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Beth woke up today determined. She put on her cutest yellow top and a pair of light blue jeans finishing the outfit off with her favorite sparkly gold tennis shoes. Beth applied mascara and lipgloss before undoing the twists that she had been rocking for the past week. Her twist out was perfect and Beth was proud as she fluffed and teased her hair out. She grabbed her backpack and headed off to school, head high.
Today was the day she was finally going to flirt with Rick.
Beth had planned this day out perfectly. Yolanda, Courtney and Henry were going on a class field trip today to the history museum. The school had split the field trip up into two days and two halves of the class. Court, Henry and Yolanda were all going today and she and Rick were going tomorrow. While she knew she’d miss them it also left the perfect opportunity for her to try to flirt with Rick since they would finally be alone at the lunch table.
It was there that Beth slid right next to Rick. It was the first time she had seen the boy she liked all day.
She beamed at him “Hey Rick!”
Rick looked at her and nodded smiling slightly as she pulled out her lunch, “Hey Beth.”
Beth felt him turn and glance at her a couple times even as he tried to keep his head down in his lunch plate and eat.
She smirked proudly, ‘Yup he’s totally noticing how good I look today. Maybe right now’s a good time to try’
She turned towards him and appraised his appearance and decided to start with his hair.
“Rick wow your hair!”
Rick reached up and touched his hair self consciously, “What? What’s wrong with it?”
“Oh nothing! No just the opposite! It looks so soft! Do you have some type of special shampoo?”
Rick looked at Beth confused and then quickly looked down to hide the blush that was forming on his cheeks, “Uh no. Just head and shoulders from the grocery store.”
Beth smiled and nodded, “That’s awesome Rick, mhm yup awesome.”
Beth picked at her lunch chips trying to think of something else to say when Rick interrupted her thoughts, “Uh, I like your hair today. Well I mean it looks beautiful uh I mean great everyday but yeah it looks good today. Really good.”
Beth beamed at him, “Oh thank you so much! Yeah it’s a twist out. I twist my hair, like the way it was for the past few days, and then I take out the twists and voila!”
Rick nodded stammering, “Well I like it, your twist out.”
Beth tugged at one of her curls smiling, ‘Thanks Rick.”
They both turned back to their lunches.
Beth tried to hide how estatic she was, ‘I can’t believe it! It really worked. I flirted and he flirted back! Maybe my mom was right.’
Beth glanced at Rick again trying to think of something else to say, “OMG Rick!”
Rick looked at Beth still blushing a little from the last thing she said about his hair, “What?”
“You are really getting muscular! Like I think I can see your arm muscles underneath your jacket!”
Rick stammered, “Yeah I think I’ve been putting on some muscles from training. I’ve gained like 15lbs.”
“Oh wow! That’s so impressive!”
Beth reached out to touch his arm before she stopped herself, “Uh sorry can I feel it? Like I’ve never seen so much muscle before” she bluffed. She’d definitely seen more on the cover of her mom’s romance novels.
Rick‘s blush was so bad this time that it turned his ears red, “Uh yeah. Go ahead.”
Beth touched his arm feeling his muscle out thoroughly, “You really are getting so strong Rick.”
Rick barely could find words so he just nodded appreciatively.
This time when Beth moved away Rick didn’t say anything nice back to her.
‘Oh no’ Beth thought worriedly, ‘maybe I went too far.’
Beth twiddled her thumbs and looked down at her food. She tried to get herself to eat it but found she was too embarrassed to move her hands.
Just then she felt a soft poke from Rick. She turned and looked up at him through her eyelashes.
“Yesterday you gave a really awesome presentation in English class. Chuck would’ve been proud.”
Beth felt butterflies pool in her stomach and she smiled at Rick, touched, “Aw thanks Rick. I didn’t even think you were really paying attention in class.”
“I wasn’t. Until you got up and started presenting.”
Beth smiled, her own blush slightly showing through her brown skin.
Beth looked up at the clock, ‘Oh no only 5 minutes left in lunch, maybe I still have time to flirt with him one more time?’
Unfortunately Beth’s mind went blank and the best she could come up with was something she had seen on TV countless times.
Beth slightly pushed him on his shoulder, “Oh Rick. You are so funny!”
Rick just stared at her totally surprised. A sudden knowing flashing in his eyes.
“Beth I didn’t even say anything.”
If it was possible Beth blushed even harder, ‘Oh yeah they do usually say something kinda funny beforehand.’
Beth tried to stammer out a reply but she was stopped by Rick smirking at her, “Are you flirting with me?”
Beth let out a sigh of relief, “you finally noticed?”
Rick let out a laugh and reached over to hold Beth’s hands.
“You’re kinda bad at it but yeah.”
“I just thought I should try since ya know we’re like officially dating now”, Beth explained sweetly squeezing the hand of her boyfriend of 2 days.
Rick’s eyes lit up hearing her say it. They’re relationship was so new and neither of them had dated anyone before so their first two days had been awkward.
Beth was clearly trying to figure out their new dynamic by attempting to flirt with him. While Rick could barely look at Beth before his heart started jumping around and his stomach began somersaulting.
“I appreciate it. It was cute.”
Beth shyly smiled at him. Just then the bell rang, and the cafeteria became even louder with the bustling of their peers.
They both sat staring at each other for a second before Rick let go of Beth’s hand and picked up her lunch trash and his own tossing it in the garbage behind them. Beth pulled her backpack on and handed Rick his. As they started walking towards the hallway Rick threw his arm over Beth’s shoulder leaning over to softly kiss the side of her head as the walked out of the lunchroom, “Come on. I’ll walk you to class.”
Beth beamed up at him and buried herself in his side, excited about what her future with him would look like.