See In Him

26

"Woah," he whispered when they pulled away. He could see the whites of her eyes from their distance because of the contrast between her skin, irises, and sclera.

"Well now I'm sorry," the boy mumbled, turning bright-red and away. He covered his face in shame.

Kennith only moved when Lucia began laughing hard. It was light, like bells jingling. It made the colour drain from his face suddenly and his wide gaze to snap up. "I promise I didn't have you over to kiss you. That was never my intention. I feel so bad," she told him, still chucking.

"It's okay... I didn't think that my first kiss would be with you." He was on the verge of nervously babbling. She scoffed. "First kiss? Wow. You've had a lot of practice for someone who's never kissed anyone." He took it as a compliment and cleared his throat.

"So... you wanna watch a movie or something? I know we have closed captions somewhere." The moment was over when she sat up and grabbed the remote from her bedside table. Kennith wrapped his arms around himself and leaned back against the wall. "Am I supposed to leave sometime? Is your mom gonna kick me out if she comes home?"

"Nah. We got, like, five or six hours before she gets home. And she doesn't care who I have over. Are you gonna get in trouble when your parents find out you've skipped?"

"They're not gonna be surprised," he sighed, "I got all day. I'd rather stay here, anyway. It's better than being sad and alone with my thoughts at school. Thanks for getting me out of there."

"That's what friends are for. Fuck school, anyway."

——

Kennith enjoyed the movie, but felt as though he was letting Lucia down, in a way, by making her keep that describing voice droning on over the actual movie. But the girl didn't complain. She just laid against the pillows on the other side of the bed and listened.

Halfway through, Lucia left the room and returned with pickles, peanut butter (upon Kennith's request), and popcorn. They shared the snacks in near-silence so they wouldn't miss any of the film.

When it was over, it was close to lunch time. This was the time he normally went home if he was having a relatively-good day. It had been months since Kennith spent the whole day at school.

"I should go," he told her, standing. It was sudden. She looked up with surprise. "Oh. Okay." She didn't seem offended. When she was standing too, she grabbed his cane from the floor and handed it to him instead of letting the boy toe at it with his foot. He blushed and thanked her.

"Thank you for watching that movie with me, Lucia. You really made my day a thousand times better." He was sincere and somber. Lucia smirked and put an arm around his. Her body was soft, not small. It wasn't round, but there was give in her biceps that he could feel under her feathery sweater, like a cloud he could fall into forever.

"You're welcome. Oh, hey, if you're going, do you need a ride? I can walk you back to school. I think I'm just gonna skip for the rest of the day."

"Um..." He wanted to call Jesse, but he wouldn't be out of the hospital yet. They weren't sure when he would be well enough to come home. Hopefully soon. "No. I can call my dad to pick me up." He was already pulling out his phone.

Lucia waited outside on her porch with him for ten minutes while Michael dropped his work and figured it was late enough in the day for Kennith to come home. His father knew better than to ignore Kennith's demands to be picked up. If he wanted to leave, he was going to leave, and a drive home was better than trying to find Kennith after he gets himself lost trying to walk home.

Soon enough, his father's sedan pulled into Lucia's driveway. Kennith knew the sound of the engine.

"Thanks for everything, Lucia."