times I’d find a traitor tear slipping down my cheek as I moved my brush
methodically in the drab green paint. He said nothing.
My Thursday evenings quickly transformed from a time of
blushing and butterflies to an awkward obligation. My mother was so
proud of the progress that I had been making with him—our walls were
covered in my various creations that she bragged about whenever my
aunts and uncles visited—and I couldn’t possibly tell her that I didn’t
want to go to the lessons anymore, that Dylan and I had had a… a what?
What did we have? What had we had?
I told no one.
She was beautiful in the way that airbrushed models on magazines
could only dream of; judging by the angle at which she held her head,
she hadn’t the faintest idea. Her hair, a shade of blonde I didn’t know
the name of, was tied loosely at the base of her slender neck, allowing
the remaining stragglers to frame her face. Light freckles painted her
cheekbones and small, red nose. Two perfect dimples lay on either side of
her pale lips.
She wore a large maroon sweater that hid her figure and I caught
myself wondering about the curved shapes beneath the big folds. The
dark leggings that she wore left less to the imagination, and my eyes may
have lingered on the long lines of her thighs more than they should. Her
large hazel eyes held mine briefly as she placed her items on the belt, and
her face flushed a violent pink when a sharp cough escaped her lungs.
“Find everything alright?” I said.
“Sure did. No problems,” she said.
I scanned everything in and placed her items—three bags of
cough drops, a carton of eggs, and some orange juice—in bags, for
the first time following the rules I had learned about bagging during
orientation. She handed her money over to me—exact change—in
soft, uncalloused hands. When I finished printing the receipt, cleverly
sneaking glances out of the corner of my eye, I handed the three bags to
her and added a travel pack of tissues with a shy grin.
“Let’s be honest. You need these more than we do.”
Then she smiled, and her entire being lit up as that careful control
broke for just a second. I locked the image into a dusty corner of my
mind.
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