The last sneak peek for this summer. You all know the drill by now.


Photo #99: I Love

Eadlyn thinks that this next photo was one of my mistaken shots, like the photo that was taken on accident and had to be thrown away. In this one, she can't even tell who's in it because the person is dark since the camera is focusing on the overly-bright window. But, the closer she looks, she sees that the photo was supposed to be focused on the window because that's the main attraction.

Eadlyn has to squint her eyes to get a better look at the window in the picture. It just rained and so the window is all foggy while covered in raindrops. That's when Eadlyn notices that the window has writing on it. It's a sentence with two different penmanships on it. They look as if they have been combined to make one sentence, a sentence that really makes Eadlyn smile.

-o-

The rain continues to pour outside and Osten looks through longingly. As the bad weather continues to worsen, Osten finds himself sitting at that same spot on the window that slowly fogs up as the raindrops land and drizzle down it. With a half-eaten bowl of orange, crunchy, and dusty cheese snacks on his lap, Osten finds himself confined to the dreaded and boring indoors.

He lifts his face from the window and it's immediately wet. As he dries it with his sleeve, he looks out the window where his face was pressed against and it's completely transparent. He can see the gloomy outdoors which isn't that much of an improvement but it's something. Osten looks at another foggy part of the window and taps it. It's a clear fingerprint. When he draws a line, it's a visible line.

"Wow..." An amazed Osten mutters excitedly.

He draws more lines that turn into pictures and words. He stretches over and eventually stands up to get more of the window. This was rainy day entertainment at its finest. He could sketch or print anything. The sky - or in this case, the window's the limit. This would definitely keep him occupied for a while, hopefully until the rain stopped so that he could go run outside and jump in some puddles.

And so he did as much as he could...

"You were drawing on the window for twenty minutes," Maxon says.

Osten snaps out of his inner artist mode (which he didn't know he inherited from his mother until now). He looks at his mural of random doodles on the window and all he can say is that it's abstract at its finest. Then, he sees his dad lift an eyebrow and remembers that he asked a question.

"Why were you timing me for twenty minutes?" Osten asks in return.

Maxon opens his mouth to respond but closes it once he can't think of a response. Osten turns back to the window and continues to doodle on it. Maxon sighs as he picks up Osten's bowl of snacks to set down on a nearby table before wrapping his hands around Osten's waist and pulling back the ottoman he was sitting on.

"Hey!" Osten exclaims.

"The rain stopped, go play outside," Maxon tells him.

"But I was having fun..." Osten whines, slumping his arms against his sides.

"You're staining the windows and the maids will get mad. Besides, the puddles are like oceans."

Osten jumps off of the ottoman. "Yay!"

He starts to wipe his wet and cheesy hands on his clothes before Maxon grabs his hands. Maxon pulls out several tissues and begins wiping his dirty fingers on them.

"Your mother and the maids will get mad if you dirty your clothes," Maxon tells him.

"But I'm allowed to go outside and get all wet?" Osten questions.

Again, Maxon is left speechless with another one of Osten's witty contradictions to his parenting attempts. He thought that after three kids, the fourth one would be a breeze but (and his age was possibly a factor even though he isn't that old) this one was just tiring him. Maxon just sighs again before just letting him run out. He figures that America could deal with him.

Maxon grunts as he gets up (maybe it is his age) and grabs fresh tissues to wipe away at the window. Once he discards those as well as the ones he used on Osten's hands, he looks at the sections of the windows that are still fogged up and he can't help but wonder what about this fascinated Osten so much that it nearly hypnotized him. Maxon brings a finger to the window and starts sketching out swirls to the areas that Osten couldn't reach and suddenly, not only is he drawing but he is drawn into this madness.

"Hypocrite."

Maxon jumps a little and he turns around to see America lean against the doorway. She laughs a little as she makes her way over, gaining pleasure from his petrified face. Maxon smiles nervously at her as he subtly wipes his hand on his pants (which she can't help but notice).

"Like father, like son," is all America can say.

"You can't blame me," Maxon defends. "That kid of ours was onto something. This is so much more fun than I thought."

With disbelief written in her eyes, America takes a shot at performing window art at the space that's remaining. Once Maxon sees the excited childlike smile on her face, he joins back in and now they're both doodling on the windows.

"Like mother, like son," America comments.

"Like husband, like wife," Maxon adds.

"I'd like to say that we have the type of relationship where we finish each other's - "

"Sentences?"

America gives him a stern face. "Don't interrupt me."

Maxon laughs at her seriousness which breaks America's fake icy act. He wraps his arms around her, giving her many kisses on the side of her head as they look at their window art and see that they both wrote words on it. America wrote her name and isn't sure why Maxon didn't if he was looking at her while she was drawing the whole time.

"You wrote a fragment," America says, pointing right at it.

Maxon moves her pointing finger right to the middle of where their writings separate, putting her focus in the middle instead.

"Look, America," Maxon whispers to her as he holds her shoulders and leans close into her ear. "Our windows are connected."

It takes America a second to understand what he means. Then, she reads what they wrote together like a book from left to right, starting with Maxon's window and ending with hers. She reads it a few time before breaking down in sweetness. As one cohesive message, it was the absolute cutest act of love she has seen from him in a while and it said:

'I Love America Schreave'


Yes, that window message thing happened to me and it was the most romantic experience of my life. I bet my future wedding won't even top that.

And now for my Spider-Man story and another entry in My "Failed" Love Life series:

I Love Gwen Stacy - The first time Peter told Gwen he loved her was in elementary school and all it took was a little rain. (Peter x Gwen OS)

Stay Tuned - it's been two years...