Boundless Love

Chapter Six - You Should Ask Her Out

Lizaveta stands from the table and I follow after her. I stay on her heels as she climbs up her stairs and leads me to her bedroom door. I watch as her hand briefly pauses on the doorknob before she opens the door. When she steps aside to let me in I take a long look around. 

Her bed sits in a corner, neatly made with gray bedding. Her walls are a beautiful light shade of green, and her white desk and shelves stick out nicely against the color of the walls. I notice the lack of decoration on her walls but say nothing of it, instead focusing on her bookshelf that covers the entirety of one of her walls. 

"This is a lot, you weren't lying," I comment as I move closer to the shelf.

"You can find anything on there. Mysteries, romance, adventure. Old, new," she tells me from where she stands in the center of her room. 

And she's right. I see common book series like Twilight and Percy Jackson, but also Nancy Drew and an assortment of books labeled as Inspiration Suspense. I notice a few devotionals and different translations of the Holy Bible. Some classics like To Kill A Mocking Bird, The Outsiders, The Call of The Wild, A Christmas Carol, The Notebook, Jane Eyre, Moby-Dick, The Odyssey, and Pride and Prejudice. I see dozens of stand alones, westerns, and books on history and science. I smile when I see some children's books, worn and loved on a shelf: Green Eggs and Ham, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, Goodnight moon, The Hungry Caterpillar, and many Disney story books.

When I finally look back over at her I notice how uncomfortable she is. She fidgets with her fingers and rocks side to side as she looks around her own room nervously.  I decide to tease her.

"Never had a guy in here before?" I take a step toward her as I break the silence and her eyes shoot up to mine. 

"No one ever comes over to mine. I told you I didn't want to do the project here, I meant it," her voice is a little harder than usual and I smile. 

"My, my. I'm the first guy you've had over? I'm flattered. I don't know what Owen would say though," I tease, and she knows it, chuckling at me as she rolls her eyes.

"He wasn't too thrilled, honestly," she tells me as she begins to leave her room. I take the hint and follow. "Just like me. So, let's get back to the project, and then you can leave," she continues saying as we return to the dining room.

"Besides genuinely enjoying seeing all your books, believe me when I say that I can't wait to finish so I can leave too," I retort. 

"I believe you," she assures me, and I roll my eyes. 

******

We finish most of our slideshow before she starts to kick me out of her house in a panic. "You have to leave. Now," she says sternly.

I stand, shocked at her sudden change.

"Cayden, please," she pleads with me, losing the sternness she had less than a second ago as her face filled with nothing but dread. 

Normally I'd joke about her wanting me gone before her boyfriend comes over or about how she must have a curfew, but how she looks at me makes me agree, helping her throw my stuff into my backpack that she'd begun filling in her panic. 

She practically shoves me out the door before slamming it behind me. I shake my head at how weird she's acting, worrying slightly about what got her so worked up so quickly. I wonder if I'd gone too far with something I said without realizing it as I climbed into my truck. But I couldn't have, because if I'm not mistaken then we were actually getting along this last hour.