Enchanted

Chapter 4

We sat together on the clean floor of the laundry room.

Well, I sit, eating popcorn that was rich and nice and perhaps not that healthy for me. But I ate healthy most of the time, I could allow a slip up.

Jamie is on the other side of the room, hastily running the iron over my blouse. I offered, and he glared at me and said two words. "Sit down."

Now, I'm really looking at him.

He knows when my eyes are on him, he was well aware when he was even neck deep in books but now he says nothing. And even though his head isn't turned to me, I know he's doing what I'm doing.

Looking, thinking, deciphering my behavior.

"How come you don't have a girlfriend?" I ask before I have time to think.

I consider biting and spitting out my own tongue before he answers.

"Honestly, I haven't met anyone that makes me feel like I'd wanna be with them romantically."

"Not yet?"

He hesitates with the iron, I can see it. It's only for a few seconds but his hand hovers over the blouse that has surely been ironed to thin, hot cotton. "You could...say that."

"If you're gay," I steel myself because I realized I didn't know the answer, "it's not that big of a deal. Well, if you're in the closet and this is kinda the south."

He laughs at me and I feel heat from embarrassment rise on my neck.

"I am not into men in the slightest. But if I were you would've known."

I frown. "What does that mean?" I don't hide the huge feeling of relief that comes over me by taking a deep breath in that makes me shudder.

He turns the iron off and then unplugs it. He walks over to me and hands me the blouse. "It means if I wasn't..." he clears his throat and I stand up, "...interested in girls, I would've shut the bathroom door and walked away. Instead, I shut it. And then I waited for you to come out."

"I..." I am in hell, heaven, the moon, the sun, everything at once. "I...don't know what to say."

"What is there to say? It's fine, you're gonna need more anyways in the future." And with that, he places the blouse on my arm and steps back as if looking at his handiwork even if it's just with me with a white blouse on my arm.

His self satisfaction dims and it is replaced by this look that threatens me.

I've never thrown myself at anyone, not any of the nine crushes I've had since I've been old enough to know what a crush was. I've never mourned being left behind in the dating scene because my mother is a teacher and nobody wants to date me. I've never mourned not going to the movies unless it's with my neighbor, Libby, or with Janine and whoever she's dating. Or just my parents.

And the earth is shaking. It's crumbling.

Because there's four years left of being a teenager, and Jamie has just opened me up to wanting more. And not just more.

I'm standing in front of him, knowing he sees. Knowing that he knows.

I am enchanted by him, from the way he stares into me to the way he works a clothing iron.

Infatuated? Perhaps.

In love? Unlikely after two hours.

Want to stay right here? Absolutely and never leave.

Jamie clears his throat, shaking me barely out of my stupor. "Let's go."

"Where are we going now?"

"My room." And this time, I don't hesitate one bit.