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“This... was a bad idea.”
Mabel looked across at Benny, who was keeping a careful eye on the fire in front of them. The cold night air caused her to lean a little further into it, tapping her feet against the ground to try and warm them up.
“How?” She asked, a slight twinge of offence in her voice. “What did I do?”
Benny averted his eyes to her, watching her earrings swing from her movements of indignation. Beside her, there was a stack of paper.
“Well, what did you put in the fire?”
“Normal things.” She said, taking what looked like a brown envelope and throwing it into the fire.
“Like...?” Benny inquired, eyes darting back and forth from Mabel and the fire.
“Wood, paper, things I wanted to burn.”
Benny nodded in affirmation, not wanting to press further. His gloved hand reached underneath his seat for the marshmallows and skewers. After struggling with opening both packets, they eventually allowed Benny to reach what was inside. Mabel snickered slightly at his struggle, before narrowing her eyes the second Benny made eye contact.
He held out a skewer for Mabel, who refused to take it.
“You know what? No.”
“What do you mean ‘no’?” Benny replied, retracting his hand.
“Why do you think I’m incapable of starting a fire?”
“It’s not that you’re incapable, it’s that you’re a little too capable.”
“Oh yeah? How?” Mabel said, reaching across and grabbing the marshmallows from Benny’s lap, as if to hold them hostage. She popped one into her mouth before immediately pausing, realising her mistake as Benny began to speak.
“The spaghetti, the birthday cake, the toast, that time in high school where we got paired up for a science project-“
“That was years ago, Benny-Benito.” Mabel whined, voice slightly muffled from the marshmallow.
“- and then outside the high school where you said, “Hey Benito, come watch me set my report on fire” which resulted in you having to stop, drop and roll-“
“At least my parents didn’t find out.”
“- the cat food-“
“In my defence, he was shivering and I thought he wanted a warm meal.”
“- and just last week, you tried to imitate a 1000-degree-red-hot-glowing-knife challenge.”
“But it kind of worked, didn’t it?”
Benny sighed, reaching over and cupping her cheek.
“One would think you’re a pyromaniac, Mabel-dear.”
With her thoroughly distracted, Benny yanked the marshmallow packet back into into his own lap.
She huffed. “But I’m getting better at it. Last night I managed to make mac n cheese and it didn’t even burn. Beat that.”
Benny rolled his eyes and shook his head, reaching into the packet and skewering his first marshmallow.
“And why not let me excel in my natural habitat anyway? Technically, there’s no better person for starting a fire.”
As Benny started to toast his own marshmallow, Mabel plucked the packets for herself and skewered her own one, letting it be enveloped in heat until it set fire to itself.
Something started to pop.
“Mabel.”
“Yeah?”
“Do you hear that?”
More pops.
“Yeah.”
“What did you- what did you put into the fire.”
“So-“ Mabel said, getting up to which Benny quickly did as well. “- I actually think that I mistook the popcorn packet that we were going to have tonight, for paper.”
“Do we call the fire department yet?”
“Let’s just... wait it out.”
They both took several steps back until they were pressed up against the house. Having exited the warmth of the fire, they huddled together to watch in anticipation as the popcorn packet began to burst and flaming kernels leaped out of the flames.
“Don’t say it.” Mabel said.
“I told-“ Benny began.
And as Benny laughed, she pressed her lips against his as fast as she could.