With infectious excitement, Lo pulled the baggy white hoodie over his head, exposing his pale back. Lila’s breath caught in her throat, taking in the look of his smooth skin. Resting her hand gently near his shoulder blade, she felt his muscles tense underneath the skin. He felt warm to her touch as she trailed fingers closer to his spine.
“That kinda tickles,” he said, trying to lighten the mood threatening to descend upon them.
Finally Lila brought her attention to the mark. Pink in color yet the symbols were clearly different. Lila’s stomach knotted, disappointed tears threatening to fall. She had to be seeing it wrong she thought, closing her eyes she checked again. Still pink, still different.
“So what’s the verdict? Don’t leave me hangin,” Lo asked eagerly.
Lila touched the symbols, lightly tracing each one as if memorizing their curves for safe keeping. The words wouldn’t come, she just couldn’t say it.
“Lace?” questioned Lo more seriously. Lila’s heart leaped around her chest and she choked back a sob finally saying… “It’s a match.”
“Should I show you mine? Maybe you and I are destined to be together.”
The thought delighted Lila more than she felt it should, but respectively declined. “If only it were that easy. There are all these rules and stipulations, ones that people follow by the book. Three dates and then you share.”
“Oh,” the disappointment weighed through his tone, “Seems a shame to let you get away without knowing for sure, doesn’t it?”
Lila felt an unusual sensation creep through her stomach unlike any she’d felt before. She wanted so badly to say yes, but something held her back, “The truth is,” she said, “I’m not sure what I would do if we weren’t a match. I know that’s a bit forward…” she explained through flushed cheeks.
Lo slid a hand over the space between them reaching for hers,”Well what if we are? And you leave? That seems like the greatest tragedy of our age, doesn’t it?”
“It does.”
“I won’t tell if you won’t,” he said with a wink.
Lila drummed her fingers nervously bouncing near the hem of her dress, the voice inside her head egging her on. ‘Do it! He’s the one! Do it you fool!”
Lila took a deep breath, “Just a quick look then.”
Lila leaned back into her seat, “Well you’ve got the charm down pat.”
Lo grinned playfully, “Me? Nah.”
“Yeah you, that line was smooooth.”
The pair laughed, slipping back into an uncomfortable silence. Lila began wracking her brain, for something, anything to talk about. ‘If I’m quiet for too long and he’ll think I want to leave,’ but that was the last thing on her mind.
“So… what were you doing out here, so far from the big Twiz?”
“Well,” said Lila shortly. “My friend thought she’d cheer my up by leaving me stranded in a dark forest with a bunch of juiced up jocks. Needless to say, it didn’t work.”
“Doesn’t sounds like much of a friend. What did you need cheering up for anyhow?”
“Oh, it’s nothing…” said Lila, then after a short pause, “Bad date. Mark issues, you know.”
Quirking an eyebrow, Lo looked to Lila leaving her momentarily stunned, “Mark issues?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Lila sighed, “You know, you show me yours oh but I don’t show me mine. Yada yada.”
“I don’t quite follow you.”
Lila never considered the fact this boy probably didn’t know much about the process and suddenly felt incredibly out of her league of explanations. “Oh right I forget… Um you know the mark on your back, the weird symbol, I assume you have one?”
Lo nodded.
“Well I don’t know if you’ve ever been told, but it’s supposed to hold the key to soul mates or something.”
“How so?”
“Well, it’s sort of a long process. See, the guy has to show the girl he’s dating his mark and then she tells him whether they are a match. If they are they somehow magically fall in love and if their not, someone has to magically… go. So you can guess how my last date went.”
Lo laughed out into the open air, wedging a false familiarity between them, “That has to be a joke. Do people really believe that?”
“Like the hand of Berry herself ordained it.”
Once settled on the love seat, Lila felt surprisingly at ease. The boy made a conscious effort to keep a good distance between them, only stealing glances now and again, “My name is Lo,” said the boy after an awkward pause, “Actually it’s Mallow but everyone calls me Lo and by everyone I mean my mom,” he laughed uncomfortably.
Lila smiled, “Lilac Lace, but everyone calls me Lila.”
“Pretty,” one simple word from his lips and Lila felt her cheeks heat to an embarrassing level, “Thanks,” she said shyly.
“So are you from around here?” Lo turned his head, expecting to steal another glance, but not expecting to find Lila staring right back, “Fondant Fields I mean. Do you live in Fondant Fields?” Shaking his Lo lifted his chin to the night sky, “Arghhh I’m really bad at this…”
Lila chuckled softly to herself, “No I’m from Twizzlerbrook, the swamp if you want to be specific.”
“You gotta a swamp there?”
“You really don’t get out much do you?”
“Nope. Mom’s kind of a mental case,” he explained gravely. “Don’t really leave the yard here. Pretty boring, I know.”
“It’s not that great out there, you aren’t missin much.”
“Well you come from out there, so I know that’s not true.”
The boy took a step closer, causing Lila to step further away, “Sorry,” he said. “I’ll back off. It’s just hard to show you where to go from over here.”
Lila shook her head, “Oh right,” she replied sheepishly.
“There’s a trail heading down just off the back, but it’s a long walk, would you like to call someone to pick you up? I can grab a phone,” the boy took a step toward the house.
Lila shook her head, “No I can manage, if you show me.”
“Okay,” the boy stopped, nervously scratching the back of his neck, “I know this is going to sound forward, but… would you like to stay for a while? I don’t get out much, it’d be nice to have company my own age for once, but if that’s too forward…”
The instinct Lila thought would surely send her down the hill stopped to consider his offer, “Just right here on the porch,” said the boy. “I understand if you don’t want to, it’s just-“
“I guess I could for a little while,” said Lila.
The unexpected voice sent a shock through Lila’s system, a shock less easily contained than her previous one. Frozen where she stood, it took a couple moments for her to turn around. A million thoughts ran through her mind, all the fight or flight instincts ready to take charge.
Turning halfway, as a safety precaution, she found a tall pale figure standing only a few feet from her. He looked to be close to Lila’s age, perhaps a year or two older, but the concern worn across his face was far beyond his years. “I hope I didn’t scare you,” said the boy behind the white frames. “It’s just I don’t normally find girls wandering through my front yard in the middle of the night. A welcome surprise, just not a very common one.”
Lila unsuccessfully tried to swallow down nerves, the mystery boy had drudged up. His face so familiar, even though she knew for a fact this was their first meeting, “Y-Yes,” she stammered. “I sort of got stranded up here and I can’t seem to find my way down.”
Looking out over the city, Lila laughed to herself. How could she be so close, yet so far? One of those obscure flying dreams would come in handy right about now, she thought to herself haphazardly.
After a short break to watch over Fondant Fields, and its miniature comings and goings of life below, Lila decided to make one more trip around the house. There had to something she was missing, there had to be-
“Excuse? Miss? Are you lost?”
Then like real-estate magic, a house seemed to shoot right out from the trees. Lila would have sworn it wasn’t there before, but houses don’t grow from seeds now do they? Quickening her pace, she headed toward the white home with a renewed sense of hope. Maybe someone would be awake, and could point her to the missing road somehow eluding her.
Unfortunately once she got closer to the house she found it completely dark, not even porch light lit. With a heavy sigh, she walked close to the hills edge, still searching for any trail or pathway down. There has got to be one close she thought to herself, how do the people that live here get around? It seemed she’d found another dead end, but to Lila it wasn’t all bad, at least this way, there could possibly be a phone in her near future…
With the worst instructions imaginable, Lila quickly got lost. She knew she was on top of a hill, but everything she tried sent her to an edge far too steep to get down from. There had to be a path somewhere, but she had no idea where to start looking. A couple walk throughs later, Lila got so turned around, she no longer knew her left from her right. Cursing Sky under her breath and refusing to become some sugar bears dinner, she kept walking, crunching through the leaves littered along the ground.
The night was an absolute bust. With only a couple ice chests of brewed juice and even less kids to drink them, the party fizzled out quicker than the pathetic bonfire. And yet somehow Sky managed to forget all about Lila, leaving her stranded with only two options for finding a way home. One, let the guy who had been downing can after can drive her home or two, walk to a pay phone and call her mother. Though option one seemed less scary, she felt two was more sensible. Lila waited almost an hour before finally giving up on Sky, and disappointedly heading back to town. Onward she trudged through the half darkened wilderness, looking for any sign of civilization. Who throws a party in the middle of nowhere!?
A little voice in her head chimed in, “Who would be dumb enough to trust Sky and go…”
