Summer Love

Chapter Five - Sparks

We walked through the double doors of Nova's house and I looked around at all the paintings and big windows in the living room. There was a winding staircase that led upstairs, and a leather couch on the east side of the room.

"Your parents must be loade- OW!" I stepped on Lei's foot and rolled my eyes.

"Well they're the owners of a big company, so yeah you could say that."
I watched as she went up the stairs and followed after her.

"This is my room," She opened the door revealing a large carpeted room with a king-size bed on the left side, and a desk on the right side of the room with scattered paintbrushes and unfinished canvases. 

"Ignore the unfinished paintings, I have a habit of not finishing things." 

"Wait did you paint all the paintings in your house?" I asked, and she nodded. 

"That's so cool!" 

"I guess so," She shrugged. 

"So what are we gonna do today?" I asked, 

Lei screamed, and I turned my head to see a hand banging on the window. Nova unlocked the latch and opened the window. As soon as it was open a guy with red hair and glasses tumbled into the room, and a guy with dark hair came in after him. 

"Can you guys act normal for once? Just use the front door!" Nova rolled her eyes,

"Aw you know we love youuu" The dark-haired guy said as he wrapped his arms around her waist, hugging her as she struggled to get out of his grip. My heart twisted in agony watching them hug. 

"Sorry guys, this is Kyle and James. They're my neighbours, I've known them since childhood. My parents tell them to look out for me whenever they aren't here, they're like brothers to me." 

"Nice to meet you, I'm Dawn, this is Lei." My heart steadied as I realized they weren't together, but that didn't mean they weren't interested in each other. 

"Nice to meet you, apologies for James not having any logic." 

"IT WAS YOUR CHOICE TO COME IN THROUGH THE WINDOW!" James yelled dramatically, and Kyle slapped his hand over his mouth- which led to them tackling each other to the ground. 

"NO, IT WASN'T" 

"YES, IT WAS!" 

"SHUT UP SHORTIE" 

"EXCUSE ME?!" 

"YOU HEARD ME!" 

"YOU'RE JUST JEALOUS BECAUSE YOU CAN'T WALK INTO A ROOM WITHOUT BANGING YOUR HEAD ON THE DOORFRAME, YOU'RE AS BIG AS YOUR EGO!" 

"SAYS THE ONE WITHOUT A GIR-" 

"SHUT UP! BOTH OF YOU!" Nova yelled, stopping their argument. 

"Neither of you is normal, period. Now stop arguing over who decided to enter MY room through the window." She shook her head. 

We settled on hanging out in Nova's house for the day doing whatever we wanted. I came back upstairs to her room with drinks and saw Nova starting a new painting on a blank canvas. 

"Where are the others?" I asked, setting the drinks on her desk. 

"They went downstairs to look for some board games," I nodded. I stood behind her and looked at the unfinished paintings scattered on her desk. 

"You should be an artist," I blurted out. She stopped for a second, then looked at me. 

"You really think so?"

"I know so." 

There was a moment of silence and out of nowhere, she smeared blue paint on my face. 

"What was that for?" I asked, and she shrugged. 

I smeared red paint on her face, and she tackled me to the ground laughing. We spent the next ten minutes smearing paint on each other's faces and clothes, laughing until our stomachs hurt. 

We lay on the floor next to each other, staring at the ceiling trying to catch our breaths from laughing. 

"That's the most I've laughed in a while," She sighed. 

"Why?" I asked, and she shrugged. 

"You're full of mysteries Nova," 

"So are you."

I said nothing and got off the floor. 

Lei walked in and looked at us covered in paint, a look of confusion washed over her features. 

"I was gonna say we found a game of Twister and you guys should play with us, but you both look like you need to get cleaned up." She laughed. 

"Noted, we'll do that." Nova grabbed my hand and dragged me into the bathroom, I shivered at her touch. She shut the door behind her and threw a washcloth at me to wipe the paint off my face. I looked in the mirror and scrubbed at my face as she stood beside me, then snatched the cloth from my hand. 

"Stop it! Are you trying to rub your skin off?!" She shook her head laughing and started wiping the paint off my face gently. 

I could feel my heart racing, I looked into her ocean eyes and the way the corner of her mouth curled into a smile. She caught me staring and made eye contact, a feeling of warmth making its presence in the pit of my stomach. It was like sparks were setting off inside me. I waited for her to say something, but we stood there looking into each other's eyes for what felt like forever. 

She put her hand under my chin and pressed her lips to mine, I gasped for air in shock. 

She let go of the kiss and looked at me with regret in her eyes.

"I-I'm sorry I don't know what I was thinking! I made you uncomfortable."

"No, no you didn't it just shocked me." 

"Are you sure?" She asked, I nodded. 

"HEY, GIRLS WHAT'S TAKING SO LONG?!" Kyle yelled from downstairs. 

"COMING!" I yelled, and finished getting cleaned up. 

When we got downstairs we saw Lei and James playing Twister and Kyle standing there laughing. 

"Left-hand blue!" 

Lei fell on her face and James fell on top of her. 

"GET OFF ME I CAN'T BREATHE!" 

He got up and offered his hand to help her off the floor, then let go of her hand and pushed her over laughing. 

We decided on watching movies for the rest of the night in the living room. It was 11:00 pm, I looked around at everyone else sleeping and turned the tv off, laying under a blanket on the empty couch. A minute later, I felt Nova sneak under the blanket next to me. 

"Hi." She whispered,

"Hi, can't sleep?" 

"Nope." She sighed. 

All the tension I felt between us yesterday had gone away, but I couldn't help but wonder if I was dreaming. What if the kiss meant nothing to her? 

"How do you know?" I asked in a whisper. 

"Know what?" 

"Know that you're different...?" 

"What do you mean?" 

"You kissed me."

"And?" 

"Girls aren't supposed to kiss." 

"Says who? I kiss who I want to."

"But my aunt said that it's not normal," 

"That's her opinion, not a fact. You don't need to listen to her." 

"I guess you're right," I sighed. Nothing Nova had said or done confirmed whether she liked me or wanted to be more than friends, so I assumed the kiss meant nothing to her.