Chapter 4.

Vaughn's POV

The car ride to the ballpark consisted of me doing most of the talking and the sound of The Fictions playing in the background. My friend from home sent me a CD of theirs and I ended up really like them. I hope they become immensely popular one of these days.

I suddenly started to think about home and all those old high school memories. For some reason I kept thinking about all of those Christmas nights spent with my mom by the fireplace. She would make me gingerbread cookies and these little sugar cookies shaped like Christmas trees. Christmas was always a little sad considering it was just mom and I. We both missed dad so much.

I also remembered watching The Christmas Story over and over on TV. It was Syd and mine's favorite movie. I never wanted a BB gun when I was a kid after seeing that movie. I was too scared I would shoot my eye out like Ralphie. It reminded me of that one time I snuck over to Syd's to watch it with her in the middle of the night.

"Do you remember that one Christmas eve that we stayed up to watch 24 hours of a Christmas Story?" I asked Syd laughing

"Of course I remember. You snuck over to my house. How many times did that movie play during that night? 3? 4?"

"Something like that. I was too scared of your Dad coming up to your room to find me there. I could hardly concentrate on the movie."

"What? Vaughn, my dad loves you." It was true. Jack always seemed pretty fond of me. If only he knew how I felt about his daughter. I remember him asking me to watch out for Danny and make sure he didn't pull any slick moves on Sydney.

"Your Dad scares me Syd. I saw how he was with Danny. He wanted to take him in the backyard and shoot him with an AK47."

"He only wanted to do that because Danny was my boyfriend and he liked me." The smile from my face faded. I didn't know how to respond to that. Just thinking of Jack Bristow with a gun literally scared the daylights out of me.

"Yeah… right…." I became silent after that.

Syd's POV

We sat in comfortable silence the rest of the ride. By the time we parked and were walking into the ballpark, it was way too crowded. Vaughn handed me my ticket as we neared the entrance. Crowds of people kept walking into me and stepping on the back of my shoes. I put my hands on Vaughn's waist unconsciously to make sure I didn't lose him. By the time I noticed what I did we reached the ticket taker. I immediately removed my hands like his body was on fire. That was dangerous territory. It's bad enough that just looking at him makes me melt into a puddle. Feeling his fit body in my hands would for sure make me die.

It reminds me of that one time junior year that I walked by the weight room and saw Vaughn lifting weights shirtless. It was the first time I really saw him half naked. He was on the basketball and baseball team after all. I couldn't help but stare at his defined abs. I think even a small gasp came from my mouth as it dropped open. But, I walked away and let it pass. Danny was my boyfriend at the time. I didn't want to do anything that would make him angry.

We were having so much fun at the game. I thought I would be acting all uptight and tense but Vaughn and I were talking, laughing and I kept asking him questions about the game. In the middle of the fourth inning I didn't understand one of the rules.

"Why was the hitter automatically out when he hit it to the shortstop?" I asked.

"Because it's the Infield Fly Rule Syd."
"What's the Infield Fly Rule?" All of this baseball terminology was making me confused.

"It's when the hitter hits a pop-up in the infield and there are less than 2 outs with one or more runners on base. That hitter is automatically out. This rule prevents the defense from purposely dropping the ball to get two outs."

"So even if the fielder drops it, the hitter is still out?"

"Exactly." Vaughn answered.

I was starting to understand the game a little bit. I had a great teacher. Every time something happened during the game and I had my confused look on my face, Vaughn would explain everything to me. He's so considerate. After all, he's the one that taught me everything I needed to know about hockey. We were 14 and it was two days after New Year's. Vaughn took me to the rink because he was tired of me not knowing how to play hockey.

Flashback

Vaughn skated around me.

" Okay. The key, obviously, is balance, right? So don't worry so much about the puck and just make sure your feet are planted on the ice and then..." The puck swished into the net. " ...Just a nice follow-through."

"Show-off." I smirked.

"Yeah, a little bit".

Vaughn skated back to the net with a big smile on his face as I attempted to skate towards the net and shoot the puck.

"Bristow's got the puck! She crosses the blue line! She's at the top of the circle! She shoots, she scores! " Suddenly I lost my balance and landed right in Vaughn's arms as he caught me on the way down.

"What--oh my God, what was that?" He asked surprised.

"I didn't say I was completely incompetent."

"You've done this before."

" No, I told you, I haven't skated since I was five."

" No, I don't believe you."

"Swear to God, my mother took me." Bringing up my mother always put an awkward silence between us since we both never liked to talk about it.

"Well, you're better than you should be."

End Flashback

By the time the middle of the 6th inning rolled around, Frank Sinatra's "Strangers in The Night" filled the stadium speakers.

Strangers in the night exchanging glances
Wond'ring in the night
What were the chances we'd be sharing love
Before the night was through.

The jumbotron in centerfield started to show couples and in the corner of the screen there was a kiss counter. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out they were showing couples and trying to get as many couples to kiss each other as they could. It was fairly amusing to watch. The crowd would cheer every time a couple kissed. If they weren't paying attention and didn't see themselves on the big screen, the crowd started to boo them.

Vaughn and I continued to laugh while watching the jumbotron until the two of our faces appeared on the screen. Suddenly, I wasn't smiling anymore. It was obvious the cameraman thought Vaughn and I were a couple. All around us different people were yelling.

"Kiss your girl!" "Lay one on her son!" "Will you two just kiss already!" I started to panic. The whole stadium wanted us to kiss. I wanted to kiss him, but not with 40,000 people watching us. Oh god, what do I do?

"Umm, Syd. I think the crowd wants us to kiss. I don't want to get booed." Vaughn turned to me. He looked nervous, amused, and scared all at the same time.

"Uh, ok." I turned to him and leaned in slowly. As our lips met softly I put my hand on his cheek. His stubble tickled my palm. It was a quick kiss, but it was still very sweet. Just as soon as it started, it ended. People around us were cheering and some even patted our backs. My face turned bright red, as I could no longer bring my eyes to meet his.

Vaughn's POV

Whoever the camerman is tonight must be someone sent from heaven. I'll make sure to throw him a high five on the way out if I see him. Thanks to him Sydney and I kissed. Ok, so it wasn't in the most romantic of places but it still happened. Plus, she put her hand on my cheek while we were kissing. That has to mean something right ?

I looked over to her and she didn't seem grossed out about it. Right now she's just sitting there in her seat staring straight foward. She looks a little stiff. Ok, she's not talking to me. Should I say something ? No, I shouldn't, I might ruin the moment.

I wanted to kiss her so badly all of those times growing up. It's not like we haven't kissed before. We just haven't kissed on the lips. Well, there was this one time I went to kiss her goodbye and she accidentally turned her head and I caught part of her mouth. I think that's the closest we've ever came.

And really, she didn't have to kiss me on the lips just now. She could've turned her cheek and that would've counted. Or we didn't have to kiss at all and could've gotten booed by all those damn people. She willingly kissed me on the lips. Oh god, she tasted so good. She tasted like cherries. Must've been that cherry lip balm she always uses. I'll make sure to thank Smuckers too.

Maybe I should say something. Or maybe I should just sit here and look like an idiot. When did I start sounding like such a girl ? Say something Vaughn! Say something ! Oh no, I can't look her in the eye anymore. I hope she doesn't feel weird. This is so not fun.