I run down the stairs, two steps at a time. I changed into a Nike long-sleeved black top with a zip paired with the matching leggings and trainers, all that Luke brought me. My loose curls out, hitting my waist. I walk back into the living room and Luke sits on the sofa with his arms on his legs, hands threaded together, conversing with my mum and his head pops up when I stand in front of him. He takes in my outfit with an appreciative smirk and he bits his lip.
“Are you ready?”
“Ready when you are,” I say with a grin and a raised eyebrow. He stands up and pulls me into a hug, rubbing his chin against my head and I flush all over. We part and he grabs my hand and we bid farewell to everyone.
“7:30,” mum shouts before we leave the house.
We walk to Luke’s dark grey car, sharp and shiny just like him. This is new, I haven’t seen it before. Luke taps at his car keys and the doors lift up. I glance back at him, blinking with my head drawn back. He is so out of my league, I’ve always known that but now it’s so glaring clear.
“Do you like it?” He smirks at me, slightly smug.
“Flashy for sure,”
“Of course,” he says with sparkling eyes.
“I like it, It’s suits you,”
We get inside and his scent surrounds me with warmth as he brings the car to live with a roar and rap songs fill the space.
“Where are we going? To the cinema?” I ask.
Luke drives with one hand on the wheel and glances at me with a crease in his brow with lift to his mouth. “To the cinema? Come on, I can do better than that.”
“Okay, where?”
“You have to wait and see.”


“Paintballing,” I say with a gasp. Fitting. Luke glances at me with a smirk and grabs my hand and pulls me along.
We go through the safety procedures and demonstrations with people sticking to Luke, snapping photos, snap, snap, snap until our phones get taken. Thank god.
Before we know it, we are outside in the field, on opposite teams in green army pullovers, black padded vests and masks.
My gun rests nestled in my arms as I sit behind a tree, with my back resting against the rough edges of the trunk. I’ve been ducking, crawling, diving, and shooting. My adrenaline is at its peak, and now I'm just catching my breath. Brown fallen leaves, grass, and dirt lay at my feet with branches hanging over me. I scan the dense thickets and green bushes jutting out from the ground, with my gaze darting, searching for any movement. My blood pressure spikes and my heart beats in various ways as my forehead sheens with perspiration. Branches creak as I hear the shuffling of feet against dirt, and I quickly turn, high on alert with my eyes widening. Relief seeps through me when I spot Sheila coming into sight.
"Laura, are you okay?" Shelia says, with a heavy breath. She’s on my team, and we’ve been helping each other, watching each other's backs.
"Yeah, I’m good. I've had a close call," I say, breathing deeply with my hand placed on my chest. Shoots ring all around us, and we both look around the greenery as a kiss of falling leaves gently glides down on us.
"Yeah, me too," she says as her breathing calms down, glancing back at me.
Out of nowhere, a shot comes at us. We shuffle, but she gets splattered with yellow dripping paint, and she sighs, looking out into the distance at the direction the hit came from.
"Sorry," I say, as I follow her gaze, which briefly lands on sandy blonde hair before it ducks back under a green, uneven bush. I squint my eyes and I quickly stand up and sprint behind another tree.
"Laura, are you okay?" Luke shouts cockily, and my gaze springs from tree to tree and bush to bush with my gun pointed out with shaking hands. I don’t want to get shot, so the nerves are real, like I’m in a literal war. I lean back against the rough trees, panting. Crickets hum and the earth's smells drift over me.
"Go away!" I shout as I notice a body moving out of the corner of my eye. I quickly turn to shoot and I splatter paint on a tree. "You shot my new friend." I add as I dash for another tree, away from the person trailing me.
"She should’ve been watching her back." Luke shouts. I slowly pop my head out of the tree with my gun close to my chest and I spot Luke running to the next tree. I shoot multiple times, but he dodges skillfully, running left and right, till he is out of sight. I quickly hide back behind the tree trunk and green leaves, with my palms clammy.
"Close." Luke shouts. "But you need to do better than that,"
The same person from before continues to fire balls at me and I jump past them by the skin of my teeth, bolting to an overgrown bush, plugging inside it so that it shields me. Peering between the leaves, I spot a guy ducking his head up and down nearby, firing more shots at me. He won’t leave me alone, and I shuffle on the ground, panting heavily, with my knees digging into the grainy dirt. The body moves and closer they get, and then suddenly they get sprayed by paint. And I inhale and exhale in relief.
"Luke!" they shriek. He shot him? his teammate.
"Accident, sorry," Luke says breezily. I pop my head out, our eyes connect, and he throws me a smirk before I duck back down, crawling back.
When I turn around, Luke is behind me with his gun pointed up, directed straight at me as he stalks closer to me. How did he get to me that fast? I shouldn’t have underestimated him. Luke's career is made up of running. I grab my gun in a tight grip as I direct mine at him.
"If you move any closer, I’m going to shoot you," I say, and he moves closer with a smirk, raising both his eyebrows. Another shuffle sounds out into the silence, along with a rustle of leaves, then another body comes out with their gun raised, and Luke quickly splatters them with paint. Another two bodies come, and we both quickly shoot them.
Now, there are two, for now and closer, Luke moves after he quickly scanned the area. All clear. He crunches before me, and he pulls my gun out of my hand and drops his. Then, he crawls on top of me and I fall on my back with my head landing in an assortment of nettles and briars, which prickle me.
He lifts his mask up as well as mine, and softly pecks my lips. Peck , peck, peck as I softly moan. He pulls back to run his nose along the side of my face. My blood pressure boils as he kisses my cheeks back to peck my lips.
In the next move, Luke pulls back, quickly picks up his gun and points it at my chest, directly on my heart, which beats erratically.
I hold my breath. "Not cool," I say as heat burns from my eyes to his and vice versa. Shuffling and crunching sounds come out, and Luke quickly shoots them, misses, but eventually reaches his target.
"I’m on your team, mate," The guy grumbles before he leaves. Luke passes me my gun and helps me back up. I dust off and we both hear movement from three different directions.
Back to back, we both turn round and round, ducking at the same time with our guns raised, firing shots. Two down. Then we turn, face to face, and more shuffles and rustlings sound out. I think our teammates have gathered that we’re working together, and they're both onto us. They no longer trust us.
We both lift our guns up on opposite hands with our other hands resting on each other's waist and again we turn, round and round.
"Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have nothing on us," Luke whispers. And then two people pop out and we shoot, splatter, and they leave with a groan.
We walk through the fields, searching behind trees and bushes, and we come up empty. Luke turns back to me with a glint in his eyes. "I think it may be us left," And I run, laugh, and run on the uneven ground.
Light breezes swirl around me as I sprint, dart, and dive through bushes and around trees as Luke stays on my tail, chasing me until he grabs me and I scream with a giggle before he turns me to face him.
His eyes light up behind his mask. "Should we do hunger games style now, shoot each other at the same time?" Luke asks with a grin.
I nod, "All’s fair in Love and war," I say and Luke stares, it gets intense like it’s trying to burn through flesh and bone.
We both take steps backwards and we raise our guns at each together. My heart pounds fiercely but my cheeks are still beaming widely, that can’t be helped. Best. Date. Ever.
“On a count of three,” Luke says and he begins to count but the time runs out and I sigh in relief because I didn’t want to get shot.
We join everyone, hand in hand.

We get back inside Luke's car and he turns to me. “We have 3 hours left. I have two options, park with a little picnic or cinema,” We have done both in our years of knowing each other but never as a couple, just us, so anything would be amazing.
“Urm,” I say trailing off and Luke looks at me expectantly. “Urm..” he laughs and waits till I say “The park.” And he nods and drives off to our destination.


Hand in hand, we walk slowly through trimmed grass with birds tweeting high above, squirrels racing fast up trees, and a light breeze wrapping around us. The sun shines down on us with its blinding force.
Today’s been perfect.
We talked, we laughed, we joked.
We ate sushi, fruits, and snacks.
We lay in the grass with my head resting on Luke's lap, and I chatted with no restraint and he listened.
I watched the sun shine down on his beautiful features, highlighting his cheekbones, and turning his eyes into blinding spheres.
I danced on benches, walking along the top of the backrest on the tips of my toes, whilst he softly laughed and stood by with bated breath.
He bragged about his successes while I boosted him on.
The Best. Date. Ever.
I stare out into the distance at the jets of water spraying up from the ground, falling down in high curves and a thrill travels up my spine and I turn to Luke.
“Are you thinking what I'm thinking?” I ask as he stares in the same direction I was.
His bright blues glisten as his eyebrows jump up. “Definitely not, but I know what you're thinking.”
Our gazes collide for a beat before we glance at the fountain and back to collide again. His eyes sparkle along with mine, and I dash towards the fountain. I can hear the heavy smacking of feet against the ground behind.
“You're crazy,” Luke shouts. “And an adrenaline junkie,” And I glance back at him with a beam before the water pours over me in full force, drenching me. My clothes glue to me, plastered to my skin, my hair sticking to my face, hanging down.
Luke runs in behind me and picks me up, spinning me around in the spraying fountains. He places me on my feet and my vision disorients as I spin around to face him, gazing up at him under my dripping lashes, blinking away the drops. “You make me feel wild. Like when I’m with you i can fly,” My eyes takes in the wonder that he is, gliding from every part of his face, taking all of him in—the sleek, glossy dripping strands dangling on his forehead that appear brown when wet and those gorgeous blue eyes that currently resembles glass and the light dusting of light-brown lashes on his smooth cream skin as he gazes down at me.
A vein pops in his throat as he takes a swallow, “Yeah?”
With my chin up and standing on my tiptoes, I nod. “Yeah, You let me bring out all sides of me. I don’t need to hide anything from you. I feel like I can show you every piece of me and you will treat them with care,” I smile with my teeth on display, “So thank you,” I whisper against his lips. Luke swallows again and nods. He wraps both his arms around my waist and lightly fevers his lips over me, light and soft and so sweet. My butterflies go crazy and my heart beats faster than it ever has, as my feelings grow impossibly deeper.
Best. Date. Ever.