An Unlikely Connection: Part 2

Chapter 2: The New Contender

"Joshua! Yosefin's here!" My mother yelled from the foyer. I was in the middle of placing blue paint tape on the edges of the walls in my room when I heard her. When I heard Vanessa talking with Yosefin, I immediately stopped what I was doing and headed to the second-floor banister. Vanessa was already asking to see Yosefin's tattoos. They were covered again, but she used a cream-colored sweater to hide them.

"Vanessa!" I said to break her away from Yosefin. "Really?"

"What?" Vanessa said, shrugging her shoulders with her arms out to me. "I never got to see them!"

"She doesn't want to show them!"

"Josh, it's okay," Yosefin said. She waved her in a downward motion to tell me to settle down. "Wait for me in your room, okay?"

"Okay," I said after squinting my eyes at my sister. She squinted too then resumed wanting to know about Yosefin's tattoos. I went back into my room to continue laying tape the second I saw Yosefin take off her sweater.

Ten minutes later, Yosefin finally came into my room. At that time, I finished taping and started painting near the edges of the tape to make rolling paint an easier job for us. She threw her sweater on the bed and tied her hair back before she greeted me with a hug from behind. Her arms firmly yet comfortably clutched my waist.

"Hey, Joshy," Yosefin said with her lips inches away from my ear.

"Hey," I said, keeping my focus on painting the edges.

"Whatcha doing there, buddy?"

"Edging."

"Oh?" She said nearly letting out a giggle. I realized what I said sounded dirty.

"You know what I meant."

"You should have chosen better words."

"Whatever," I chuckled.

I told Yosefin to get to work helping me paint my room. We took turns rolling paint on five walls in my room. My mother wanted me to paint my white walls different colors because she got tired of seeing the scuffed marks and broken pieces of dry walls from my childhood. I fixed up what I could before calling Yosefin to help out. I knew she would happily spend time with me. This was her first time seeing my room. Too bad it was empty of furniture.

The whole task lasted about an hour. Yosefin sat on my bed to rest while I sat on the floor with my back on against the bedframe. My face was near her knee and when she saw me glance at it, she put herself directly behind me. Her knees were about a hand length from my ears. They smelled like cinnamon and were soft to the touch as usual.

"So," Yosefin said as she took my hairband off, and gently combed her fingers through my hair. "Is that girl the perfect one?"

"Naomi?" I asked for clarification.

"Who else?"

"She seems cool," I said when I pushed her legs closer to my face. "Any luck with you?" All she gave me for an answer was a grunt-like growl. "Are you even trying?" Her feet turned inward over my chest. And she stopped combing my hair. The more indicators I saw that she wasn't, it made me a bit annoyed. But, it was the type of annoyance that made me sympathize with what she truly wanted. "Yosefin," I sighed. "You gotta try." She stayed quiet so I had to sit up and look her in the eyes. She was frowning with her mouth shifted to the side. For a moment, she wouldn't look at me. When I whispered her name, her cheeks slowly began blushing pink. "Yosefin..."

"Stop," she said, shutting her eyes and tucking her head down. "Just... stop..."

"Stop what?" I playfully nudge the top of my head into her stomach to make her laugh. It took two more tries for her to giggle. On the fourth nudge, she redirected my head upward to bring me to face level with her. She held it there and couldn't stop glancing at my lips. "No," I said, slowly taking her hands off my face. "We agreed to stop."