Hesitant Lies (Karma x Nagisa)

PHASE 8: Setbacks

The atmosphere around us felt stiff and awkward as we trudged down the sidewalk to Karma's house, though seeing as how casually Karma was walking with his hands in his pockets and that never ending smirk on his lips, it could've very well just be me who felt awkward.

Now that I was thinking about it, why had Karma even asked me to come over? I hadn't even questioned the red head's intentions before running off with him.

I shook my head a bit and mentally slapped myself.

"Idiot." I muttered, suddenly angry at myself but deciding to blame Karma's piercing auburn gaze that he had given me.

Though I couldn't see how that was much better than me going without hesitation...agh, this was a bad idea.

However, I decided, this would be the perfect opportunity to get more information on Karma's life style, his parents most frequent whereabouts, and maybe I could even find a schedule or something of the sort.

"Whatcha mumbling about?" I jumped slightly and looked over at the exact red head I had just beeing thinking about, blinking once as I found myself staring into his honey-colored eyes which were glinting mischievously in the light of the sun, and his blood red hair seemed to be a shade lighter in the light.

I snapped out of it once the ends of his lips quirked up into a knowing smirk and I quickly turned away, cursing the heat that rose to my cheeks under my breath.

"Nothing."

I could see Karma raise a teasing eyebrow from where he walked beside me.

"Are you sure?" He smirked, leaning a bit closer which in turn caused me to take a step away from his gaze. "Didn't sound like nothing to me."

"Good thing I wasn't talking to you, then." I suddenly snapped before realizing my harsher tone and cursing myself again.

Could this day get any worse? It didn't seem like it.

Karma chuckled softly, pausing my angered thoughts as I took a moment to listen to the sound. I couldn't pinpoint the sudden feeling that sparked in me, making my stomach do an annoying backflip, but I chose to ignore it rather than figure out what exactly it was.

"I like you Nagisa. You're so blunt, and your not scared of me in the least." I blinked in surprise and found my head turning to look at the taller boy next to me, only to find that Karma was smiling at me. "It's nice."

A smile.

Not one of those half smile/half smirks that I could never figure out how to react to. No, Karma was giving me a real smile, and if I'm being honest, it frightened me a bit.

It frightened me how caught up in his smile I was. It frightened me that I had almost had to stop walking right then and there and give Karma a hug. It frightened me that I would've started spluttering random words without realizing it if I hadn't been able to catch myself before doing aso.

My foot caught on a crack in the sidewalk due to my surprised stumbling and my not paying any attention to anything other than Karma's smile, and my breath momentarily hitched in my throat.

I began to lean forwards, and I saw Karma reach out to grab me with a surprised call of my name, but I managed to thrust out my arms in front of me and I pushed my legs up in the air. I stood in a momentary hand stand before flinging my legs forward and standing upright again.

However, the sudden movement had made the blood rush to my head, making me a sudden wave of dizziness, and I quickly grabbed Karma's wrist to steady myself so that I wouldn't almost fall again.