Dad Said Giving Up Dreams Is Just A Sign I'm Getting Older

[Cassia Rosatta]

Christmas was less than a week, the first one that Cassia would experience without her parents. Her shift in mood was most likely not apparent to anyone except Blaise's brother, whom had caught her crying at one point in the hall closet. Why the petite woman had decided to cry in there was really a mystery, but she felt it better than staying that night in the bedroom with Blaise's sister. Instead she took her less than silent tears to fill the closet, perhaps hoping that they could drown her the way her sorrow did. She sighed for a moment, continuing to help hang up the decorations. Florescent lights shimmered in her own brown ones, her mind on anything but the festivities. It had long ago become cold outside, snow clinging to the ground like a mother to her only child. It was the birth of a new year around the corner, and still Cassia had not fled the house that contained even more heartbreak than the last. With that thought her bay-colored orbs shifted to the left to see the boy adjusting the star at the top of the tree, which fell crooked almost every time he moved away. The slight movements made her smile for a brief moment - before she remembered that they really hadn't spoken since that kiss.

It seemed so long ago...

Cassia's blonde locks stayed in her face until she removed herself carefully from the chair. She pulled the unruly strands back once her feet were firmly planted on the hardwood. It was cold, it seemed, or perhaps her sock-less feet were just too sensitive. She had always be too sensitive. Perhaps that was why she and Blaise were not talking anymore. To the young woman it seemed that everyone knew that there was something going on between them, especially since the hours she had spent in his room attempting to teach him English were now spent cleaning up around the house or going out and about the town trying to clear her mind. Still when addressed Cassia wouldn't answer them with the truth - only that she and Blaise were on different schedules. Even though it seemed the boys schedule consisted of bathroom breaks and sleeping. Another small sigh escaped her lips as she leaned against the frame of the kitchen, staring into it. Her mind was unaware that mistletoe was hung sporadically around the house to gain kisses on cheeks or lips - as between the parents. Cassia didn't care much about it regardless, the way that she felt she was sure her lips would never graze another.

 

[Blaise Chevotet]

"Mari! Could you piss off please?!" Despite the fact that he'd just swore at his sister, Blaise was trying to be polite and had added a please. His mother couldn't hit him for being rude with a please in there, right? At leaf that was what he was going for. He didn't like his mother wing mad at him, so he would much prefer it if she was not. His life was easier with a happy mother. Not that Marielle or Felix tried to make things ears. They got into a lot of trouble by themselves and Blaise didn't even have to worry about himself. Their mother wasn't exactly start or anything, but she definitely knew how to hit and that was enough to warrant caution of its own. Blaise turned back to the screen of his xbox and picked up his controller. "Your sister try to play again?" Blaise's headpiece buzzed in his ear as his friend, Pierre, asked him a question. Bliase nodded at the screen, though it went unseen and just ignored the comment. He was doing everything he could to not think of the petite blonde downstairs. It got harder ever day to ignore her, but he was rinding more an more ways of achieving his goals. "How's that girlfriend of yours, man? You haven't spoken about her for weeks." To this Blaise rolled his eyes. "She'd not my girlfriend man, she's just living here for a bit, that's all." Another voice chimed in, another friend, just not as close as Pierre. "Man, she was hot!"

Immediately Bliase exited the game and threw his controller onto his bed. He didn;t need this so close to Noel, they were one week out and he'd barely spoken two words to Cassia, that didn't include, pass the butter. This was all so ridiculous. He didn't even know why his family were so hardcore about Noel. It was just another holiday. Granted it was one where everyone got presents, but, it was still just a holiday. Yet, he still felt compelled to abide by christmas traditions. That meant dressing in ridiculously itchy jumpers and being sociable. The jumper was okay, but Blise had never been bery sociable and so he kind of resented this holiday. Not to mention his whole family would be here on the actual day and he still didn't quite know how he felt about that. "Blaise! Help Felix with the tree!" Depsite being Frnch, bliase family still used a tree, because his fathers family was english and it was expected. No one actually expected anyone from his fathers side to dhow, but you never knew. Cliase headed down the stairs and was about to turn into the longe room, but stopped when he was that Cassia was leaning agist the kitchen doorway. He smiled slightly, but stopped himself and continued on to his brother. "What do you need, man?" Felix told him what he needed, some froth kitchen and Blaise walked back out, across the hall and was about to enter the kitchen. He was planning to ignore Cassia, expect, when he looked up, he froze. Hanging above them was mistletoe. "Ah, merde." (Ah poop)
​

 

[Cassia Rosatta]

Cassia feigned a smile when she saw Mari, though she could tell by the look on the girl's face that Blaise had most likely been rude to her. Again. Being that Cas was on only child, she didn't exactly understand the whole siblings fighting. She would have been happy to have a brother or sister in her time of need, when her parents died. Perhaps she would have never run away - perhaps she wouldn't have met Blaise. As much as it now pained the confused teen to be around him, she knew she was glad she'd met him. A sad smile graced her lips, and she'd zoned out until she heard the mother of the family call to Blaise, whom was upstairs avoiding his duties. Playing a game she was sure, with his friends - they seemed nice enough to her honestly. She sighed, looking toward the kitchen, as if to avoid eye contact when he came down. It wasn't until she heard the boy speak that she turned to him, and faced him head on for the first time in probably a week.

As soon as her deep brown eyes met his own deep ones. It took everything in that moment, seeing the emotions hidden behind thick lashes, for Cassia not to cry. She had made fleeted glances towards him, but now, standing with bodies less than a foot away, eyes connected, it felt different. She looked up, following his gaze and spotting the mistletoe, then once again her eyes were on his face. Her own cheeks were tinted pink, and her ears were red light tomatoes. She hadn't expected to be put in this situation, and for a moment just stood awkwardly - until Felix murmured something in French that sounded to her an awful lot like 'kiss her, dummy'. Cassia knew better though. He would only kiss her for respect, so she stood there, holding her own writs, attempting not to cry for the fact that she'd tried to kiss him and he'd pushed her away once. It didn't seem they would budge for a moment, and swallowing what little pride, Cassia moved to her tiptoes and placed a soft kiss on his lips. Without another word though, Cas turned from Blaise and left the room. There were too many emotions in one room for her liking.

 

[Blaise Chevotet]

Video games. Why hadn't Blaise just stayed in his room to play video games? He could have ignored the stupid comments by his friends, it wasn't that hard. As it was the phone in his pocket was vibrating. They were no doubt asking what was going on with him, or perhaps they wanted to know where he was? Still, the thought of moving from this doorway was something he couldn't even think about. There was only one way he was going to be able to move and he didn't want to even think about that. He'd freaked out and ruined everything the first time, what would he do this time. Cassia couldn't just go around kissing him, his mother was here, his siblings. He would have been so much happier if she'd just played a game with him. Anything. He would have been happy to pull out some of the classics for her. He had enough controllers. He didn't have another mic, but if they were playing together she wouldn't need one. He still didn't know the full story of what had happened the day she'd cut her foot. It was all a little fuzzy if he was honest. He missed her, but didn't know how to approach it.

"Cassia, je sues désolé." (I'm sorry) He knew that tit wasn't enough, but he had to start somewhere. Felix popped up from somewhere and told Blaise just to kiss her already and be done with it, but Blaise wasn't like his siblings, he couldn't just do things on command. He still wasn't completely over that first kiss they'd shared and he knew he'd reacted a little harshly, but he didn't know how to fix that. How do you tell a girl that she'd just been your first kiss? He had been eighteen for Merlin's sake. She surely had just been feeling grateful. She was gorgeous and she didn't need him to tell her that. Shaking his head, Blaise was about to apologise again when suddenly, Cassia was in front of him, pressing her lips softly to his. The static he felt, despite the shock being only minor, was just enough to push him to wanting to feel it again. As Cassia turned to leave, Blaise grasped her arm and pulled her back to him. He looked her in the eye. "Doesn't count." Then he crushed his lips to hers. The first time he hadn't been expecting it and had pushed her away. This time there was really nowhere for either of them to run. He could faintly hear Mari saying something to Felix in the back of his mind, but he couldn't hear what it was, nor did he care. He had a lot to apologise to the blonde in his arms for and this was his way of starting.
​

 

[Cassia Rosatta]

Cassia hadn't ever thought twice. Her mind was constantly deciding on a whim, such as her decision to run away. er decision to talk to Blaise, and her first kiss with him was obviously not thought out. It wasn't as if she'd planned on cutting her foot so he'd have to play doctor. The moment struck her, and she was stupid and ruined everything. In spite of every reason Blaise had for letting this reckless disaster of a fifteen year old girl walk away, he still gripped her arm gently and pulled her back. Everything he did seemed to be so gentle, she thought, as she looked into his eyes. His sorry hadn't even registered between all of this - once again Cassia's own thoughts swallowed her. She looked between his brown orbs, finding it physically impossible to look at both - and then to see them at all as his face crashed down into hers.

When Cassia was five a boy pecked her on the lips and she proceeded to push him into the pond in her yard. Her parents were mortified - Cassia was not embarrassed by it though. Now, ten years later a boy was kissing her, and she could find nothing to do with her hands. She knew for damn sure that she wasn't going to push Blaise away. At this point she knew that this was not for the mistletoe, and not for his apology. Her face became heated like a summer rose, the first to bloom and the last to die - they were always the reddest. Finally her hands found his, and she tangled her fingers through his own, vines of something growing - regardless of what that thing was. Tip toes she rose onto so that she could come closer to his rather tall height, and by doing such and turning her head she moved to deepen the kiss, unaware of the mother hovering over them.

 

[Blaise Chevotet]

Blaise had surprised himself really. Kissing Cassia was not on the top of his to do list at all. In fact, he had decided that he was going to ignore Cassia for the rest of his life, because she was too good for him. However it turned out that his body had a different idea and so did she. At some point during their kiss, Blaise's hands had moved from her face to her lower back and he was now pressing himself into her, removing all the space between them. Things started to become more heated until his mother interrupted them. Blaise immediately jumped away from Cassia and shook his head. He had not realised that his mother was even in the hall. He was mortified and he was completely shocked in himself. He moved away from Cassia so fast that he thought he might have twisted his ankle. He had to bend over and feel it to make sure. He looked at his mother before disappearing back into the living room with his brother. His mother didn't seem to be too bothered by all of it, but it didn't make him feel any better about taking advantage of Cassia. He'd barely spoken two words to her after the incident in the bathroom. He felt he had no right to kiss her now.

Minutes later Blaise had calmed down and was still looking at Cassia. He licked his lips slightly and stood up again. His mother asked him to get some of the pots off of the cupboard and as he walked past to do so he smiled shyly at Cassia. "I have... game running. Want to play?" He'd never played a game with Cassia before, but he wanted to apologise to her for ignoring her these past weeks. Christmas wouldn't be fun if he wasn't at least speaking to Cassia again and he wanted to go back to how they were before. To be honest he missed her visits to teach him more english and without the lessons he was beginning to get much worse at the language. His sister picked it up much quicker than he did, but Felix couldn't speak it at all. He didn't mind though, Cassia was a good teacher. "We can play whatever game you like?" he asked her as he walked back past her. He cared about Cassia, he didn't want her to feel like she didn't belong here.
​

 

[Cassia Rosatta]

Cassia couldn't complain. This was as if he was apologizing for every day he spent ignoring her, every moment he seemed to look away if she was crying. Cassia's movements against his lips with her own said she forgave him. It was like magic; until his mother came along. Cas, like Blaise, jump back and slammed her head rather loudly against the wall. Inside she cursed everything to hell, especially since this had ruined what seemed like the perfect moment. The blonde didn't move from her spot, though upon looking up it seemed that Blaise had disappeared. She stood there for a few more seconds, rubbing the back of her head thanking God that it wasn't bleeding, before Blaise showed his face to her, and she returned a rather meek smile to him. She wasn't sure what the kiss had meant, it obviously wasn't nothing now. If it was nothing like the one before he wouldn't have pulled her back, right?

Upon his invite Cassia gained a bit more confidence, her smile wide now as she nodded to him. "Oui." She said, having learned a bit of French - not nearly enough to get by on her own though. Cas walked with him the second time he walked past and they headed up the stairs to his room, though not before his mother got a word in edgewise to keep the door open. Cassia grinned at Blaise and looked away for the moment. "Yes, Ma'am." She answered back, before giving a nefarious grin to her new whatever-he-was. "I say winner gets to kiss the loser. How about some Mario Kart?" She asked.

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End:
In the end Blaise allowed Cassia to win, and while she knew that was th case, she was too happy with her prize to say a word.
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