"Swoon, I'll catch you."  - The English patient

I sit crisscrossed on Derek's bed while he spins around in his chair by his desk, tossing a ball up and down. We were about 75% done with answering all the questions and I was still trying to think about a way I could present my project to the class without being basic.

For some reason, being basic is one of my biggest fears. Maybe that fact actually makes me basic. It's not like I have anything else to fear, though. Death? I've already accepted that. Spiders? They're disgusting and all but if you think about it, we really took up their space first.

Jesus Christ, when did I become such a freaking hippie? Maybe one day someone will walk in on me chanting kumbaya in some wooded area. Wait-

Why the heck do I get off topic so easily these days? The fact of the matter is, there's no way in hell I'm going to allow Derek to have a cooler project than me.

He's let me know that he's basically already got his project all planned out, and that it's going to be awesome. I've got to come up with something that could beat whatever shit he has planned.

"Stop thinking so hard. You might as well do a poster because you and I both know my project will be way better than yours," he smirks, throwing the ball at me and I catch it easily.

Funny, he had no clue I was just thinking about singing and stomping the damn yard in some random woods.

"Don't lie. You're probably going to do some bullshit poster or a slide show," I say smugly, pushing my notebook off my lap and tossing the ball back at him.

His room has changed over the years. It's loss its boyish charm and has been replaced by something more adult like, while mine was still full of stuffed animals and the occasional doll.

"You wish, Angelina. When have you ever topped me in a project?"

"We always used to work together and be the best in the class, so never."

A smile graces my face when I remember the volcano we made for the science fair in the third grade. Haden and Autumn did a project on flowers since Autumn loves flowers, and Derek and I did one on volcanoes since Derek had seen one too many syfy movies and had become suddenly obsessed with them and dinosaurs for some weird reason. Thank God he never caught onto the sharknado wave.

"I think I still have a picture of that ugly thing. I don't know how we came in first place." He gets up and strides over to a box, picking it up and laying besides me.

His fingers go through the box and I notice how many pictures he has of everything. I almost forgot he was the one always capturing the memories of stuff. He thought every good thing was worth remembering because you never knew when someone's going to drop dead.

Ironic, isn't it?

"Here it is!" he laughs, pulling out the picture.

"You insisted on making us put a dinosaur on the damn thing. I don't know how this won first place," I laughed and his face quickly heated up.

"I went through a phase, alright? You've got to admit those were some kick ass dinosaurs," he smirked.

I remember we'd driven around hours with our parents just to find those stupid dinosaurs. Halfway through building the project, Derek and I fell asleep. My mom ended up coming down and finishing the rest of the project. I remember how awful we felt when we came in first, but when we realized Haden and Autumn came in second, we were stoked. They won a certificate to some butterfly exhibit and of course that made Autumn happy. Haden was just happy to get out of school.

A glint of another picture catches my eyes and I reach for it, feeling the Polaroid's smooth surface underneath the touch of my skin.

"You still have this?" I laugh. It's a picture of my old dog, Haley, and I. One of the last pictures I remember him taking of me before I ghosted them and Haley died.

"Yeah," he smiled, glancing over my shoulder at the picture.

I see the old friendship bracelet Autumn gave me dangling on my wrist and I almost smiled at the memory. I was going to have to put that damn thing back on when I got home. It still probably resided in my dusty  jewelry box at home.

"It's been forever since I've taken a picture of you."

It's only then that I see he's above me, smirking, with his old camera dangling from his hands. He has a mischievous glint in his eye when I try to back away.

"No, Derek, stop! I look awful right now!" I roll around, flying my hands to my face while he laughs at me.

"Come on, you look like a cute mountain man or something." He snorts.

First of all, I didn't know if should be happy or insulted. What did mountain men even look like? I try to ignore the way that comment makes my heart jump but I can't stop the blush that creeps up on my face and the smile that overtakes my features. That's when I hear the click of the camera and I gasp, but it's much too late.

"Derek, why!" I shriek, leaning over his body to try and take the camera from his hands but he stretches it out of my reach.

"Nope, I don't think so," he moves it even further and I giggle, angling my body so I could try and grasp it even more.

He has the huge advantage over me being taller, and I'm 5'7 so it's not like I'm incredibly short.

I stop squirming when I realize I'm practically laying on top of him, and he must notice it too because of the way he stills, seeming like he's even trying to freeze his breathing.

I'm basically straddling him, my hips on top of his. My face is only centimeters apart from his, and one quick movement could send our lips brushing against one another.

One of his hands grazed up my thigh and didn't stop till it reached my lower back, just resting there and pulling me closer to him.

Reaching my arm up, I tugged the camera that was now being held loosely in his hand and pulled it to me.

"Gotcha!" I breathed, rolling off of him and biting my lip, trying to control my breathing from whatever weird moment just happened.

I really needed to get it together. I needed to be strong.

"I guess you did," he laughed, his cheeks a deep red when he sat up and brushed his hair out of his eyes.

I glanced at the picture, smiling when I saw the bundle of awkwardness that was me.

"That's absolutely hideous." I conclude, not even deleting the picture. It would be no point, he'd just take another one.

"If that's hideous, I must be absolutely atrocious and look like that dinosaur on our volcano." His own lip tugs between his teeth and I pretend not to notice the way his eyes are burning into my flesh.

My phone buzzes with a text message:

BarbieAutumn😛👯
My dad is letting me use his boat  for the weekend. You all down? Pack your bags and meet me at the dock

Xoxo, we're about to get lit bitches.

I set my phone down and see Derek glancing at his own phone. I know she must've sent him the message too by the way he looks up.

"Will you be able to go?" he questions and I nod. My moms need for me to have a social life was definitely feeling like a perk right now and by the way he started grabbing duffel bags out of his closet, I knew he'd be coming too.

"Okay, cool. We'll head to your house after I pack my shit and I nod again and smile.

Maybe I could allow myself this weekend before trying to return things back to normal. Maybe.

WE NEED TO COME UP WITH A SHIP NAME BUT IT SEEMS IMPOSSIBLE RN IDOWJWNSJWI

THESE MOMENTS BETWEEN DEREK AND ANGEL MAKE MY HEART SOAR UGH

OMG SCREECHING 500 READS GUYS WTF YOU LEGENDS

LOVE YOU. Bye.