Kiss Cam

"Nakaba? Nakaba! Helllooo? Are you there? Girl with the red hair! Na-ka-baa—!"

The girl in question rolled her eyes and went to the window. From her vantage point on the fourth floor of her apartment complex, she saw Caesar flailing his hands about, trying to grab her attention from outside in his usual over-dramatic fashion instead of waiting for her patiently like she had asked him to. Regardless, she smiled shyly to herself at first and shook her head. She planned on ignoring his wails so she could finish getting ready, but as she made to turn away from the window, a movement by him caught her attention.

He had turned his gaze down to the floor, and was swiveling his head left and right as if looking for something. When he found that certain something, he bent down and picked it up from the ground.

Nakaba, unable to make out anything from her distance, inched closer to the window trying to see what it was.

Donk!

"What the-?" She reflexively backed away from the window. Da-donk! Donk! "Hey!"

She pushed open the window while holding her forearm in front of her as a shield.

"Nakaba!" she heard Caesar joyfully exclaim at the same time that she yelled down at him: "Stop throwing rocks at my window, dumbass!"

Caesar, who had one such rock in his hand poised over his head in preparation to launch, quickly hid it behind his back. "Ha ha ha! What rocks? Anyway we are going to be so late, let's get going!"

"Hold your horses!" she yelled down at him as she shut the window. A couple of minutes later, she heard another soft donk! from outside. Hearing the sound pulled an irritated sigh from her lips. She had half a mind to get over there, open the window again, and pretend to call the whole date off, but she chose to be the bigger person and ignored him in favor of focusing her attention back on her closet so she could pick what to wear.

With few other options, Caesar waited for her at the foot of the apartment. In his ennui, he had slowly inched closer and closer to the entrance until he was practically pressed against the front like a puppy pawing the door in anticipation of his owner. Meanwhile, Nakaba had finished changing into her team's colors, and quickly descended the stairs to the main lobby. As she yanked open the door in a rush, she was surprised to see Caesar's face suddenly appear mere inches from hers, his large frame completely blocking her exit. Her foot faltered and she struggled to halt her inertia so suddenly. For half a second, his eyes and a part of the bridge of his nose dominated her field of view. Without meaning to, her eyes focused on a few of the dark brown flecks in his irises and refused to look away.

Besides that, her abrupt stop was successful. She skidded a little, and pushed a steadying hand out onto his shoulder to slow her momentum. But besides those two things, she managed to halt herself at the threshold without barreling into him.

Nonplussed, Caesar did not seem to have the same interest in studying the design pattern in her eyes. Without missing a beat, he grinned widely at her and eagerly grabbed her by the crook of her arm, peeling her away from the door as if she was a piece of tape. "C'mon, let's go, Nakaba! We're going to be late!"

Actually, he had arrived there early and they still had plenty of time, but she said nothing and let him drag her downtown in his whirling excitement.

They were headed toward a baseball game between two infamous rivals: the Senan Soldiers versus the Belquat Bloodhounds. It was a home game for Senan, the state's capitol and largest city, and they were playing against their southern relative, Belquat, the second largest city in the state. Senan and Belquat tended to compete in everything, from sports and academics, to trying to attract the best tech companies to the region, and other business ventures.

"I can't wait to call my mom afterwards and tell her all—wait, what? What the heck are you wearing?"

Caesar, who had started rambling on about how excited he was for the game, looked back at Nakaba, whom he was dragging by the elbow for some time now, for the first time since grabbing her arm at her apartment's entrance. He quickly let go of her and stopped walking.

Nakaba looked down at her black and yellow "Let's go, Senan Soldiers!" jersey and the black fitted jeans that she wore and then looked back up at Caesar.

He, in turn, was flinging his hand back and forth at the wrist as if trying to scatter off some kind of invisible residue left behind from their contact. Nakaba looked at his head-to-toe red and white outfit representing the colors of the Belquat Bloodhounds, Caesar's hometown team, and finally understood what he was getting at.

"What the heck am I wearing?" she asked rhetorically. "What the heck are you wearing?" She pointed at his jersey. "You're going to walk around wearing the rival's jersey? In this town?" She shook her head in disapproval.

"Hey—I'm a Bloodhound through and through," he said, pointing a thumb to his own chest and flashing her a smile that wrapped around his canine teeth.

Nakaba just continued shaking her head as she walked past him. "If I'm seen walking with you, I'm going to get pummeled," she muttered. They both resumed their journey, walking a few feet away from each other as if repelled by opposing magnets.

Some Soldiers and Bloodhounds fans were very loyal; some were also very stupid. Add alcohol to the mix and she was sure some local townie would take issue with his attire and she didn't want to be nearby when they did.

They continued the rest of the way to the stadium walking near each other without touching. Sure enough, as the stadium reached eyesight and the crowds of yellow-and-black-wearing fans grew, Caesar began to attract a negative kind of attention.

"Yo! Watch where you're going!" he yelled at someone who cut right in front of him. Another person crossed him and stepped on his foot. "Ouch!" he yelled, although he was probably doing it for theatrics more than pain. Another person brushed shoulders with him roughly and it didn't seem like an accident to Nakaba.

Caesar, who in his excitement had been walking a step or two ahead of Nakaba when the stadium was within reach, slowed his pace a little until their steps were in sync. When yet another person brushed against him on his right, he inevitably pushed against her without meaning to, bumping against her like a ball in Newton's cradle. He quickly straightened himself and grabbed either side of her shoulders to steady her. "Hey, watch it, man!" he yelled again, this time sounding genuinely angry.

At that point she expected him to let go of her shoulders, but instead he held on tighter and brought his mouth down to her ear. "Nakaba," he whined in a low whisper. "Everyone's being so mean to me." His breath on her ear made her shiver involuntarily, and she tried to hide it by shrugging his hands off her shoulders.

"Hey, are you cold?" He had still felt some of her vibrations before they lost contact. It made sense, now that he thought about it. The sun was setting for their 7pm game and the temperature was starting to dip. Again without permission he cupped his hands on either side of her arms and briskly shook them up and down a few times, trying to warm her. He was seemingly oblivious to the way it made her tense up.

"I'll buy you a cup of coffee when we get inside." At that point another person stepped on his toe. "Ow! If I even make it in alive..." he grumbled.

When they reached the entrance, an official from the park scanned their tickets off their smartphones. They made it in early enough to snatch t-shirts from the Free Friday Giveaway. Nakaba excitedly grabbed a size for herself and gave a quizzical look to Caesar when he grabbed a shirt that seemed too small for him . . . with his rival's yellow and black logo on it, no less.

"Here," he tossed the shirt onto her head as if adding it to a stack of dirty laundry. "An extra."

Nakaba snatched it off her head and smoothed her hair down. "Thanks," she said dryly. She might've been more grateful if he had just handed it to her like a normal person.

"No problem." He gave her a thumbs up before heading to the indoor café.

True to his word, Caesar had bought a cup of coffee for her and a hot dog for himself. While she accompanied him in line, she thought she heard someone call him an "asshat" but besides that, there were no further mishaps between the Soldiers fans and Caesar from the time they entered the stadium to the time they made it to their seats. Reflecting on their evening together so far while inhaling the delicious scent of a dark roast, Nakaba was pleasantly surprised by how chivalrous Caesar was being and how smoothly everything had gone so far. They hadn't gotten lost on the way to their seats, unlike that one time Caesar had gotten into a fight with an usher when he mistakenly believed they were supposed to have courtside basketball seats (that was embarrassing); he hadn't gotten them kicked out for trying to smuggle in chocolate-covered raisins and a can of beer to a game that allowed no outside concessions, unlike that one time they went to his cousin's high school lacrosse game (also embarrassing); and he hadn't yet smacked her in the face accidentally from cheering on his favorite players (although it was too soon to rule out that possibility).

She looked over at him, and saw that he was eagerly staring at the Jumbotron after a player from Senan Soldiers stole second base.

"Son of a bitch . . ." he muttered under his breath, but then he must have sensed her looking at him, because he turned to look at her.

She smiled and looked at him without saying anything for a second, before leaning into his shoulder and whispering, "Your team is so gonna lose."

He smiled his stretched out smile again, the one where a bunch of his teeth showed and she could see how straight and white they all were.

"In your dreams, Nakaba," he said, holding his hand up to her face in the 'talk to the hand' signal. He put his hand down quickly and looked to her as if checking to make sure she knew that he was joking. She just stuck her tongue out in response and turned her attention back to the game.

Between the third and fourth inning, with the game approximately half-done, a group of four mascots made their way onto the field. They were going to have some fun on the field with a mini-race and taking pictures with kids. During that off-time, Nakaba checked her cellphone for messages and took some pictures and short videos of the stadium for her social media. After a few minutes of fun, an announcer over the intercom system brought everyone's attention to the Jumbotron. The music resumed and the camera panned to several unsuspecting couples with a frame of pink hearts surrounding the screen. It was a kiss cam!

"Oh! I forgot they do things like this!" Nakaba said, whispering into Caesar's shoulder excitedly. She knew form movies and TV what the kiss cam entailed, but hadn't been to a game recently where they had done it.

"Of course," Caesar said with a grin, seemingly enjoying her good energy.

They both looked on pleasantly as a cute old couple gave a chaste kiss for the camera. "Aww, how cute," she again whispered to him. And then they looked on as a young couple seemed to be very energetic and proactive with their kiss for the camera.

And then, to both their surprise, they stared at themselves shown on the screen.

Nakaba reared her head back in surprise and tried to search for where the camera was coming from, but in the crowded stadium she wasn't sure. Caesar, far less shy than she, just turned to her after his initial surprise and gave her a directed stare. Nakaba could practically feel his stare digging like daggers into her skin. For her part, she was still wildly looking for the camera as an excuse to not look in his general direction. He grabbed her delicately by the arm and leaned in slowly.

"Caesar, wait! Not on camera!" she pleaded and brought a hand up to cover her mouth.

She heard a collective groan—and a rare "boo!" or two—from the stadium and the fans surrounding them as his lips pressed against her knuckles instead of her lips. She froze in that position as he quickly brought his face back and looked forward at the screen, a sense of gloom slowing enveloping him that was large enough to cover them both. When she too unfroze and looked up, the camera had panned away to another unsuspecting couple as if it had never been there.

Nakaba gulped and looked at Caesar's face, but he now he was looking anywhere but at her. She could have sworn she heard someone say "you just got friendzoned" behind them.

"Ah, Caesar . . ." She tried to say something to him, but he merely scooted away from her slightly in response. Reaching out a hand, she tried to delicately touch his shoulder. "Caesar, I didn't mean—"

"—Sh, the game is starting again," he cut her off and nodded his head toward the large screen, at the same time nudging her hand off him with a shrug. Sure enough, the game had resumed with another batter on the mound.

Embarrassed and increasingly guilty, she let her hand drop. The rest of the game passed by in silence between them. Nakaba was so lost in her own thoughts of how she could make it up to him that she hadn't even noticed when the game came to an end with the Senan Soldiers winning by 1 run. She only noticed when Caesar made to get up and leave.

"Caesar, wait." She tugged on this shirt sleeve so that he couldn't leave. Still without looking at her, he mechanically sat back down. "I . . . don't mind if you kiss me," she barely got out the last part.

"What?" He seemed stoic still, but leaned closer to her to better hear her at least.

"I want you to kiss me," she half-mumbled, looking anywhere but at him.

At that, his head perked up slightly, but he still said nothing. "My hearing must be going bad . . . What did you say?" He leaned closer still and held a cupped hand around his ear as if to enhance the sound. She looked up at him then and saw a hint of a smirk starting to play on the corners of his lips.

Even though she was sure that he had heard her this time, she said even louder, "I want you to kiss me! Please kiss me!" Either the crowd had gone quiet at that moment, or her words had come out louder than she expected, because a bunch of bystanders turned to look at them. At her, in particular. She just blushed and looked down demurely in response.

"Ohhh, you want me to kiss you now?" he repeated back.

She just looked up at him with a pink blush slowly creeping down her neck.

"Well," he paused for dramatic effect then bit his lip with just his canine teeth, "if you insist." With his smile fully returned, he bent his head down and she met his lips halfway. After the initial bump of contact, Caesar brought a hand up to her cheek to hold her in place as he moved his head to a better angle. The movement sent a tiny spark of electricity between them and a squeak bubbled up unwittingly from Nakaba's throat.

After a few moments, they pulled apart for air. Caesar stayed closed enough to her face that she could make out the little details in his irises again.

"Was that okay?" he asked.

She blushed and nodded her head.

He grinned again. "So then . . ." He scooted up to her ear and whispered, "How soon can I get you out of those clothes, Nakaba?"

Donk!

She smacked him hard in the chest, not that it hurt at all, and got up and walked past him with what he thought was fume coming out of her ears.

"What?" he yelled after her. "I just really hate that team!"

But if it was Nakaba's team, then maybe he didn't hate it as much as he thought.