as she wrapped it around her.
"Thanks Punk," she smiled
"No problem," he replied back
And instead of going inside to dry off she sat on the porch's steps and he did the same as they watched the clouded sky every now and them light up in interesting ways before a loud 'boom' could be heard.
"So yes or no?"
She places her hands on her hips and he frowns. She was wearing a two-piece bathing suit, the top was red and the bottom black. And on her ankle is that same little anklet he'd become accustomed to seeing.
"I don't want to."
At his words she pouts, and looks towards the pool. He had only decided to come because she basically dragged him here, otherwise he'd be at home. She notices how everyone seemed to be enjoying their time here besides him, he said pools weren't his thing, that they were too childish.
"Come on, you'll have fun," she wiggled her eyebrows
"Nope."
"You're no fun," she stuck her tongue out at him
"You're annoying," he replied with a smirk
She gasped in mock-hurt as she placed a hand on her heart, "it hurts here Punky-poo."
"Don't call me that," he frowns
"Sorry, I forget only Maria is allowed to call you that," she smirks
"Not even."
She doesn't say another word as she disappears, Punk manages a small smirk as he leans back in his chair and shuts his eyes. Why waste energy swimming? He'd just take a nap and conserve his energy for better things. However as he did so he heard a small scream, sitting up he frowned and looked around. The voice sounded familiar and sure enough there was A.J on the deep end of the pool trying to swim upwards. He felt his heart race as he shot up from his chair and ran towards the large pool.
He jumped in and frantically searched for the girl, but he didn't find her. He came back up to see if somehow she managed to move towards something to grab, instead of that he came up to meet a smirk. He sends her a frown as she stands at the edge giving him a thumbs up.
"You did great, Punk!"
He could of killed her.
He watched as she burst into a fit of laughter because of what had happened so he took advantage, he swam to her slowly so she wouldn't notice. And as she continued to laugh he gripped her arm and pulled her towards him causing her to fall into the water. As she came up for air she punched him in the stomach and frowned.
"You scared me!"
"Serves you right!" he retorted
For once she didn't reply with anything, instead she stuck her tongue out at him and swam back towards the edge.
For once this summer it wasn't a scorching night, no the breeze felt nice, everything seemed perfect. Today he had brought her to a dock, where a lake stood before them. He was laying on his back starring at the sky and she was sitting up, her feet dangling over the porch, she was trying to touch the water.
He was wearing shorts and a t-shirt, and his shoes were on, unlike her. She was wearing a sun dress, it was pink, and obnoxiously bright pink. She had come barefoot, as she always preferred to be, and like he always saw, the anklet with the feather.
"This is boring," she tells him
"If you sit back and relax it won't be."
"I don't wanna sit back," she rolls her eyes, "I want to do something fun."
"This is fun." he replies bluntly
He doesn't here another word coming from her so he shuts his eyes, maybe she'll lay down too and stop nagging. However he heard the wood on the dock creak and he shot up. His eyes widening as she slipped her sun dress off.
"What are you doing?"
"Stripping?" she replied like it was the most natural thing in the world
"Whatever for?" he asks
"Swimming," she rolls her eyes, "you can sit there and be boring but I'll be in there."
He watches her finger pointing at the water before the dress is completely off and at her feet. Then she steps towards the edge and jumps off. He frowns as the water hits his face and pretty much gets him wet. She comes up short seconds later and smirks.
"You're all wet, you might as well come in," she teases
"No thank you," he frowns
"Suit yourself," she shrugs, "you're just a big baby, go on and be boring, you grandp-"
Before she finishes she notices how he has taken his t-shirt off, and in seconds he's looking at her with a smirk.
"You'll pay for getting water all over me," he warns
She only squeaks in surprise when he jumps in the water.
"So what's this?"
He looked at the paper in her hands and frowned, the musical festival.
"It's an event that we hold here every summer," he told her
"I want to go," she smiled
"Why would you do that?" he asked
"Come on, will you take me?" she asked softly
He watches as she pouts and looks at him right in the eyes. He sighs in defeat and nods, to which she squeals and gives him a big hug.
"If I get bored I'm going to have to make you pay," he warns
"Oh please, with me around you won't get bored," she smirks
"You were with me at that wedding, remember?"
"Then one you fell asleep at?" she giggles
"Bingo!"
And truth be told he did fall asleep, right in the middle of the "I do's". He had begun snoring and A.J had to hide her face because if she did not she would of laughed. She had to pinch him in order to have him wake up from the sleep he was in. She remembered his mother had scolded him for doing such a thing. She remembered mocking him about the event for a week.
"This is different," she smiled, "I pinky promise."
He watched her pinky stick out just like that one time all those weeks ago. He only shook his head and stuck his pinky out linking it with hers. At this she gave him a very big smile and he couldn't help the small blush that formed on his cheeks. She merely laughed at his antics.
And he did enjoy himself, the festival wasn't as bad as he thought it would be. Well maybe it was her presence that made everything a little more enjoyable. At the end of the day she suggested they watch the fireworks from a hill she had found not too long ago while wondering about.
There she lay on his chest as they looked up at the almost black sky. The only thing keeping it from being completely black were the bright stars that twinkled a little brighter this summer than they had the past one, or so he noticed.
"Tonight's my last night," she spoke softly
He didn't say anything but he couldn't help the pang his heart felt. She was leaving. He looked down at her as she lay on her chest her eyes not even on him. He returned his gaze upwards again as she chuckled.
"Something funny?" he asked
"I wish summer could last for a bit longer," she admits
"How come?" he asks
"This was fun," she smiles
"But you're going back to California tomorrow, a big city like that is far more fun, more open to adventure, here in Tampa, well not as much."
"Not true at all," she tells him frowning
"How so?"
"Well I met you, didn't I?"
He finds himself not having a response this time around
"And this Summer has been quite an adventure," she smiled, "a journey even."
He only smiles at her as she rolls over onto her side and presses her ear against his chest. She listens carefully to his heart, it's almost like a drum.
Thump
Thump
Thump
She gives a small smile as her eyes meet his. She can feel the heat rise in her cheeks and she decides to roll back over and look back up that sky.
"Hey punk?"
"Yeah?"
"You wanna know the best part of this journey?" she asks softly
"Sure," he smiles
"We simply don't know what's coming next."
He had to agree with that one, the lay there in silence for a few more minutes before her phone beeped. He frown, that meant she had to leave now. And tomorrow he was sure to not see her. He watched her sit up but he remained sitting down, she looked towards him and smiled.
"Well I've gotta' go."
"No you don't," he mumbled bitterly
"This was fun," she told him
He doesn't feel the need to reply, mostly because something in him thinks he'll break if he does so. She frowns at his lack of words and then shakes her head.
"I've been wanting to this for quite sometime, but you know," she chuckled nervously, "guess better late than never."
And before he can really register what's going on her lips come crashing on his. And he swears at that moment he's never tasted anything sweeter, nothing compares to her taste. And he savors it because he knows those lips are ones he'll never get to taste again. Suddenly they start, the fireworks, and suddenly it all makes sense to him. His eyes close slowly as the kiss deepens, and without another second the feeling stops. He opens his eyes and scans the area before him.
She's gone.
He frowns as he feels something digging into his hands. Picking it up he almost laughs, her silver anklet, the one with the feather on it. The one he'd become so used to seeing wrapped around her ankle, the clasp was broken so right then and there he knew she must have dropped it without knowing, well now he had a reason to meet her again.
She chews on her pen as she looks at the board, another class where notes are essential. Those really made her high school experience the worst. She sighed and looked at her paper, noticing the small A.J + Punk scribbled onto it. She frowns, it's been several weeks since she's seen him and sure she misses him but she always makes sure to remind herself that this was a summer fling.
But how she wishes it wasn't.
The rest of the class was a blur, as the boy she had spent all of summer with seems to cloud her thoughts. As she grabs her book bag tighter she heads towards the gates. She is ready to go home and just sleep, maybe have one of those dreams where she and Punk can actually be together but as she reaches the gate something catches her eye. A boy.
The boy is leaning against the gate and he has his hands in his pockets. Right away she catches sight of the lip ring. And the way his lips form a smile when he notices her. Her eyes widen and she smiles running towards him.
He opens his arms as she heads towards him, circling around her once her face is buried in his chest. He smiles at her antics and she only giggles looking at him.
"What are you doing here?"
"You forgot this," he smirks holding the anklet for her to see
"I thought I lost that," she chuckles reaching for it
"Uh no," he frowns, "you have to pay to get it back."
"How much?" she scowls
"A kiss," he smirks
At this she blushes as he pulls her towards him and places his lips on hers. And just like that summer night he falls in love with her all over again, this time he pink promises he'll never let go.
a/n:So this fic is basically something I've been meaning to put up here. Don't forget to review, and if you want to know more about my other fics or get some sneak peaks follow my livejournal. Well adios!