// my computer went buggy and deleted the first story. this is the repost.
"Uh...um..."
Oliver stared at the letters in front of him, his face echoing his annoyance at the meaningless jumble of characters he was looking at.
LOCSSTA.
Beside him the sand in the hourglass slipped carelessly to the bottom.
Lilly was absentmindedly rotating the board as she awaited his move. A few words were splayed out across it already, the bag of tiles spilled out uselessly on her side.
"Oliver," She sang in a high-pitched tone. "Your time's running out!"
They were laying on the floor of Lilly's bedroom, the game's box laying on her bed. The TV was flashing uselessly, the volume turned down to mute, and the only other light was a lamp on her bedside table.
"I can't get anything," He announced sadly, glancing at the hourglass again. As he said that, the last of the sand tumbled to the bottom and Lilly laughed. "This game's rigged," He complained.
"Can I see what letters you had?" She asked brightly. But it didn't seem like much of a question, because before he even had the chance to reply her hand had darted across the board to his side and she had snatched up his set. Oliver rolled his eyes and turned his attention to the muted television.
She inspected it for a moment then started laughing again.
"Hey Oliver!"
He glanced at her. "What?" He asked.
"Look, you donut!" She picked up a majority of his letters and put them on the board. She spelled out the word "CATS".
He felt his face grow hot in embarrassment. "W-well..." She ignored him and picked up the letters she had put down, replacing them with an even longer word - "CLASS".
She looked up at him with a superior grin on her face. "Now I understand why you flunked the English test," she said jokingly.
"I was never good at spelling," He muttered under his breath, looking away.
"I agree completely," Lilly said, her expression changing to that of a serious one as she nodded in agreement.
"Y-Yeah? Well..." Oliver snatched up the bag of tiles and poured it out on her head.
She gasped and jumped to her feet. "Oliver!" She shrieked as the tiles fell to the ground. "That was very rude!"
"Oh, would you like me to bow to you instead?" He said sarcastically, getting on his knees and lowering himself to the ground.
Lilly glared at him as he sat up, then turned and ran to the other side of the room.
"Wait – what are you doing?"Oliver questioned, blinking in confusion.
"Getting the box!" She said in a dramatic voice, opening her closet door and looking around inside of it.
"Of what?"
She dragged out a ragged-looking cardboard box. "The box of lost games," She finished. "It has all of the games that lost parts to them, and even some parts that lost their games. My mom throws all the games she finds in here."
"Ah."
She dug around for a minute or two, long enough for Oliver's short attention span to travel back to the television. But just as he started to get into the the TV show, he had a bunch of white and red pegs dumped on him.
"I sunk your battleship!" Lilly shouted, as Oliver jumped up in shock.
"Oh! Oh, is that the way you want to play? It's on, Truscott!"
He ran over to the box and pulled out a bunch of small rectangular tiles in a ziplock bag. He jumped at Lilly and poured out the bag on her.
"Pick up 100 life tiles!" He yelled.
She glared at him. "You're getting it now!" She shrieked, dragging out a bunch of cards. She dumped them all on him. "Go back two spaces!"
"Go straight to jail! DO NOT PASS GO! DO NOT COLLECT 200 DOLLARS!"
They went on for almost ten more minutes, until the games had all migrated from the box to every place possible in Lilly's room.
"There are no more things to throw at you," Lilly complained.
Oliver rolled his eyes and sat on her bed as she turned the empty box over.
"...but ME!"
Before he knew it he had been tackled and was now pinned against her bed.
"That's the way Truscott plays, oh yeah!" She bragged. Just as she started to lift her hands off his shoulders, though, he grabbed her and flipped her over. They started rolling around on his bed, Lilly screeching insults at him and Oliver repeating them back at her.
But then they fell off the bed.
Lilly screamed as she landed on the ground with a thump, shortly followed by Oliver landing on her.
"Oliver!" She yelled. "Lose some weight or get off of me!"
Oliver grinned at her. "Who do you think's won, Truscott?"
She ignored him and struggled hopelessly to escape from his iron grip.
"Who won?"
She grunted, trying to slip out from under him.
"If you tell me who won I'll let go," Oliver said softly.
Lilly glared at him, then mumbled something under her breath.
"What was that?"
She repeated the mumble.
"Clearer or I'll have to lay on you."
"You won! Now GETOFF!"
Oliver grinned and stood up.
She huffed at him and stood up as well, glancing around the room. The games were scattered around the room, on her bed, even under her desk.
It's now or never...
"H-hey Oliver?"
He looked at her. "Yeah Lilly?"
She blinked at him. "I was thinking...I kind of liked..." She trailed off, but soon found her voice again and continued softly, "I kind of liked when we were playing...because...well...I kind of like you...And I know you probably think I'm acting all stupid and childish but I -"
He leaned in and pressed his lips against hers.
Her eyes widened in shock as they broke apart.
"You need to learn when to be quiet," Oliver said under his breath.
Lilly smiled at him. "I know," She whispered.
And they leaned in again.
T.C.