Life in Words

Short Story // Pt. 2: Can I Touch Your Hair?

---

Her hand was extended out to him.

"I'm Abigayle Cook," she said, "but you can call me Abbie."

He took her small, bony, pretty hand, "Are we really shaking hands?" he smiled.

"Yes," she replied, "We are really shaking hands," she tickled his palm with her fore finger.

He jerked his hand away. He grinned. They stared each other in the eyes for a long moment.

"You have really beautiful eyes," she blurted, then looked away, awkwardly crossing her arms over her body.

Jonathan's icy blue eyes were indeed his most stunning feature. Though he would not agree with anyone who suggested the fact. Many commented on his eyes, piercing and bright, round and memorable.

"Thank you," he mumbled in surprise, he racked his mind for a fitting comment that didn't seem too creepy, "I like your glasses."

"Really?" Abbie squeaked, "I'm very blind without them. And contacts scare me."

"I wouldn't want to go sticking stuff on my eyes," Jonathan replied, watching as he small little arms unravelled across her body, she tapped her wrists together.

"Me either," she grinned, "is this your first time coming to youth?"

"I've been before, just not here, in fact, this is my first time being in Victoria?"

"What?" Abbie frowned, then she inhaled sharply, "Oh, you've recently moved?"

"Yeah, we arrived yesterday."

"Where did you live before?" she pushed her glasses up her nose again.

"Canberra," he replied and she shivered, "Freezing cold Canberra."

"Minus seven in winter Canberra?"

"Yeah, but it comparison to Antarctica it's not that cold."

"It's still cold though, not as cold as here. Is there snow?"

"In the mountains, yes."

"I want to go to Canberra now."

The teens were called to Natalie and they opened with a prayer. Jonathan felt slightly uncomfortable, but bowed his head nonetheless. The other guys said hello to him, and joked their usual way. The board games were released and Jonathan sat down to game of Cluedo where Abbie also joined.

By the end of the night, six rounds of Cluedo were played and Nathan's character, Col. Mustard, was the murdered three times, Abbie's Rev Green once, Leanne once and another boy, Rick once. He had never had so much fun with kids his age this quickly. His dad was right, it was a fantastic way to get to know some people.

---

Two weeks later it was the bible study. The carpet in his home was in the middle of replacement, so they were sleeping in tents in the backyard and having meals and toilet/shower breaks in the house. They had gone to church the past two weeks, which was full of confusing for Jonathan, as he had forgotten many bible stories which once meant a lot to him as a young child.

"Can I touch your hair Jonathan?" Abbie was sitting next to him as the waited for others to arrive. The two had become quite good friends. Discovering they went to the same school, Abbie had shown him around and taken him to each his classes, some of which they shared, and some she had to go across half the school to get to her own. Amongst the rest of his grade, the girl was so small and so fragile he feared she may be knocked over and shatter into trillions of beautiful shards of glass. Once she was nearly knocked over by a towering senior and he caught her by the arm before she fell to the ground.

"Why?" Jonathan grinned.

"It looks soft."

Jonathan shrugged and Abbie reached up and ran her fingers through his black curly hair, over and over. It felt good, and Jonathan closed his eyes as he felt her breath on his nose. She wondered if she could hear his heart beating at such a rapid pace.

It was strange for him to develop such feeling for the girl in only three quarters of a month. But she was different than the others. Her insights and thought in the bible studies were genius, her conversations with him were enthralling, her openness to him at school made him feel welcome, and her smile and strange comments made him grin, his heart rate always quickening.

Her hand slowly retracted from his hair, and all he could see were her brown eyes hidden behind the long eyelashes. She leaned up and kissed him gently on the nose.

"Your hair is incredibly soft."

So are your lips, he thought selfishly.

---

It was no mystery that there was something going between the two ever since that moment in the hall. At school they hung out more, clearly hungry for each other's presence. But no other student would click. All the teachers could tell, but his peers only thought of the two as friends, not picturing them as more. Even his new male friends agreed. They were two different people.

"Why not Autumn Andrews, Jonathan? She's into you, the most popular girl in our grade."

"I don't care for popularity," Jonathan would reply, "she's not into me."

"Why not Lacey Even? She stares at you in mathematics?"

"Because..."

He did not want to tell him that he only wanted to protect and care and love for the small petite girl, with the tortoise shell glasses and obsessions with touching people's hair. He only wanted to hold her, to wrap his arms around the small of her back and bury his head in her hair. To squeeze her into his chest and give her another piggyback ride like he did last youth group. The way he felt her arms over her shoulders and how she screamed as he ran across the hall, but laughed at the same time.

"Jonathan," Abbie walked up to him after being released from our class, "sorry, we had to stay behind because Nicholas and Maxwell wouldn't shut up."

"That's alright," Jonathan replied, "Where's Mia and Leanne?"

"They're at the canteen, thought I'd wait with you, so I can touch your hair again."

She ran her fingers through his hair again, he closed his eyes, and Jonathan's male friends rose their eyebrows and all transmitted the same mental message: we were wrong.