New friends

Chapter 5

Katie got to the room first and sat on the bed. She was pretty beat from that awesome party. Shiro entered second, after being held up by Matt, and closed the door behind him. "Matt convinced you too huh?" Katie said with a smile. "Hehe yeah. He pulled the whole bro code on me. What did he do to you?" He asked. "Well, I'd never turn down a chance to make him happy if I'm able to. I'm happy when he's happy." She said simply. This made Shiro smile. "She's so kind." He thought and joined her on the bed.

"How's your freshmen year going so far?" He tried to break the very thick ice. "Um, okay.." her mind flashed back to her having no friends which made her embarrassed. "You should sit with us at lunch." He offered. "That would be so much fun." She said with a smile appreciating the offer. "I think I actually have you guys in a lot of my classes. We just didn't know each other before." She realized. Since she was super smart, all of her advanced classes were with sophomores and juniors, and sometimes a few seniors. Now that she thought about it, she had classes with everyone except Matt and Allura. Shiro was in her calculus class, she had honors English literature with Lance and Hunk, and she had economics with Keith. Now that she would sit with them made her feel so included. This party was the best thing to ever happen to her. She wasn't alone anymore.

Shiro always knew she was in his calculus class. She was a Holt after all, and if he knew one thing from Matt, it's that Holts dominated at anything school related. He would see her across the room but never talk to her because he was slightly nervous whenever he saw her. "How weird would that be? I can't just walk up to her and say 'Hey! I'm Shiro! You don't know me, but I see you all the time and I'm friends with Matt and I'm at your house all the time but I never see you for some reason.'" he found himself often thinking. Tonight he had worked up the courage to introduce himself and he was so glad he did.

Katie actually always knew Shiro was in her calculus class, but she always thought that he wouldn't want to talk to her. She always got super nervous when she saw him and quickly sped away. "I guess I've always sort of liked him, I just acknowledged it for the first time tonight." She realized. She also knew of his friendship with Matt and how he was often at the Holt household. Whenever her brother would try to get her to hang out with them, she'd refuse because the thought of Shiro in her own house was terrifying.

She decided to take a chance and open up to Shiro. "I never had many friends. Or any friends at all for that matter. I always got bullied in middle school for being a nerd." She looked down embarrassed. "You should try talking to more people. Look what happened when you opened up tonight! You already made friends with five of the most popular people in the school." He nudged her. "Yeah. I guess so." She smiled looking up at him. "And if people don't like you for you, they're not your friends." He said. This made her feel so good, now knowing for sure that she was accepted as part of the group.

She tried to change the subject and lighten the mood.  "Okay but seriously. So how are you NOT dating someone? Is it a secret relationship because I consider myself to be a very trustworthy person." She joked poking him. "I'm not secretly dating someone, I promise." He said laughing. "Really? Because I know TONS of girls who would love to go out with you. You're literally one of the most popular seniors at the Garrison." She laughed. "Like I said, I just haven't found the perfect one yet, ya know? I don't want to date in high school just to date someone. I want to find someone that I'm actually in love with." He said. "Wow. That's really beautiful." Katie smiled at him.

She changed the subject. "If you don't mind me asking, what happened to your arm?" She slightly prodded. "Oh, I didn't think you noticed." He joked sarcastically. She smiled shyly. She'd been eyeing it all night and she was dying to know, being the curious person she was. "I lost my arm in a car crash when I was younger, so I've had this-". He motioned to the prosthetic. "A huge chunk of my life." He finished. "Woah. That must have been hard." She said compassionately. "Sure, in the beginning, but I got used to it. My mom always taught me to look inside people rather than judge only what's on the outside. This arm made me realize how true that can be. If anything that accident was a benefit." He smiled at her. "That's amazing." Katie said. It also gave her some hope that maybe Shiro could look past her dorky exterior and like what's underneath. "Besides. I think it looks pretty kick-ass." She said winking at him. A slight pink crept up on his face and he smiled sheepishly "hehe thanks." He loved how she didn't care that he was physically broken; it felt comforting.

At this point, they'd both opened up to each other about very personal things. They stared at each other in the low lighting of the bed lamp. "Katie looks so beautiful, even in her pajamas." Shiro thought. She looked at him with amber eyes that he thought would melt him. "Shiro looks so sweet in the warm setting with those grey eyes and slight smile." Katie thought to herself.

When they realized that they'd been staring for so long, they broke away blushing furiously. "We should probably call it a night." Shiro finally said. "yeah. It's 4 in the morning hehe." Katie hadn't realized they'd been talking for so long. Things were just so easy when they were around each other.

They both got under the sheets of the full size bed and maneuvered until they were both comfortable. Shiro leaned over to turn out the lamp leaving the small room pitch black. They both ended up facing each other. They brushed fingers and their legs got loosely tangled together. Even though they couldn't see each other, they were both blushing hard.

"Goodnight Katie." Shiro said.
"Goodnight Shiro." She replied.

They both drifted to sleep smiling.