Just got home so why not post now. Depending where you are, now for me is almost three in the morning. Sorry these updates have been far apart. The writer's block is real, man. Chapter may have some romantic cliches, so sorry for the cheesiness lol.
TriceTokushu: I agree, the last scene wasn't emotional cheating but more Cosmo being a good friend in the beginning. The fact that he's offering Wanda the bare minimum in that moment though says that aside from Sage, Wanda really had a lack of support at the time. Yesss, success in making those girls annoying and Juannie all okay with it.
DoggyPocky: Juan can be a little naive despite the jokes put on Cosmo. And a slight attention whore, lol.
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"Read it and weep fellas!" A blood orange spike-haired fairy exclaimed as he jumped from his bean bag. He threw down a wireless game controller in the process as the three other bean bag-situated boys watched him do a little victory dance. "That's five bucks each, thank you!"
Cosmo and Deval both reached nearby to get their lost cash out, where Ginko simply sank back into his seat with Flix giving him a suspicious eye. Noticing his stare, the boy with the beanie scoffed. "I didn't bet nothin', I knew what was coming."
"Hey," Cosmo said. "You could've given us a warning."
"Next time, listen to Ginko's instincts, Coz." Deval said, handing Flix both his and Cosmo's payment.
"You mean like you did?" Flix asked, causing the three to laugh at the lapis-eyed fairy who gave an obscene and offensive gesture back.
With the four hanging in Ginko's white-wood paneled basement on another usual night of hanging out, hours had been spent of their usual back and forth rounds of gaming, chugging soda to see who could hold in their urine the longest, maybe spiking the juice every here and there. Having crossed into the wee hours of the morning, they've mingled with hysterical tiredness and giddy energy. Betting away their money on rounds of video games on Ginko's flatscreen while situated in assorted bean bags in front of the corner black leather sofa.
Met with a buzz in his back pocket, Cosmo pulled out his phone to read a message and smile to himself. Around eleven he had first gotten a message from Wanda, sparking a back and forth conversation for about two hours on and off as she sent yet another funny fact;
I use to think WTF meant 'well that's fantastic'...
What?! How did u think that, lol
LEGIT Sage didn't tell me 'till I sent it to my dad :|
Cosmo stifled a giggle with his palm, typing with more insistence.
I get that, WTF to you then!
That's cute, lol :)
Blush glowed his cheeks and he heart-liked her message in their chat. He looked up in his phone to Ginko popping the current game out of the console and switching disks. "Get ready to eat my dust in Comet Kart."
"I'm not betting anything against you." Deval said, reaching for a pizza slice from the box closest to him. "Count me out of this round."
"Whataya say, Cozzie?" Ginko fell backwards into his bag, tossing a remote to his best friend's lap. "One-on-one, you and me?"
Green eyes looked up from his phone to feign attention. "Uh, uh-huh."
Mindful to how Cosmo had been glued to his phone, Flix rested his arms behind his head in his beanbag. "How 'bout if you lose first round, you tell us who the hell you've been texting all night?"
Knowing they'd kill him for it, now Cosmo HAD to win. Ginko already knew plenty who Cosmo had been texting. As the first round of racing counted down, he leaned his side to mutter near Cosmo. "You're so whipped by pinkie."
"Shut up!"
Tapping the final blinking start button, a race clock counted down by three with the sound of on-screen mototrs coming from each player's opposing digital car. Cosmo's chosen green electric race car with silver hubcaps and Ginko's neon orange sportbike with a black bolt slashing the sides. Each car screeched off the starting line, racing through the video game scenery of cleared, run-down streets in a bouncing nightlife city. Both Cosmo and Ginko were hunched in poor posture by the intensity radiating from their eyeballs to the screen. Desperate for first place.
"Don't take that route, man." Flix said, digging a hand in a nacho cheese chip bag. He shoveled some into his mouth to eat. "Gink, come on! You're already tenth!"
"Yo, shut up!" Ginko urged, video game power stripping him of any care.
Having smooth sailed into their second lap out of three, Cosmo could nearly see his win with Ginko's lousy choosing of a different route in the split-screen. Ginko's car icon was above while Cosmo's was below. The green car raced for its win against Ginko, without caring for first place against the automatic rivals in the game. Ahead of Ginko by a bit, he felt pretty confident.
First rule in a race, don't lollygag when you're the lead.
A mighty hit to Cosmo's car by one of Ginko's blue bomb weapons made the racecar do a double leap backward. In the process, an orange bike sped past on its way for victory as Cosmo hastily sped up. Ginko laughed haughtily at his little sneak up and speeded for the end of lap three. Seeing it upon both their sides of the screen, the boys' leaned further against their seats. Mouths sealed in external focus as orange sped past the finish line a second before green did.
Cosmo whipped himself back in a groan of complaint as Ginko tossed his remote down. "THAT is how it's done!"
Results of the round showed on the screen, showing Cosmo, Ginko, and the automatic player's places and scores. Ginko shared a high five with Deval as Cosmo ran two hands down his face.
"Pay it up, Coz. Spill!" Flix urged, whipping him lightly with the chip bag he was nose deep in. Cosmo rolled his head to his, lips sealed.
"Yeah, c'mon." Deval agreed, Ginko falling back into his chair.
Buzz. Reaching for his phone's message at the worst possible time, it was innately impossible for Cosmo not to laugh at another given text from Wanda. Typing back in almost completely forgetting the three sets of eyes waiting on him.
"Fairy World. To. COSMO."
The demand in Deval's ask was a little seething. For Cosmo, talking to Ginko about Wanda seemed all the more exciting, but it seemed different as a group. He couldn't say he was looking forward to it.
"You gonna stay on cloud nine, or tell us?"
"Um.."
"Yo," Flix nudged Deval. "He's been texting his ma probably about forgetting the wrong PJs."
"I am not.."
"Oh! The wrong night light, then!"
The two boys busted into laughing tears and Cosmo frowned. He was seeing a line become thinner more and more everyday between them and some of the others at school. He wasn't sure if meeting Wanda had anything to do with it, but by hell, was he fed up.
The laughing duo nearly stopped by how hard Cosmo threw his phone down. "It was Wanda! Happy!?"
Pause on the laughter. By the flick of a switch, their amusement changed to groaning displeasure.
"God, we're on that boat again?" Flix huffed falling back into line with his chip bag in his lap. "Give it a rest already."
Cosmo had risen from the intensity, Ginko eyeing warily from behind as the green fairy didn't wanna take their criticism.
"I saw her the other day," Deval happened to mention.
Flix popped a chip into his mouth. "And?"
"Giggling with some other girls that all looked the same. Given it was about Muscles Magoo and his beef." Lapis blue fixated on the green fairy struggling to say something. "Is that the mess you really wanna cause us, Coz?"
"She's my friend."
Flix exchanged a look with Deval. As if they've had this conversation before without Cosmo. "See what I mean? Can't let him do nothing without it affecting us."
Their green friend's brow pinched in worry. "What?"
"Cosmo, do we have to spell it out for you?" Flix asked in utter impatience. He rose as he grabbed the end of a half-empty soda bottle and pointed to Cosmo's chest. "She's playin' you, and you're taking us down with your dumb trust in her!"
"Wanda isn't like that!"
"The school hates us, Coz!" Flix spat, nacho cheese and soda on his breath. "We're all trynna survive, and you already make it hard on occasion! Don't let some chick tear us to pieces with her priss clan when we're just about to graduate!"
"Stop it! You don't know her!"
"Nah, you don't. Bro."
Buzz. A bad time to look even if Cosmo had more care for Wanda's messages than he did for this. He pulled it out despite the harsh stares demanding he doesn't.
Ice cream?
At one in the morning? Huh, he couldn't see why not...
"Coz!"
Remembering he was still under fire, Cosmo looked up from Deval's demand. The lapis-eyed fairy was also standing to Cosmo's level, never so tired of his friend like he was now. "End this crap before you humiliate us, again!"
He wasn't gonna take this from some jealous losers. "If I humiliate you, why are we friends!?" He stormed to the basement's implemented bar as Ginko finally got up and watched the other two follow him.
"Why are you texting some girl when we're all supposed to be hanging out!?"
"Why are you never happy for me!?"
"Oh, bull!" Flix snorted. "Second-guessing is just not in your nature. And you know what? Maybe that's not our problem."
Ginko gawked watching Deval snatch the phone from Cosmo's clutched palm, seeing his eyes pierce on the recent message. "And ditch us to go hook up with her, huh."
Cosmo took his phone back demandingly. "I was gonna tell her I'm busy!"
Flix unscrewed the soda cap before taking a sip. "Whatever, go thirst after some floozy daddy-girl. Watch how much we care."
Ginko's brows rose, quickly looking to the friend he was easy to defend in most cases. He nearly said something himself before Cosmo's lividness beat him to it for once.
"Maybe I will!" Cosmo barked, storming off in the other direction. Flying up the basement stairs, the three friends were met with the door's slam. Ginko sided the soda bottle he was holding and looked bitterly at the two know-it-alls.
"What's your problem?" Flix replied to his scornful stare.
"You couldn't even sugarcoat it." Ginko said, trailing the same path Cosmo fled before floating over to leave the basement. He trailed up the stairs and opened the basement door right underneath the two-story house's second stairwell in the foyer. Ginko was careful closing it behind in hoping the last slam Cosmo gave didn't wake up his parents upstairs. Having caught his friend right about to leave, the yellow fairy raced over.
"Hold it, hothead." Ginko kept Cosmo in by the shoulder. Unpleasant green eyes looked to him. "You don't have to listen to them."
"I'm not." Cosmo attempted to leave again.
"But, listen to me."
Confusion ringing, his best friend turned back around.
Cosmo was already over the conversation and Ginko didn't wanna fall into the same category Flix and Deval were right now. Knowing Cosmo, he could spiral from even the slightest poorly chosen words if his best friend wasn't careful.
"You don't like Wanda."
Barely a sentence in, and Cosmo was already hot with the accusations. "No, Coz."
"You don't want me hanging out with her!"
"Cosmo, take your whiny, stubborn brain all the way the hell down from the clouds! I do not hate Wanda!" Ginko snapped as per usual. Cosmo resisted his urge to fight more from the genuine frustration he recognized in a heartbeat from Ginko. "I just know your friendship probably doesn't mean the same thing to her like it does to you."
The green fairy thought it may have been a bad idea from the beginning to talk about Wanda how much he did with Ginko. He was able to read Cosmo like a book more than most people. "So..?"
"So, she has a boyfriend."
"I'm not trynna get with Wanda.."
Avoiding tangerine eyes that looked unsubtly doubtful, the ringing of Ginko's soft question stun Cosmo's insides. "Really?"
"Really," Cosmo said. "U-Unless she-"
"Bro," Ginko shoved his hands into his pockets. "I'm glad you're making friends, and Wanda is cool. But don't mess with what you know is gonna get you into trouble." His friend that was practically a brother didn't seem to listen. "Coz, please. You don't need it from Muscles Magoo and Luther on top of that."
How did he know for sure that Cosmo didn't want the trouble? The poor guy wasn't even sure what he wanted with Wanda but he hated to hear it from someone other than himself that the mere idea of him and Wanda was one in a million. What's a girl like that gonna ever see in a boy...a thing like him. If friendship was the best bet, well, what other choice did he have?
"I have to go."
Ginko nodded. "Yeah, okay.."
Reaching for an out, Cosmo clicked the door's lock and headed on his way.
"Dude," Ginko caught him to turn again. "Just...be careful."
Cosmo slanted a disappointed frown, turning into a green poof of smoke.
With a half-hour until close, the only two customers of the late night ice cream parlor sat at a window seat of white wicker chairs and a round table. While Cosmo had been in his jeans and sweatshirt as of all day and night, Wanda had come in her oversized white wool sweater and pink biker shorts as she ate her chocolatey goodness ice cream. Looking up to smile across the way at her friend, she couldn't hide her disappointment at how he stared at his birthday cake flavored ice cream but barely seemed to touch it.
"That ice cream won't eat itself, Cosmo."
He looked from his colorful contraption of a dessert to her. Cracking a smile more for humor than actually being amused. "Oh," he took his spoon and poked at the ice cream. "Yeah."
She tried not to push on his odd behavior, continuing to scoop her flavor into her mouth. Cosmo made note of the amount of chocolate and the lack of anything else in Wanda's assorted choice.
"Is that all chocolate?"
Wanda smacked her lips tastefully. "I'm obsessed, sue me."
He smirked from a little head tilt downwards. Green bashful eyes piercing Wanda's insides with butterflies as she stired her mix for another shovel of taste. Seeing that Cosmo was still not indulging in chatter, Wanda thought the best way to get out of a certain headspace was to change scenery.
"Wanna float and eat?"
Cosmo swallowed some ice cream. "Sure."
Getting up from her chair with Cosmo on her tail. She meant to go for the door before her goof of a friend beat her to it just so he may hold it open for her. Seeing his spirit unwavering, she smiled from his courteous act and floated outwards as they thanked the late-night workers in their exit. Off into the purple-black-painted night sky with star patterns manifold. This particular part of town was so quiet at night.
The two floated down the sidewalk nearing an intersection, planning to cross to the central park nearby. Waiting for the stop-and-go signs of pedestrians with only one midnight car passing by, the red hand signal switched to the lit symbol of green wings indicating 'Go' for the crosswalk. They floated from one corner of their street to the park's corner, coming above the first sign of grass in the night other than clouds and concrete. The night's hug wrapped them close by the greeting of fresh nature and they chose to get lost more and more from the streets behind them.
As the path they trailed neared a late-night lake trickling in the moonlight at the end of a long hill, they watched from the top. The white cast iron bridge that crossed over the lake's center is a trademark spot for lovers, as well as the lake below. Occupied in the daytime by rowboat rides and picnics all around the grassy hills bordering it. They stayed above the hill, hoping to keep a better view of it.
"So, what's going on?"
Her gentle question touched his ears like wind. "You ever..." he watched the water's bed wave underneath the moon's reflection. "You ever think someone you thought was on your side...is kinda fake?"
"All the time."
He snorted a giggle at her blunt answer, but then scolded himself. This buffoon of a boy couldn't be serious if he tried.
"And...you ever worry they're gonna be right?"
Wanda suddenly didn't want her ice cream. "I don't know what's right anymore, Cosmo."
"Me neither."
With her attention elsewhere, Cosmo looked to the pink girl aside from him. Adjusting the wool sweater as one shoulder draped off to teasingly reveal the black strap bellow the material. The pale glow of the moonlight spotlighted her skin, bright enough even for Cosmo to catch a faint glimpse of her wing's print patterns. The swirl prints embedded on her silky pinions attached to her back made him smile.
"You're really pretty."
Her entire body felt like it was flushing.
"Thank you," she murmured. "But, it's ugly."
Wanda? Ugly? To what blind bat? "How?"
"My insides." She spoke freely now, Cosmo realized. "It's like they're rotting sometimes."
Cosmo held his ice cream in two hands like a child presenting a gift. He scooted forward to her so she could redirect her attention to him and his boyish slant of the lips came with a soft reply. "Me too."
His gentle dimples from his stretching smile were cherry-on-top to the perfect soul Wanda saw in him. Right down to his genuine nature that she was pretty sure would be impossible to match from any other fairy. Seeing him so close at hand and ice cream still in reach, she grinned widely and a funny idea.
His shag of hair bobbed by a quick head tilt. "What?"
As soon as a sloppy blob of ice cream met his cheek by the gentle tap of Wanda's spoon. He gasped with gaping green eyes, holding a palm to the sticky mess on his face as Wanda couldn't help but burst into laughing hysterics. Doubling over and nearly unable to breathe as Cosmo just widened his surprised smile.
"Wanda!"
"I-I-I'm sorry!" She couldn't help in her howls. Coming up from clutching her stomach she approached him. "It was just..too easy!"
He crinkled his nose and gave a fake evil glare. "You've got ice cream on you, too."
"I do not!"
"Duh-yeah!"
"Point it out, smarty."
"Right...THERE!" He attacked her with his spoon by a lunge forward, tapping her nose with a glob of birthday cake ice cream. With her nose now a dessert, Wanda gawked in all smiles as the cold substance dripped from the front of her face.
"You need a tissue? Kinda a runny nose there." Cosmo said, circling his face for reference.
"Oh, sir. You really chose death."
"Ha, really?"
"Dodge this, punk!" She catapulted her chocolate ice cream back to which Cosmo tried to scurry from. It still got his back though and he fired back with his own set of ice cream. Civilized conduct no longer existed with the two swinging ice cream back and forth in a dessert-based war. Their battle edging down the hill as Cosmo strayed backward with Wanda above following him frontwards. Ice cream still flew until their cups were nearing the bottom. Wanda wanted that victory shot by getting an easier angle and floated to the ground to make it by foot. One step towards Cosmo and the tip of her toes met with a bump in the ground, possibly a root, and down she went. Ice cream and spoon freed from her hand, as did Cosmo's in an attempt to catch her. Her force came so unexpectedly strong though that he ended up free falling with her. Each of them groaned on the hill's downward edge as they rolled onto the flat surface right before the water. Their fumbling groans escalating into more hysterical laughter as Cosmo pulled away.
Only to realize he had fallen flat with Wanda unintentionally straddling him from above.
Caught in a compromising position, wide awkward eyes stared into one another in the death of laughter. As soon as they got they're grounding, they reazlied the warmth of each other's bodies intact, the closeness of face skin, the eyes projecting to each other. Holy hell if anyone found them like this. Wanda was reminded how Cosmo was both compelling to her and also covered in her favorite food. Wow, if that didn't already sound creepy.
He swallowed hard in realizing how his breath nearly mingled with her's and the brush of her hair draped his shoulder below. Her aroma sending goosebumps through every part of him and he relished on it without thinking. She was still sticky from the previous battle and her nose shined from his first little attack still. With their senses vibrating so easily from their initial contact, they both wondered how good the other one might kiss.
Cosmo's hand on his side freed itself from numbness to flex his fingers in a stretch. Lifting it above his body as one finger pushed her curtaining curls a bit more to the side. Eyes still observed each other and that same hand wandered her bubble before fingertips brushed her cheek that was indeed as soft as it looked. Wanda didn't move, and Cosmo's hand brushed further until he was holding her entire cheek.
It got through to her suddenly. Her restful eyes hardened to fear and Wanda pushed his hand away rougher than intended, scooting off him quickly.
"Sorry, I-" Cosmo got up in following her. "Sorry.."
She tucked her curls back behind both ears, fussing in adjusting her clothes. "It-It's my fault, um.." She tapped a fist against an open palm with her eyes stray anywhere but to Cosmo. "I'm the one with a...boyfriend..so.."
That didn't really make sense to Cosmo as to why she was to take all the blame. Nothing did happen, but something also did. A lot of things have been happening lately that Cosmo was pretty sure wouldn't fly if Juandissimo knew about it. Ginko's advice swirled in his mind as a blatant reminder.
Sweat hugged the green fairy's brow. Oh no, the chokehold of everything he could never say was on his throat again. How many times was he going to feel all this and let it slide? How many times before it was too late?
"Wan, um.." Cosmo wanted to bite his tongue. "You know I like you, right?"
"I like you too, Cosmo."
Shamrock green glazed by the moon locked on the most perfect girl, asking that she read his eyes and not his dumb mouth. What did he have to offer in words when his heart was the one doing all the controlling of his want for her and only her?
"I..I like you, Wanda." He said. "Like, like-like-"
"Cosmo." Wanda said, making clear there was so much she wanted to say but had all the reason why she couldn't. It wasn't just because of the boyfriend or any other blatant reason why this shouldn't happen. The thought of the two of them honestly just seemed dangerous. Dangerous to the freaking core. "It's risky.."
"But, I don't feel risky around you."
"Coz.." Wanda turned to float around to the miniature lake's moon bath. Watching the fireflies ice skate across it in a euphoric night celebration free of day occupants and enjoying Fairy World's heavenly aspects despite the tension in the air.
Was she in denial of what she felt? Not like she first had been. Being surrounded by the new school year has justified her feelings more in comparing it to faker ones. She was able to spot the real outside the fiction. The color outside the grey. The shining light outside the void. It scared her though she knew it wasn't Cosmo that scared her, it was everything else that came with it.
"I like you a lot." She decided to just say.
"Then..why not?"
Wanda almost rolled her eyes in facing the lake. Turning back she watched the green fella she adored approach her warily. Coming at a safe distance as his hands buried into his sweater pockets, shoulders hunching in a hopeful but genuinely wondering action.
"Why not?"
Pinned in place, her brain was mush. Wanda almost dumbly asked him to repeat the question and she began to realize how weak her knees had become and how fluttered her stomach was, hoping that ice cream didn't decide to make an early exit the wrong way. She wondered if his eyes had always been that green, if he had always looked at her that closely, and if she almost always felt this urge to squeeze him close and share her whole world with him.
No reason came to mind, yet no decision.
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Ta-da, another chapter in the books! Glad I finally got this one done, it was a process, but the end I was on a roll with as soon as I could put my focus with. I'll be back sooner or later with the next!
~McSgwizzle