Lolita's Perception

𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚛𝚝𝚎𝚎𝚗

Early that very next morning, I ended up seeing Kenny again—except this time, he was right outside our house, delivering the Sunday paper.

"Anything worth reading?" I wondered, peeking my head out the living room's bay window as he tossed this week's issue of "The Ramsdale Journal" onto the front porch.

"Sure, more or less." Kenny said with a nonchalant shrug.

I nodded, leaning further out the window. "Thanks a lot."

"What for?" he laughed, running a hand through his dark, toffee-blonde hair.

"The extra comics—what else!" I exclaimed, with a quick, flashy grin.

"Sure, don't mention it." he smiled, before slowly glancing up at me.  "Y'know, I'm sorta starting to like you..."

"Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah...you got a pretty eyes, you know, and a cute smile, and your hair looks softer than anything I've ever seen."

"Geez..." I stared at him for a second, before propping my elbow up on the window ceil. "Thanks a lot!" I exclaimed, laughing as I tasseled his hair with my fingers.

"Don't mention it," he said with a grin, his eyes intensely staring back at me. His eyes were nice, too: large and dark, with subtle streaks of chestnut and honey.

There was a long pause of silence, and so I began to carelessly tear at the leaves of a nearby poplar tree.

"Hey, I've sort of been wanting to ask you someth—" he began, but quickly stopped.

Suddenly, and without any warning at all, I felt a muscular hand take a firm hold onto the nape of my neck, before gently shaking at it. I instantly spun around, only to see Humbert standing there with a strangely perverse smile across his face.  

"Cut it out!" I shouted, quickly slapping his hand away from the my neck.

I waited for Humbert to leave, before turning back to Kenny with a great big grin gleaming across my face. "Oh, man, what a perv!" I exclaimed, bursting out in laughter.

That made Kenny laugh just as hard, before leaning closer by just a few inches.

"So, what'd you wanna ask me??"  I asked, flashing him a quick smile.

"Oh, it's nothin' too important..." he replied, glancing behind my shoulder.

"Come on, tell me!!"

"No, really—"

"Aw come on, don't wimp out on me now!"

"I'm not wimping out on you! I just don't like talking about this sort of stuff with grownups around," he remarked, motioning behind me.

I spun around once again, only to see Humbert sitting in the leather armchair, only a few feet behind me: pretending like he was reading some stupid book.

"Come on, Kenny...just whisper it!" I quietly exclaimed, leaning closer.

"Maybe tomorrow..." he solemnly said, before turning to leave.

"Yeah, maybe tomorrow.." I replied, as a discontented sigh escaped my lips.

I immediately turned to leave, slapping Humbert right on the arm as I walked past him. "Thanks a lot, you old creep!"

~~*~~

By two o'clock, I wasn't so mad at Humbert anymore...and by a quarter after two, I'd even started feeling a little bad. So, when I saw him sitting all alone, reading that same old boring looking book from earlier, I eagerly slid across those creaky wooden floorboards on my pearly white bobby-socks, before giving him a great big hug from behind, all the while covering both of his eyes with my flittering fingertips. The book fell to the floor with a thud, all the while a quiet chuckle escaped his lips, and his hands swept over my bare, suntanned legs.