Her breath was warm on my face.
She smelled like freshly baked cookies with a hint of aromatic leaves.
I was hyperventilating, my breaths weren't processing right, and my left eyelid kept pulsing. This couldn't be happening. Not here, not now.
She moved even closer, my figure reflected clearly in her dilated pupils. "I like you."
A nervous laugh escaped my lips, and I found myself leaning back, away from her, before she did something she'd regret. I'd regret.
She seemed to get the hint that I wasn't into whatever she had in mind and moved away from me, giving me space to breathe. Her hand rubs the back of her neck once, and when she drops her hand her fingers tremble.
I widened the gap between us, avoiding her eyes all the while. "I like you too . . . You're my friend," I say.
She gave me a rueful smile and nodded, turning back to the oven where her red velvet cake bakes. She looked at the oven for such a long time that I almost believed that she no longer knew that I was in the room with her.
My lips parted, but no words could free themselves. Tongue tied, I guess.
Alice turned around then, almond eyes fixed directly on mine. "Can you just forget I said anything? I'm sorry . . . I didn't think—"
"It's fine." My own voice surprised me. "I hope this doesn't affect my own share of the cake though." I send her a small smile.
She shook her head, also smiling. "No, never."
On my way back to my own room in the hostel, my head kept flashing images of what occurred in Alice's room and what could have happened.
I didn't want to think about it, but the mind tends to focus on what it shouldn't.
All the signs were there. The lingering hugs she gave me, the stares when she thought I wasn't looking, the way she'd play with my hair and tell me how soft and pretty it was. How she'd—
Enough.
But my mind wouldn't stop.
Alice was into girls. Into me.
And wasn't sure how to take it.
+++
Her face haunted my dreams.
I woke up tired even after having more than seven hours of uninterrupted sleep. There was a slight drag in at step as I moved to the bathroom to get a shower.
I glanced over to the second bed in the room and tried not to think too much about what it meant for it to be empty two days in a row . . .
Tried.
3 days ago,
Evening.
Darasimi hurriedly put her clothes into a small backpack, face slightly sweaty and stretched by a small smile that had been on her face for so long, it had started to irk me.
I put down my copy of Lord of The Flies and finally put off my pretense of ignoring her skirmish around the room. "Dara, what's got you so excited?"
Dara looked up at me —that irking smile again— and nearly bounced. "Oh, I'm going to see my boyfriend. Today's his birthday and he'll be so angry if I don't stay over tonight."
I'm sure my eyes nearly left their eyeballs from how wide I stretched them. Oh wow.
Not your business.
