Alteration

Alteration Chapter 10

Alteration

Chapter 10

Amelie

As they walked up the stairs towards the restrooms the noise faded a little.

“You’re just bored, aren’t you?” Ian said when it was quiet enough for them to speak, surprising Amelie because he knew but then she remembered how in high school they both never went to football games.

“Yeah you know me” she said and smiled automatically. She thought little things like this were sweet and they made her happy. “So I guess I don’t have to pretend to go to the restroom, do I?” she said with her pace halting and closing her eyes with self-doubt and embarrassment.

“No, but we can hang out a little here” he said with a reassuring smile. She definitely wasn’t expecting that answer from him.

“Thought you were enjoying the game” she said and started walking again but now towards a bench, forcing the casual act a little too much, but Ian didn’t mind or notice.

“Then that means I’m better at pretending than you because you just keep looking around or staring into your fingernails” he said and cracked up laughing, causing Amelie so feel butterflies in her stomach.

To any other person she would say ‘I don’t need to pretend anything’ but he made her way too nervous and self-conscious. “Right” she said after an agitated laugh, and she calmed down a little as they sat down on the bench.

“Should’ve brought the popcorn” she whispered more to herself than to him and felt proud when he laughed, it was the only natural thing she had said all this time, everything else was forced because of her anxiety.

“You know, I’m still wondering what crazy things Dan did in front of you” Ian said, and to anyone it would’ve sounded a little too interested or ridiculous, but Amelie saw everything about him as perfect so it wouldn’t even cross her mind.

“You make it sound as if Dan was a criminal” she said with a totally natural laugh now.

“Well he never does bad things you know,” he said making really cute and playful expressions erasing all the previous seriousness from his face “But he can get really weird sometimes” he said opening his eyes really wide making Amelie giggle. Then she bit her lip slightly wondering whether or not she should say out loud what she was thinking at that moment.

“Well, you can’t judge if I tell you, okay? You have to hear the whole story” she said wondering if he actually was serious about wanting to know, obviously wondering a little too late.

“’Kay I promise” he said rolling his eyes a little.

“Well, I was bored yesterday so I went to his apartment and we talked a lot, we talked about silly stuff and also about very serious subjects.” She said swallowing hardly, remembering how vulnerable Dan seemed “Then he opened up to me about something really personal, and…” her sight continued to be lost, she felt like she was explaining this more to herself than to Ian. “I was speechless” she said in a bare whisper.

The coltish feeling with which they were speaking before was gone. Her sight was still gone, she was too concentrated remembering the pain on Dan’s face to actually look at Ian.

“So he kissed me” she said and a confused frown appeared automatically on her face as she turned towards Ian and he opened his eyes quite widely, but before he could say anything she continued speaking. She tried to not speak so serious now, because if she continued speaking with pain it would seem like the kiss actually meant something to them, when it didn’t. Everything continued normally after the osculation. What was causing her pain and confusion was the picture of Dan suffering still on her mind.