When you actually read this story, I will not be there to see any of your reviews. I'm going out of town from Wednesday until Saturday, so I didn't actually post this. I got AngElle to update it for me! So do me a favor and be nice to her, okay?
Anyways, this chapter is dedicated to everyone who was mad last time that Avery and Odd were so close to kissing but didn't make it. If I wasn't lazy, I would look it up. But I am, so I won't. Thanks to everyone!
(Avery P.O.V.)
Suddenly, I'm awake again, and I'm walking along with Odd towards the ice cream place. Without a word, I turn to my left and hug Odd. Odd just stands there for a second, and then I pull away.
"What was that for?" He asks me.
"We didn't get to finish our hug earlier." I say smiling. He smiles back at me.
"I guess we didn't." He says. He quickly pulls out his phone.
"Hey Ulrich… you wannna come get some ice cream too? Its Aaron's, on 118th… okay, we'll see you in a few." Odd puts his phone away.
"I hope you don't mind, but I invited the gang." I smile.
"Sounds great." I say. He surprises me by grabbing my hand and pulling me into the ice cream shop.
"Hi there, just the two of you?" The lady asks.
"No, our friends will be here in a couple minutes." Odd says, still holding my hand.
"Okay then. What can I get for the lovely girl?" She asks, looking at me.
"How about a chocolate parfait?" I say.
"Okay, and for the boyfriend?" I stay quiet, and Odd looks at me strangely. I just look strangely back at him with a smile. He turns back towards the counter.
"I'll have the same." He says. He pays for them both and takes us to the same table we were at before.
"So, any reason you changed your order from last time?" He asks me, sliding my parfait across the table to me.
"Hmm… not really. But of course, it had absolutely no connection with my now knowing that you're paying for it." I say smiling. Odd sits and thinks for a second, trying to figure out what I just said.
"Hey! You mean you would have ordered this if you knew I was paying before?" I take my spoon and scoop off the top part of the parfait.
"Yah, probably." I say, popping it into my mouth. I smile back at Odd as the chocolatey goodness slides down my throat.
"Well, that's not the only thing that changed." He says, and I raise an eyebrow, having another spoonful.
"This time you didn't start to argue when she called us a couple." I smile.
"So?"
"So… why not?"
"Last time you stopped me, this time you're wondering why I didn't? You sure change you mind easily."
"Don't turn the tables on me Avery, and besides, you changed your mind more than I have today." He says. I just laugh.
"Don't worry about it Odd. Just eat your ice cream, or I will." I say. At that moment, Ulrich and everyone else walks in. Taking advantage of Odd's distraction, I reach over and scoop off the top of his ice cream, popping it into my mouth.
"Hey!" Odd says. He smiles devilishly and scoops up some of my ice cream, eating it as well.
"Oh, now it's on." I say calmly. I quickly dive across the table, but Odd grabs my hand, stopping me. He tries to get to mine, but I use my other hand to keep it away. I managed to get a scoop on my spoon, and I try to eat it, but Odd grabs my wrist. I inch my mouth closer to my spoon, trying to get it, but Odd pulls my hand away. We sit like that for a second.
Me, with one hand holding a spoon towards me, the other holding my ice cream away from Odd. Odd, one hand trying to reach my ice cream, the other stopping me from getting my spoon back to my mouth. I even have my tongue out, trying desperately to get a taste of Odd's delicious ice cream.
"Ahem." Ulrich says, walking up. "Are we interrupting something?" Odd's grip on my wrist slackens, and I quickly put my spoon in my mouth.
"O cors nopt." I say with the spoon in my mouth. Yumi, Jeremie, and Aelita walk up behind Ulrich.
"So Avery, would you care to tell us why both you and Odd are blushing?" Yumi asks with a smile. I take my spoon out of my mouth and shrug my shoulders.
"Mmm, no not really." I say with a big grin. I didn't even realize I was blushing. I scoot over, and so does Odd, so that everyone else can sit down.
"Everyone, take a hint from the great Odd. Never, and I mean ever, give a girl chocolate on purpose. Avery just got a little bit and she's already bouncing off the walls." Odd says laughing.
"I'm not bouncing off the walls. I just stole some of your ice cream. Besides, you owe me!"
"Yah, and I bought you some!" I just pout, having run out of arguments.
"So, why did Odd owe you ice cream?" Jeremie asks after a moment of silence.
"He just owed me. Long story." I say. Getting an idea, I take a piece of scratch paper and a pencil out of my pocket. I turn away from Ulrich, who is sitting next to me, and scribble something down on it.
"Hey Avery, what's that?" Odd asks. I quickly fold it up into a square.
"Uh… nothing. Here Yumi." I hand it to her. She makes sure Ulrich isn't looking and reads it, a smile crossing her face. After that she hands it to Aelita. Aelita smiles too, and puts the paper in her pocket.
"One… Two…" I say slowly.
"Three." Yumi, Aelita and I say at the same time. Simultaneously, we all reach over and steal a scoop of ice cream from the boys. Yumi from Ulrich, Aelita from Jeremie, and me from Odd.
"Hey!" All the guys say at the same time. Ulrich nods to Odd and Jeremie, and they nod back.
"Uh oh." I say, I quickly pull my ice cream away from Odd, and so does Yumi and Aelita. But the boys were too smart for us (curse me for saying that). Instead of Odd trying to get from me, Ulrich does. Instead of stealing from me, Odd scoops some from Aelita. Jeremie quickly reached across the table to steal from an unwitting Yumi.
"Hey!" We yell. This begins a whole ice cream stealing fiesta.
Everyone reaching across everywhere to steal from someone else, no matter who it was. By the time it's over, we're all laughing, we've all switched spots at least once, and there's a considerable amount of ice cream on the table. After spending about five minutes cleaning up the mess, we head outside and walk back towards the park.
(Odd P.O.V.)
"Come on Yumi, I'll take you home." Ulrich says , offering his hand to his girlfriend.
"Thanks Ulrich." She takes his hand and they walk off, fading into the darkness. At that moment, Aelita yawns rather largely, leaning against Jeremie comfortably.
"Let's go Princess, it's time for you to go back to your dorm." Jeremie says, putting his arm around her. Aelita doesn't say anything, just nods tiredly. I look around and realize that it's just me and Avery left.
"Woah, where did everybody go?" I ask somewhat stupidly. I blame my tiredness.
"Bed." Avery replies shortly with a smile. That smile still makes me want to melt into a puddle.
"Well, do you think…bed… yah go maybe we bedtime let's should." I say and smack myself on the forehead.
Damn my stupidity.
"You think we should go to bed?" She asks, looking at me sympathetically.
"Uh yah. That."
"You're so cute when you do that."
"Do what?"
"Stumble over your words like that. It's cute. That's why I like you." She leans up and kisses me on the cheek before stepping away and blushing.
"Uh… here, I'll take you to your room." I say, offering my arm like a gentleman. She eyes it for a moment, then turns and looks to see if there's anyone around. Seeing her discomfort, I drop my arm.
"Let's just go." I say, and we begin walking. I feel the temptation to reach out and grab her hand, so I thrust my hands into my pockets like I've seen Ulrich do so many times before. Suddenly, the moon comes out from behind a cloud, illuminating our surroundings, creating a beautiful scene.
"It's breathtaking, isn't it?" She mentions, looking around.
"It is indeed. Just like you." I turn to look at her, hoping she won't hate me because of that comment. She's staring at me, her piercing green eyes scanning me. I can almost see her thinking, trying to figure me out. But she can't and it confuses her. And she hates it.
"Odd… I've been thinking…."
"Did it hurt?" I couldn't stop myself, it just came out. Avery stares at me again, not even a smile on her perfect lips.
"Odd, I'm trying to be serious. Can you be serious for a while too?"
"Okay, sure." I say.
"I've been thinking… about what you said.".
"Okay, which part? I've said a lot of things."
"Well, the part where you told me… that one thing. Remember?"
"Hmm… that one thing that I once said to you… it rings a bell. Where we at that one place? And that one guy was there? And you know, he did that one thing?" I say with a huge grin on my face. I can't help it, it's in my nature to joke around.
"Dammit Odd, I asked you to be serious!" Avery practically yells at me. I stare wide-eyed at her.
"Avery… did you just cuss at me?"
"I'm sorry Odd, but I was just trying to…."
"No, you just cussed at me! Don't worry, I'm not offended or anything, I've had plenty of girls cuss at me. But you said you didn't like swearing."
"I'm sorry I had to do that Odd. I only swear about things that I really care about. About something important."
"Okay, I'm sorry too. I'll be serious now, I promise." We walk for a few more minutes in silence.
"What did you want to talk about?" I ask her.
"It's nothing important."
"You said yourself you only cuss if it's important. Tell me."
"I-I've been thinking a lot about what you said."
"What did I say?"
"On Lyoko… when you said…." She can't seem to continue, so I help her along.
"That… that I love you?" She nods her head.
"So I thought and thought about it… and I've had a big problem with it. No one's really ever done this to me before Odd."
"You've never had a boyfriend before?" She doesn't say anything, just stares ahead blankly.
"Avery?"
"Yes, I have. But I didn't like it. Please, don't ask me about that again."
"Did it end badly?"
"Yah." She replies shortly.
"Did you love him?" She doesn't reply, but I don't press the matter.
"I thought I did." She answers, startling me. I look at her again, it looks like she's fighting tears.
"I'm sorry. I won't ask anything else."
"That's okay Odd." We keep walking in silence until we're at the edge of the park. The school is just ahead of us.
"So what did you want to talk about?" I ask her.
"Huh?" She looks at me, confused.
"You wanted to say something about… that time on Lyoko."
"Oh, yeah." She says. It looks like she doesn't know how to continue.
"Well, uh…" She stays quiet for a while.
"I was surprised when you saved me." I say, breaking the silence.
"Why?"
"My vision. I saw myself right when I got hit by the megatank. I didn't see myself push you out of the way. And I saw myself fall all the way into the digital sea."
"So?"
"I saw myself splash into the digital water. When that happened, I was deleted. But you saved me. That means my vision was wrong."
"But your visions are never wrong."
"I know. That means somehow, you changed it. I don't know how that's possible…"
"Odd, I was meaning to say from the beginning was…" She begins, but she breaks down and begins to sob.
It looked like she was trying to say it, to just blurt out whatever she wanted to say before she lost the courage… but she didn't make it.
She latches onto me, nearly knocking us down. I lift her chin until she's looking up at me.
"Just say it." I say gently.
"I-I love you."
"You-you-you… you what?" I stutter. I stare at her disbelievingly. I was sorely tempted to call out into the woods, see if Ulrich was waiting with a camera.
I had it so ingrained in my mind, so set in stone that she didn't love me. Now that she just contradicted herself, it throws my whole thought process off.
"I love you Odd." She says through her tears. I smile at her and wipe the tears from her cheeks.
"I-I love you too. And I always will, I promise." We just stand there and hold each other for a few minutes.
"Odd?" Avery says, pulling away.
"Yah?"
"Isn't there something you would like to do now?"
"Hmm, like what?" I say mockingly.
"Wouldn't you like to kiss me?"
"Nah, I can save that for later." I say and grin.
"Goddammit Odd just kiss me!" She says loudly at me. I didn't need telling twice, especially because she cussed at me again. I put my arm around her slender waist and pull her up to my level, letting my lips connect with hers.
Oh sure, we had kissed before, but not like this. I kissed her when I thought I was going to die on Lyoko. She kissed me during gym class, and when she thought I was asleep. But neither compares to the experience when both of us are returning the kiss. I won't go into detail (that's private) but I will tell you that my life was perfect at that moment. After a couple of minutes, we had to break apart for air, but neither of us wanted to. I leaned back and eyed her lovingly. She looked back with a fire in her eyes that I have never seen before.
"That was… wow." I say breathlessly.
"That was amazing." She says, also out of breath. Without another word, I take her hand and begin walking. Finally, I get the feeling of her hand in mine. Not like before, when I grabbed her hand to pull her somewhere, or anything like that. This time, I consciously grabbed it, and held her sweet hand in mine. It's so soft…
I decide it's late enough, we need to get back to bed. So I walk her to her dorm and say goodnight.
"Goodnight Odd." She says, closing the door slowly.
"What, no goodnight kiss?" I ask with a smile.
"We haven't even had the first date." She says and shuts the door. Completely bewildered, I must have stood there stupidly for at least ten seconds before I shake myself out of it.
"Girls." I say, running my hand through my tall blonde hair. I turn to walk away when I hear the door open again. I turn around to see Avery in my face. She quickly grabs me by the shirt and kisses me again. I didn't realize what she had done before she let go, walked back into her room, and shut the door. I even heard the lock click.
"Girls." I say again, still completely confused. I shove my hands in my pockets, turn around, and walk back to my dorm.
Ha, it finally happened! Avery and Odd kissed! Bwa ha ha... review please! Tell me what you thought! Every author loves coming home to see their inbox full of reviews, it's an awesome feeling!