"The feeling of warmth and shakiness and emptiness fluttering all at the same time. It was so... odd."
Grace Knightwood never liked to follow rules.
Especially when one of her best friends has just gone missing and the sheriff has forbidden her and...
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Grace slammed the door shut and and fell to the floor, grinning. Had she really just done that for the second time? He stomach was fluttering and her breathing was limited from the rush of the situation but nonetheless she continued to grin like the Cheshire Cat.
She got up and looked out through the glass window at the top on her door. The girl was balancing herself on her toes to try and get a good look at Mike leaving.
However, he wasn't in any rush.
Grace could see clearly that the Wheeler boy had bright red cheeks. He was still holding his right cheek with his hand, smiling a bashful smile with a sparkle in his eyes - a look of hope
He was smiling. Which means he liked her kiss. Or maybe he was laughing at her?
Everytime she looked at him the odd feeling of nervousness and fluttering grew stronger and stronger and she hated it. She hated that she loved looking at him, she wished she could look at him more infact. She knew she had a crush on him, she had admitted to her self - hell she had even admitted it to El - so why was it so hard to just say she liked him? From the way he acted around her she occasionally got a breeze of an idea that he might like her too. He'd never really seriously denied not liking her, but only because she had never really seriously asked him. Why couldn't she just get the guts and do it? In theory it wasn't that hard.
Apart from the fact that if he rejected her everything would be awkward and gross and he'd probably never speak to her again because ew no.
But really, right now she didn't need to know if Mike liked her or not (even though she'd REALLY love to know so the weird feeling can stop), she needed to find Will and she needed to protect Eleven. They were her main priorities right now.
Mike eventually looked up and if he had been 3 seconds earlier he would've seen the top of his crush's head peeking out through the misty window trying to catch a peek at his reaction to her outburst. Getting out the Knightwood's driveway, he picked up his pace and walked home, still smiling to himself.
"I'm home!" Grace announced. She could hear her mother rummaging around in the kitchen. Lizzy quickly came into view afterwards and held her daughter tightly again. It had only been about 2 hours and a half since she last saw her and yet her mother acted as if she hadn't seen her in a week. Grace could feel her mother's tears soaking through the velvet fabric of her dress, her shoulder was damp but she didn't mind at all. Infact, the girl started to cry too. She cried harder than she ever had in her whole life, well maybe not as hard as when she thought she saw Will's body. After everything that had been happening she really needed it. Even when she saw Joyce she never truly got a release, a chance to be comforted and protected against the harsh reality even for a minute.
It was Lizzy who let go first. She looked at her daughter with so much sadness and pity and desperation that made her feel so sad. The eyes were the window to the soul and Grace could peer in and look at all the heartbreak that had affected her mother for the past week. Like her daughter, Lizzy could cover it up but Grace could see through it all.
