Run, Hamster, Run! - 5. Prompt# 33: First Love

“Finally!” Sierra groaned, flopping onto the first wooden picnic table she was able to find. “Thought we’d never get out of that maze.”

“Oh come on. It wasn’t that bad.” Caelan said, settling down next to her.

“Says the man who grew and laid the darn thing out!” she laughed. “Care to explain how it is you got lost in there and I had to come rescue your rear?”

“Hey now!” he retorted, taking Violet’s leash form the dog walker who approached. “I made the map for that thing months ago, and I had nothing to do with the actual growing of the corn. Just be glad we talked Butch out of making it haunted. Could you imagine trying to go through when there was something frightful around every corner?

“No, thank you! That thing in the daylight is hard enough to navigate!” she shuttered at the idea, then went quiet.

Caelan ran his eyes up and down Sierra for a moment, observing her hunched shoulders, vacant eyes, and deflated demeanor before raising an eyebrow. “All right, Sierra. Explain. You have never hated my mazes, not in the 20 years since my dad gave me the responsibility of laying them out. What is going on?” His eyes softened when he watched Voilet lay her head on Sierra’s knee.

“I don’t want to talk about it.” She answered in a very flat tone.

“Si, this is not like you. Please, talk to me.” He laid a gentle hand on her shoulder, letting his thumb move in small circles to try and ease the chaotic emotions he knew were troubling her. With a sigh, she turned and looked at him, her eyes shining with barely restrained tears. She searched his face for something, although he did not know what.

“You know that call I got shortly after I found you in the maze?” she finally answered, stroking the dog’s head gently.

Yea?

“That was my….my ex.”

“Ex? That bastard broke up with you?” Caelan growled, glad that he was in the middle of a shift.

“Yup! And via a phone call no less. The jerk did not have the decency to say it to my face!”

“Si, I am so sorry.” He gave her a sideways hug. “What was his excuse?”

“My weight, of all things. ‘You’re too curvy, in all the wrong ways’.” A bitter laugh left her as she leaned forward, resting an elbow on her free knee, head hanging.

“Curvy in the….Oh you have to be kidding me!” Caelan growled before standing to pace for several minutes, cursing in the three languages that he knew while fighting to get his temper under control. Once he was able to think in only one language again, he stalked back over to Sienna to lift her chin with gentle fingers. “Ignore what that boy said. He is simply too shallow to see the truth.”

“And what truth is that, hmm?” She takes her chin out of his grasp and shakes her head. “I’m sorry, Cae, but he’s right. I thought he was different from the others, but it ended the same. They get with me, talk sweet nothings, but the first time they see me out of my support garments, they tuck tail and run. Face it, Cae. I'm too ugly and broken to actually be loved.”

“Hey, none of that!” Caelan snapped, giving a pat to her forehead. He dropped into a crouch so he could look her dead in the eyes. “If those idiots want to ignore the kindest, most loving, most loyal woman they have or ever will meet, then it’s their loss….and my gain.”

“Your gain?” Confusion flickered across Sierra’s face.

“Sierra, Hun, we have been the best of friends since we were both 12, and I have been in love with you from the moment we met. Every time I got the courage to ask you out, something happened that made the timing wrong. So, fuck timing. I know that Violet gives her stamp of approval, so will you go out with me?”

“Cae….I….”

“ABOUT DAMN TIME!!!” A collective shout echoed from all over the farmstand, and both Caelan and Sierra looked down to find Caelan had somehow managed to pin his radio against the bench in a manner that had the things microphone open. Blushing, he quickly shifted so that the radio was no longer broadcasting.

“Well, that was embarrassing…I’m…I’m just going to leave now…” He said, standing up and beginning to walk away, cheeks as bright red as an apple.

“Cae!” Sierra called, quickly grabbing his arm before he could get too far. When he turned back to look at her, she reached out to his hip and purposefully keyed his radio. “Yes, I will go out with you.” She said before releasing the button. Loud cheers erupted from all over, making them both laugh.

A smile playing on his lips, Caelan wrapped his free arm around sierra’s waist, pulling her up against his chest. As he was leaning down to kiss her, a rabbit from the petting zoo darted in front of them. With a loud bay, Violet bolted after the rabbit, pulling Caelan off his feet and down the yard, leaving Sierra standing there laughing at the sight.