Taylor and his friends were sucking dumdum pops. The last time I had a dumdum pop was about 5 years ago, but he was so cute. And I wanted one; I wanted the blue raspberry one he was licking right now. I haven’t eaten candy in forever. My mouth watered as I stared at the incredibly hot guy gripping a football with his right hand. There was a little bump on the right side of his cheek where he held the dumdum pop in place. I wanted to go and kiss that little bump.

Scarlet was the cheer girl on my left with the dirty blonde hair, chewing on a bologna sandwich. Blossom was on my right wearing her dance uniform, with a diet coke in her left hand and a slim bar in her right, talking to some of the guys who ate with us everyday. I glanced at my watch and jingled my Tiffany bracelet against it. Lunch hour was almost over. My friends were getting up from their seats. I felt like a little girl. I felt like I was in first grade. But I leaned forward, and whispered into Luke’s ear.
“Can you get me a blue raspberry one from Taylor over there?” He shot me a confused look. He scrunched his eyes together, and shook his head unsure. He thought I was stupid. I looked at him pleadingly, and he gave in.

“I have no idea why I’m doing this...” He murmured under his breath as he trotted over to his teammate. Scarlet and Blossom went to their next classes with guys, and I waited alone for Luke to come back with my dumdum pop. He came back, with a triumph smile.

“Here, Abbigail. He didn’t have a blue one. I got you a cherry red. Are you happy?” He grinned, and I took it out of his hand. He added in a voice barely audible. “I also got his number for you. Actually, he told me to give it to you.” He handed me a white slip of paper. I stared at it, and bit my lip, trying to keep back a cheerful scream.

“Luke thanks. Really. Thank you.” Then I hugged him quickly. Luke was tall. I was 5’1”, and my head barely reached his neck.

“No prob. Lucky you have me around all the time.” He joked, and ran off to his next class. There was a faint expression in his face I couldn’t catch. It looked like he was slightly concerned about something.

On my way out of the cafeteria, I stole another glance back at Taylor. He was waving his hands widely at me, smiling his white teeth at me. I checked behind me to make sure there was nobody behind me, and I waved back, shyly. His friends howled with laughter. There was a twinkle in his eye, and his gorgeous smile almost made me faint. I rushed on to my next class, the cherry red dumdum in my fist.

The next day, I was humming my favorite song while I searched through my locker for my geometry notebook. It was lunch time, and the hallways were buzzing. I didn’t notice there was a face behind me until I found it under a different pile.

“Aha, there you are!” I said, as I brushed the thin layer of dust off of the yellow cover.

“Are you talking to me, or the notebook?” A heartthrob smile said into my eyes. I was greatly surprised.

“uh…bboth-um-no I mean my notebook.” I stammered. My tongue was tied and I struggled to talk smoothly. I really hoped he didn’t think I had a speaking disorder.

I shut my locker slowly as he leaned against it. “You should have just asked me for that dumdum, you know. I’m not that scary looking, am I?” He said as I shook my head.

“You’re okay. You’re friends make your crowd…hard to go up to when you’re a small girl who wants to talk to only one in the crowd.” I said, creamy smooth, smiling.

“I get it, don’t worry. Oh. And you might need this for good luck. I think Mrs. Gillespie is going to give you guys a pop quiz in Geometry. I heard her talking to Mr. Adams about it this morning. So here, good luck.” His eyes shined, sparkling like pretty lights.

I found a blue raspberry dumdum in my hands. I smiled. “Thanks, Taylor. What if I get in trouble for having inappropriate blue lips?” I asked, out of stupidity.

“You’ll tell Mrs. Gillespie that it isn’t illegal to lick lollipops you get from handsome guys for good luck before classes.” He winked, and ran off.

I stared at this big figure as I grasped the blue raspberry dumdum in my hands. He suddenly turned around and jogged backwards as he said, “So, I’ll see you at lunch tomorrow? I’ll be waiting at one of the tables in the back. They’re more private.” He winked his twinkling eye again and dashed off, never turning back. I stood there, shyly grinning.

I heard giggling behind me, and turned around to see my friends. “Who was that?” Scarlet and Blossom chimed with jealous eyes as they pushed me around jokingly.

“That was Taylor. And I’m totally not going to eat with you guys tomorrow. Bye-bye table 3. Come on, we’ll be late for our pop quiz.” I said, as their jaws dropped. Probably because one, I had never ever left the lunch table before, and two, because I had just told them that we were going to have a pop quiz. They ran off lightning fast to get a hold of somebody else’s notes. I walked slowly, thankful for the time I spent catching up on Geometry the day before. I unwrapped the dumdum and popped it into my mouth, and hummed my favorite song.

Every Friday at lunch, he would bring me a dumdum. They were always my favorite flavor. It was enjoyable for a few months until got tired of them.

“You’re gonna run out of blue raspberry, Taylor. Thank you, very much for the dumdums. I aced the pop quiz that first day, but I’m tired of them. ” I said, trying to say it as nice as possible.

He popped a blue dumdum in his mouth. I watched as his lips turned blue. I wondered why he always carried one around. Maybe he loves them as much as I do. “True. I think you’ve had enough too. But are you gonna ever get tired of me?” He said looking straight into my eyes, making my face flush with color.

“No. I don’t think I will. No, Never. Hey, let’s go outside. We’re gonna ditch 6th period today.” I announced, as I pulled his hand and led us outside to the benches. It was a beautiful sunny day, perfect for ditching class. It was a typical warm Tuesday. I was ditching English literature and he was ditching French. We didn’t really care. He pulled me down on the grass, in the middle of the school garden. He cradled me in his arms caringly, the dumdum bump in his cheek growing smaller. My head rested on his chest, I stroked his cheek.

Minutes passed as it was just us in my world. I found my reflection in his glorious eyes as our eyes locked. My reflection came closer; he pressed his blue lips against mine passionately. I opened my eyes to find my favorite smile right in front of me. I traced his lips and wondered why his lips had become so less blue. I was so into him that I didn’t notice footsteps coming up behind me.

He released me from his grasp and got to his feet in an instant. He gave me his hand and pulled me up. I didn’t understand why, until I turned around. I saw an old grey haired woman wearing thin glasses. Unhappily, Mrs. Johansson, aka the school principal crossed her arms and tilted her glasses at us. “Ms. Reed, Mr. Jackson, I believe you both have classes to be participating in this very moment. Can you please explain why you are sitting here in the school garden while my other students are sitting in their seats, listening to lectures?”

“Well...uh...Mrs. Johansson, she had a craving for blue dumdum, so I decided to take her outside to devour one at lunch time.” He said, putting his arm around my waist, almost like he was protecting me. “We didn’t hear the bell ring.” His smile became weak as she looked at him in disbelief.

Her eyes went from him to me, back and forth. I was a little bit confused, because he was the one who had had the blue raspberry dumdum today. Mrs. Johansson was not happy with us. She opened her mouth again to speak. “I will see you two in detention every other day for one week.” She eyed us carefully. “And if this happens again, I will call your parents.” She said, and walked back to the building.

I sighed and whimpered, “Kids ditch all the time. I’ll have to miss my job tomorrow if I have to stay after school.” I bit my lip, complaining as he rubbed arm against my shoulder.

“It’s better than having our parents come in. Your mom would ground you, and I wouldn’t be able to see you for a while.” He said.

“Sorry I made you ditch class.” I said slowly.

“You didn’t make me, don’t worry. Plus, you should be more worried about looking in the mirror. Your lips look like they’ve gone through serious damage.”

“huh?” I said as I rummaged through my purse for my red mirror Blossom gave me for my birthday last week. I looked into my mirror and gasped. I saw a girl that had blue lips. It looked like it was bruised or something. It felt different, though. I didn’t feel any pain. I looked over at his lips and saw that his blue was fading away already. Oh, I thought. I stuck my tongue out to see that the tip of my tongue was blue too. I suddenly felt embarrassed and shut the mirror closed. He laughed nervously, and mouthed, “Sorry.”

“It’s okay. I’m sure you didn’t know we were gonna get caught. Just make sure your lips aren’t blue when you kiss me in public.” I said in my sweet voice. The bell rang then, and we were forced to walk into the school building. I panicked. “What am I going to tell my friends when they see my hideous blue lips?” I said.

He didn’t look worried. He bent down to kiss me again quickly and added, “Easy, love. Just tell them you had a blue dumdum.”

“But today’s-” He cut me off.

“I know its Tuesday. Just tell them I thought it was Friday.” His eyes sparked like the summer stars.

“Okay, but they’ll never buy that.” I said flatly as he pulled me close to him, trying to prove something. He kept me in a firm grasp and eagerly kissed me. I squirmed around trying to escape, knowing there were only 60 more seconds until the next class started. I really didn’t want more detention. My instincts didn’t want to change my current situation, but my mind knew better. I tugged his shirt, waited patiently. He finally let go of me and looked into my eyes with concern.

“The bell rings in about 20 seconds.” I said, breathless. “And I love you.” I added quickly.

“Oh, really? In that case-” He stopped in midsentence, but I didn’t have any time to ask for him to continue. He grabbed my hand and we running as fast as we could through the doors, to our classrooms. I glanced at the mirror on the wall while we were darting through the hall ways, already late as I smiled. I had just seen two equally blue lips in the mirror. Apparently he saw it too.

He looked down shyly as we let go of our hands. “I had a blue raspberry dumdum.” We both whispered under our breaths as we turned to opposite directions.