Do it Again

“So... is that a yes?”

“No!”

“I’ll take that as a definite maybe!”

“Ugh!” Veronica Jeong stormed off in a flustered huff of emotions, having had just about enough of Collin Winter for half a lifetime.

Collin had taken an interest in Veronica from very early on that year, she knew that much, but lately his attempts to ask her out had become much more frequent and she was sick of it. What part of “no” did that boy not understand? How many times would she have to say it to get it through his thick skull? Exhausted from a long day of studying and rejection, as soon as Veronica got home, she dropped her bike in the garage, begrudgingly washed up, and didn’t bother to eat a late-approximately 8 pm-dinner before collapsing onto her bed.

The next morning, Veronica woke up and stretched, sunshine smiling in through her bedroom window. Saturday at last! She gracefully got out of bed, stretching again as she stood up, changed into her favorite sundress, and headed to the kitchen for breakfast.

Her parents had left for work a long time ago, and her kitchen was comfortably quiet. When she reached the refrigerator, she was greeted with a sticky note written by her mother. It read, in so many words, that they were out of a lot of food and asked her to go grocery shopping after she ate.

After a small, quick breakfast, she took a survey of the pantry and hopped on her bike to ride to the nearest grocery store. Luckily, it wasn’t too far from her house. She soon arrived and locked up her bike before grabbing a basket and heading into the store.

Walking around the produce section in the front of the store, she went over the mental list she had made of everything she would need. She stopped by the peppers and got to work picking out the freshest of the bunch.

“Phew, that was a lot of work,” Veronica sighed as she wiped a bit of sweat off her brow. Thank goodness she had remembered to strap the crate onto the back of her bike the day before! She never would be able to carry back all the bags without it. Packing up her bike and waving goodbye to the kind old grocer, she began the short ride home.

“Veronica!”

She was stopped abruptly as she was about to leave the parking lot by an all-too familiar voice, running up to greet her.

Collin Winter.

“Hey! What’re you doing here, Jeong?”

She breathed out a harsh sigh of defeat before turning around to face the annoying boy. “I just finished buying groceries for my family, and if you wouldn’t mind, I’d like to get home and unpack them before the milk spoils.”

“I’ll make this quick then,” he nodded, a stoic look of resolve painted on his face. “Go out with me today.”

She groaned with frustration. “Collin, what are you even doing here, anyway?”

He shrugged. “I got bored with all the exotic food at home. Thought I’d go to the local supermarket to get some regular food for a change. Not the best,” he admitted, holding up a greasy, grab-and-go breakfast burrito. He let his arm drop, taking the nasty piece of food out of sight before continuing. “It was just a happy coincidence that I ran into you.” He leaned in a bit closer, smirking. “Almost like fate.”

Veronica leaned her bike up against a lamppost to free up both of her arms. “No, no, absolutely not. How many times do I have to say it?”

Collin managed to grab one of her hands as she was frantically waving them around. “Do you have anything better to do today?”

She ripped her wrist out of his grasp, the flush in her face betraying her image of annoyance. “Yes. As I said, I have to put away the groceries. Then I have to study. The big exam is coming up, you know. We all should be studying for it. Especially you,” she added, lifting her lip in disgust.

“Ehh, I’ll do fine enough on that.” Collin waved his hand dismissively. “And I know you’ll do great on it too. You always do, so I’m not leaving until you accept.”

She sat down on her bike and started riding away without a word. Undeterred, he jogged to keep up with her.

“I told you. I’m not leaving until you say yes.”

She pedaled faster, but Collin just kept matching her pace. As the bucket of frustration in her mind overflowed, she slammed the brakes of her bike and yelled, “Fine! Fine, I’ll go. But if I go, you have to promise you’ll stop bothering me!”

“Yes!” He almost tripped over himself as he skidded to a stop. He walked back over to her, panting like a dog. Veronica almost felt bad for making him run like that.

Almost.

“I knew you’d accept one day,” he continued on, doing a small victory dance.

“I really have to put the food away, though,” Veronica said as she cast a worried glance at the cold food quickly warming up in her crate.

“That’s fine,” Collin smiled. “You go take care of your “expireables” and I’ll walk back to the supermarket parking lot, where my car is. Meet you back there when you’re done!” And with that said, he waved and started jogging back, not even waiting for her response.

She rolled her eyes as she started pedaling again, wondering just what exactly had she gotten herself into.

“Finally, your back!”

Veronica angrily tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, not bothering to respond to his statement. “Where exactly should I put my bike?”

“Oh, you can just stow it in the trunk,” he shrugged dismissively. At last she allowed herself to observe Collin’s car. To no one’s surprise, it was big and expensive. She’d expected no less from Mr. Collin Winter. As she shoved her bike in the trunk, he walked around to the passenger side of the car and opened the door for Veronica.

“Thank you.” She spoke with a begrudging tone, but was truly pleasantly surprised at his actions. Maybe, just maybe, chivalry wasn’t entirely dead yet.

Collin closed the door and practically skipped to his side, got in the car, and turned on the ignition.

“So, Veronica,” he started, immediately filling the space with words. “You’re going to love where we’re going. While you were at your house, I had plenty of time to book us a spot.”

That’s right! She had been so flustered by his persistence and her rushed acceptance that she forgot to ask what he had planned!

“What kind of activity requires a reservation,” she asked cautiously.

“Something you’re going to love,” he responded wittily.

Realizing she would not get any answers from him, Veronica decided to punish him by ending any and all conversation right then and there, changing the station to classical music and turning up the volume.

“Collin, where are we?” Veronica looked around quickly, assessing her surroundings. They were in the forest at the top of their local mountain. “What are we doing here?!”

He said nothing as he bolted out of the car to open the door for her. He offered her his hand to help her out, and she reluctantly took it. After she was fully out of the car, he closed the door, gave her hand a small squeeze, and giddily chirped, “Follow me!”

He started running, pulling Veronica behind him. “Collin, stop!” He just laughed and continued running despite her protests. When he finally stopped, Veronica realized they were in front of a strange platform overlooking the forest. She turned her head to face Collin and glared at him.

“Collin?”

“Hey folks, welcome to County Mountain Zip-lining. My name is Zack and I’ll be your instructor today.”

A tall, lanky, thirty-something-year-old man walked out from behind a tree and approached the couple. Veronica took a step back in horror and released Collin’s hand.

“No! No, absolutely not! Collin, what made you think this would be a good idea?!”

“Please, I promise it’ll be fun,” he walked up to her, hands up in surrender. “I’ve been zip lining many times before. It’s totally safe. And besides,” he reached out his arms and took Veronica’s hands in his. “I’ll be right behind you the entire time.”

She looked around worriedly, heart beating in her chest from fear. This Zack guy looked kind enough. She assumed he had seen his share of people freak out before getting on that line. “Okay,” she breathed, defeated. “I’ll go.” She held up a finger to his face. “But if I die, I’m going to kill you.”

“Deal,” he smirked as he led her to Zack.

He gave the two the basic safety spiel and kindly answered the barrage of questions Veronica asked him immediately afterward. Then he gave them their harnesses. They hooked them on with ease, thanks to Zack’s expert demonstration, and stepped up to the edge of the platform.

Veronica, who was in front, made the mistake of looking down. She yelped, scared out of her mind, and turned around, subconsciously snuggling into the nearest person’s-Collin’s- chest for comfort.

“Hey, hey, it’s alright,” he said, gently patting her head. “I was scared the first time I went too. I was with my parents and made the mistake of looking down. But I promise, when you’re up there, flying through the trees, there’s no better feeling on earth.”

She lifted her head and looked into brave, reassuring eyes and nodded, nerves steeled. Zack came over and hooked them up to the line... and hooked their harnesses together.

“H-hey, what’s this for,” Veronica asked, snapping out of her fear-induced stupor.

“Oh, it’s to keep the two of you’s together so you don’t get separated out there,” Zack responded nonchalantly.

“But... what if I’m okay with being separated?” Veronica tugged at the rope. “Really, it’s okay, we don’t need this, so if you could please just-AAAAAAH!”

Veronica’s rambling was cut off as Collin jumped off the platform, taking Veronica with him. Down the zip line they flew and she screamed bloody murder. Collin finally managed to get her attention by lightly pulling on her hair.

“Open your eyes!”

“No,” she cried, using her hands to cover them. “I won’t do it.”

“Trust me.”

Reluctantly, she slowly cracked open one eye. Then the other. And the view was amazing.

“Haha!” Veronica laughed as she extended her arms out, almost as if she was flying. “Woohoo!”

Her excited yell echoed down the mountain as the two flew through the air, Collin laughing behind her the entire time. He was right. This was amazing! She felt so free, so alive! She didn’t even notice-or did she just not mind?-when Collin reached forward to wrap his arms around her waist.

When at long last they reached the bottom, Veronica didn’t want it to end. Reluctantly, she stepped out of the harness with the help of the employee at the second platform. When they both were free, Collin took her hand and ran. This time, she gladly followed.

They spent the rest of the day hanging out in the forest at the end of the zip line. Collin bought her some souvenirs at the gift shop there. They were probably meant for tourists, but she didn’t care. Then he treated her to lunch at the cafe attached to it, and when they were finished eating, they went out into the trees and chatted the afternoon away.

Soon it started to get dark, and Veronica remembered had to be home for dinner. They raced back to the car, Collin winning so he could open the door for her once again. The ride home was filled with a continuation of the conversations they had in the forest and contained lots of laughter.

They agreed to drop Veronica off at the supermarket so she could ride her bike home and get some more exercise, but she hid the real reason: she was still unsure about letting Collin know where she lived. Not just yet, anyway.

He parked and as per usual, came around to her side to help her out of the car. They got her bike out of the trunk together, and he walked her to the edge of the parking lot.

“I had quite a lot of fun today,” Collin said as they reached the sidewalk.

Veronica pushed another lock of hair behind her ear and responded, “Surprisingly, I did too.”

The two looked at each other, stole a moment in time for just them, until Collin ruined it. “Well, a promise is a promise. I won’t bother you again.”

“No!” Veronica couldn’t control herself as she reached out an arm and grabbed a fistful of his jacket’s collar. Immediately embarrassed, she cleared her throat and smoothed out his collar as she spoke. “I mean... only if you want to...”

She trailed off without getting a concise thought through, but Collin knew what she meant.

“So... if I were to ask you out again, it wouldn’t be bothering you, then?”

“No,” Veronica said, trying to contain her emotions. “Not at all.”

Collin reached out and pulled her into an embrace. Veronica stilled for a moment before hugging him back. It was nice, she realized; letting someone in for once.

As he was holding her close, he suddenly directed his attention to Veronica’s cheeks and forehead, where he started planting kisses. They were light like a butterfly’s touch, but it was enough to flush her face and make her heart beat like a drum.

“What are you doing, Collin?” Veronica asked with an uncertain tone.

“It’s called “showing you affection”,” Collin responded.

“It’s disgusting,” she told him. He stopped and looked at her, furrowing his eyebrows in concern. “...Do it again.”

With a wry smile, he wrapped his arms around her small waist tighter and resumed kissing her, this time moving to her lips. Her first kiss! A real one! It was here at last! She melted into the kiss as she finally let herself be vulnerable with someone, and wrapped her arms around him as well.

Then, all of a sudden, his hand started moving. Lower. And lower, until it reached the side of her hip and-

“AAAH!”

Veronica yelled as she shot up in her bed like a bullet, face as red as the fire burning beneath it. Folding in her legs to sit criss-crossed, she looked around her room in a daze. It... it had all been a dream? She flopped back down onto her bed, flipped over so she was laying on her stomach and yelled into her pillow.

What the heck was that?

A dream... where she went on a date with Collin. And even kissed him! How could she face Collin after a dream like that?! She realized with a sinking feeling in her stomach that she would have to though, because when she opened up the calendar on her phone to check the date, it read in big, black, horrible letters: Friday. Another day of having to see and talk to Collin in the school hallways. Well, another day of Collin trying to talk to her and having to put up with it.

She stumbled out of bed, grumbling to herself. What on earth was that dream? Where did it come from? And the biggest question... Why??

She opened her closet, wondering what she should wear. Something frumpy to try and avoid Collin? Or... something cute to get his attention?

She finally decided on her favorite sweater which was right in the middle of cute and comfortable. As she got dressed, she realized she was humming to herself. She forced herself to stop. How had that dream affected her so much? Looking into the mirror on her vanity as she combed her long hair, she realized something that made her bones shiver: her dream made her happy.

“Argh!” Veronica threw her brush across the room, an absolute mess of emotions. How could she have actually liked that dream?! Collin was just too annoying. There was no way she would ever, ever go on a real date with him!

...Right?

She gave her hair and outfit a final adjustment before heading down to the kitchen for breakfast, mentally preparing herself for another day.

No more skipping dinner, she thought, the dream kiss lingering in her thoughts, still fresh in her mind.