// birds of paradise, b

b

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originally her parents were supposed to come with her on this excursion, but they opted out last minute. poppy didn’t have to work that day as a lifeguard so she decided to still go, even if she was alone, because it was her day off and there wasn’t a whole lot else to do. the small boat that was going to take the group out the the coral reefs had a hammock netting in the front so people could lay out on it and look down at the water. there were only a few other people on board when she arrived so she quickly grabbed a spot on the netting and eagerly waited to set out to the reefs, snapping photos on her phone while waiting.

B wasn't really sure what he was gonna do that day. His other friends seemed to be going off to do their own thing, and B was stuck just wandering about until his eyes landed on Poppy. There was a long hesitation before he wandered over to her. "Hey, Poppy. I didn't know you were on the cruise." Lie, lie, lie.

b

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poppy knew that b was on the cruise since day one when pixel had saw him and ran to her room to inform the nineteen year old. she wondered how long it would be until they ran into one another. of course she didn’t think it would be today while there was nowhere to run. ”b, hi!” she smiled, putting her phone down quickly upon his arrival. suddenly she wished she wore something sexier, but it was too late for that so she was trying not to dwell on it, ”yeah, my parents and my brother are both here. kind of a family trip, but for the most part we are all doing our own things.”

"Thats cool." B nodded - wondering who her mom and brother were. He already knew who her father was - the mayor - but he hadn't looked enough to see who he was with most of the time. "But, uh, sorry. About lately..I've been..busy."

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her smile faltered slightly when he brought up his absence. she didn’t really want to talk about in fear that he’d discover just how effected she was by his ghosting. ”it’s fine,” she shrugged off, looking away from him and out towards the ocean, ”if you’re busy, you’re busy. there’s not much you can do about it.” she played it off cool, as if she didn’t care or wasn’t bothered at all by the two weeks of silence, but in reality she did care. a little more than she wanted to.

B hesitated. This was risky. He could easily get slapped in the face. Reaching forward - he tipped her chin up and leaned in to kiss her. Really, at this point, he was more worried about the mayor flying in and hitting him.

b

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she had literally waited for this moment since her naive, boy crazy, nineteen year old eyes laid upon b and all his bad boy glory. she had fantasied about it on multiple occasions; and in all those moments she had anticipated it coming. but this she had not expected whatsoever, especially after he had ghosted her. still, every fiber in her body was screaming in glee as his lips touched hers and responded immediately to his kiss with her own. when he pulled away she stared at him with a mixture of bliss and confusion. ”well..” she didn’t know what to say and her cheeks burned red, ”that was unexpected.”