The Kissing Booth
When you had imagined college life, you had always thought about late nights studying in the library, or parties where you would go out drinking with your friends, or complete isolation and last minute study sessions in your dorm as you prep for exams.
Having to run the bottle ring toss stand for the dorm hall's charity event wasn't even anywhere near your college to-do list. But here you are. Carefully standing up about forty glass bottles on a table.
You always hated this game. It was completely rigged. The rings you had to toss were always smaller than the bottle tops they were supposed to fall on.
To make matters worse, you had found out that your roommate and love of your life would be running the kissing booth. Of course, Weiss Schnee had no idea that she was the love of your life. But that was a minor detail.
Luckily for you, Weiss' booth had presale tickets. So you may have bought some, just in case. What you hadn't anticipated was her booth being right next to yours.
"Oh hey Blake, looks like we are going to be booth buddies." You look up to see Weiss setting up her sign and placing a plastic bag of some kind on the shelving behind the booth.
"Yeah. Looks like it."
"Did you get stuck doing the ring toss again this year?" She tilts her head to the side and gives you a small smile.
"It's not that bad. I just hate when people, well, really when the kids don't win. It's totally rigged. I usually just give the kids the prize tickets anyways." Shrugging, you set about five more bottles on the table.
"Well that's very kind of you. They said my tickets sold out this year. So I'm a little nervous."
"I mean, why wouldn't they?" It falls out your mouth before you can stop it.
She looks away, smiling. Probably because you're blushing like an idiot because you've totally embarrassed yourself. Not like the two of you have to share a room for the remainder of the school year.. oh wait.
By the grace of God, when you stand up you see Pyrrha making her way towards you, purposefully.
"Hi ladies! Are you ready to go? We are about to open everything up!"
"It's as good as it's gonna get." You mumble as you place the little plastic rings along the counter top of your booth.
"As enthusiastic as always, Blake. Weiss? How about you? You have the only booth to sell out of tickets before we open."
"Really?" There's a slight crack in her voice.
"Most definitely. Yang is quite upset that her booth didn't sell out first."
"I mean, who would honestly pay to arm wrestle her? You're already going to have to pay for your own medical bills when she breaks your arm or wrist." Weiss giggles into her sleeve, and it makes you smile.
"Now, now, that's not fair to say. I asked her to behave and participate fairly."
"Well hopefully she listens." Weiss says as she hops up onto the stool behind her booth.
"Alright, it's go time. So I have to head back up front and make sure Nora and Ruby don't eat all the food. Or set something on fire."
"Wouldn't be good to have a repeat of last year, would it?" You say, and Pyrrha looks at you clearly unamused by the smirk on your face.
As soon as Pyrrha is gone, Weiss leans over towards you.
"Remind me, what happened last year?"
"You mean you really forgot that the two of them tried to deep fry every kind of food they had at the concession stand and the wall caught fire?"
She doubles over in laughter, slapping her knee.
"No, no I didn't forget. But it never gets old. The two of them smelled like corndogs for a month afterwards. Pyrrha was so mad."
The first group of kids approaches your booth and you take their tickets, handing them each three rings.
"And yet, even after the concession stand bonfire, Pyrrha thought it was a good idea to throw the same kind of fundraiser again this year."
None of the kids get any rings on the bottle, but you give them all a prize ticket anyways, and they walk off.
"Yeah, especially since half the money we raised ended up going towards the damages."
"What booth did you run last year? I forgot." It was true. You just know it wasn't the kissing booth.
"Face painting. And I was terrible at it. It was more like a 'Picasso painting in five minutes or less on your face' booth. Kids kept asking for animals or super hero masks and it was just a mess."
"Oh yeah, I asked you to paint a flower on my cheek and it looked way more like a jellyfish than a flower." She grabs one of your rings off the table and throws it at you.
"Who did the kissing booth last year?" She asks, propping her chin in her hand, looking off pensively. But she answers her own question. "Coco. How could I forget? She got in trouble for… how did Pyrrha refer to it?"
"Aggressively trying to suck face with every willing participant." Your air quotes are only to emphasize the ridiculousness of Pyrrha's word choice.
"Poor choice of words, considering it was Coco, so everyone that wandered by was willing."
"You aren't wrong. Still funny though."
Another five or six groups of people come and go from your booth. Weiss' booth still remaining unvisited. But for some reason, she seems unbothered by the lack of people.
"Have you started studying for Goodwitch's exam yet?" When you stand up from picking the rings up off the floor, you face her direction.
"I finished the readings and taking notes but I haven't started studying yet, no. You?"
"Not really. I started to color code my notes but then I was just too distracted."
"Too busy worrying about running the kissing booth, huh?"
"Actually, yes." It surprises you. Weiss isn't the kind of person to let certain things distract her from school work.
"Good news," you look both left and right from your seat, "doesn't seem like you're as busy as you thought. So not much to worry about after all."
"Right? So much for a sold out booth. I even went out of my way to figure out a way to not actually kiss people."
"Wh-what do you mean?" The nervousness in your chest building exponentially.
"Well, I didn't really want to kiss anyone in the first place. So I had to figure out a way to get out of it, without just quitting. So I got these." She leans over and places the plastic bag on the counter top of her booth.
"Hershey kisses. You bought a bag of chocolate?"
"This way, I can technically still give anyone a kiss, but not have to physically kiss them." She dances a little bit on her stool. Clearly proud of herself for coming up with the idea.
"That's kinda smart." It's all you can think to say as your brain comes to realize how much money you just spent on carnival tickets for basically no reason at all.
"So imagine my disappointment when there are no visitors to my supposedly sold out booth." She huffs in defeat.
"More good news, we have less than an hour left, so it's almost over. And you get to keep the chocolates for yourself."
"Still somewhat disappointing."
Suddenly, from around the end of the aisle, Jaune appears, with an armful of tickets.
"Speaking of disappointment." You mumble,
"Those tickets better not be for me." The look of terror is plastered on Weiss' face.
"Hey guys!" He's always so chipper. It's exhausting. "There's only like half an hour left of the carnival so I figured I needed to come drop these off if they plan on getting used."
"Oh God no, please God no." Weiss repeats a few times under her breath.
"And these are…?" You ask him as he lays them across the entirety of your booth's counter.
"Your tickets." He says to you like it's obvious. "You know, all the tickets you bought for the kissing booth. At first when Pyrrha said you had bought them all, I was a little confused. But she told me to just be quiet and bring them here for you. I still can't believe you bought every single one. That's like, over eighty tickets!"
If it were possible to die from embarrassment, you would be six feet under.
"Thanks, Jaune. I'm sure Pyrrha will be delighted to hear that I have received every single one of my tickets, right now, standing here. Now, please do me a favor and leave so I can die in peace."
"Alright then. You two ladies have a good night!" With that, he wanders off back the way he came.
When you finally turn to the right and look in her direction, Weiss is propped up on her forearm and leaning against the booth. Her eyes narrowing as she looks at you. This certainly hadn't been how you thought this would go. You had been hoping she would never find out.
"Just when exactly were you planning on telling me that you bought not one, not two, but ALL of the tickets to my booth, Blake Belladonna?"
"Never? Probably. Maybe eventually?" You fidget nervously.
"Why would you do that? How much could that have possibly cost? Over eighty tickets? You shouldn't go around wasting money like that!"
"It wasn't a waste." You mumble as you begin to start cleaning up your booth, placing bottles back in their boxes under the table.
"What do you mean? Of course it was."
"Selfish maybe, but not a waste." You take a deep breath. "Because maybe I didn't want to spend my night watching other people kiss you, over and over while I supervised the ring toss." Folding the legs of the table, you slide it back against the wall. "It was for charity too, so I didn't waste my money."
You don't really want to wait for her to say anything back. You already feel like your heart had arm wrestled Yang, and lost. So you start cleaning up all the tickets Jaune had left scattered on the booth. Habitually, you count them as you fold them into rows.
"How many?" Her voice almost seems far off, or like you're hearing it through a wall.
"I'm not letting you pay me back for the tickets, Weiss. I'm not sad or feel guilty that I bought them" You dismiss any notion similar to that as well.
"Blake Belladonna, how many tickets did you buy?" Her voice a little more stern this time. Rolling your eyes, you look over at her.
"Eighty four. There are eighty four tickets." Humiliated. You feel humiliated as you hear her shoes scuffing along the floor as she walks over towards you.
"Hold out your hand." You glance up at her suspiciously.
"Why?"
"Just do it, please." She lightly stomps her foot. So you stick out your left hand, palm up.
She reaches up and places a single chocolate kiss in your palm. And you just stare at it for a few seconds.
"Only one? I mean, technically I bought eighty four, so shouldn't you give me the whole bag-"
Before you can finish saying anything she grabs your face and pulls you down, pressing your lips together. If you weren't dead before, you were now.
"Took you two long enough. It was getting painful to watch after three years." The addition of another voice startles the two of you into separating.
Looking over, you see Pyrrha standing at the front side of your booth, holding a box full of supplies under one arm.
"And I'll be taking a few of these, as payment for my continuous pain and suffering that you have caused me over the years." Reaching her hand into the candy bag and grabbing a handful before she walks off.
"I can't believe she took my candy." You say as your eyes follow Pyrrha around the corner.
"I guess you're just going to have to redeem the other eighty three tickets the old fashioned way." Weiss says as she rips one ticket from your collection.
