The Door on a Beach [EDITING]

Chapter 21: Metaphors

Lilo

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Lilo did not have a favorite colour. 

When Boo volunteered the colour red as her favorite, she didn't want to argue with her and tell her otherwise. Boo had seemed perfectly happy thinking about her favorite colour being red when she had nothing against the colour.

The following day she has found her gaze lingering on the colour. 

Red ended up sticking out to her more, and it had nothing to do with the brains default colour spectrum identification process, one of the few random facts she remembered from high school. There was something enchanting about that colour, that made her stare, even when she didn't mean to. Even since that moment but never before. 

This girl was making her... notice things. 

Though as she stood next to Celia, she had the inclination to notice a hundred more things. She only got to read a few sentence's of thought from the book but each one of them sparked an interest. 

The silence bears the names of those whose voices you echo. 

What that meant Lilo didn't know. 

Sex is the currency of the soul.

That one was something Lilo could understand but it only occurred to her now that it might be something that Boo might as well. Did she? To what extent? 

The bubonic plague was startling-

"Anything can be startling if you're expecting something different." Lilo finished. 

Celia looked to her. "What?" 

Lilo pointed to the quote. "The bubonic plague. She said this to me the other night, well last night at dinner."

The monster rose her brows. "She did."

She nodded. "Yeah, after I told her she was startling."

Celia gave her a look that pretty make forced her to explain further, one of the motherly looks like 'explain yourself'. Nani gave it to her often. "Well she told me I was curious. "

Lilo handed over this information as if it were a perfect explanation but Celia only nodded knowingly. "You are rather curious. To her especially." 

Jumping at the chance to talk about Boo she asked why to her in particular. Why wasn't she so curious to Celia or Sully? Was it a human thing?

Celia shrugged. "She's never been this curious about someone like you before." Celia ran a thumb over the recently inked words to be sure they had dried before she closed the book, putting it back on the shelf. 

Knowing that she wouldn't get any more of an explanation from Celia than she did from Boo, she let it drop. They let their gaze fall back to where Boo stood wrapping up her startlingly long explanation to Sullivan. 

Suddenly, Lilo realized she hadn't introduced herself to Celia and a deep blush coated her face. "I forgot my manners, I'm Lilo." She stuck out her hand to shake. Despite Nani saying she didn't have any manners, she did have some when it came to meeting new people and making a good impression. You never know. 

The eyes of all of her snakes, along with her own fell on Lilo's hand. For a moment she feared she would not take it but Celia laughed gently before taking it in her own. "I know, I've heard much about you. I'm Celia, though I'm sure you've heard." Lilo had heard, and had figured out that the man across from them was Sully or Sullivan and missing was Mike. Why she knew that she wasn't sure, from paying attention probably.

They released each others grips with a smile. Shaking Celia's hand was something like shaking hands with a snake, which she sort of did with several members of her entourage before Celia chided them into stopping. Her skin was scaly, something most aliens were not. It was a nice change and she liked the feel of it. Almost as if she could sit for hours comfortably stroking her hands over it. She didn't, but it was one of those temptations like tugging a strand of Myrtle's hair when she sat in front of her. 

"She's told me a thing or two, but I like to make my own assessments."

It was then that Boo was there and decided to participate in the conversation. "If you never hear of other's assessments, how do you judge all their other faces?"

Lilo looked blankly at her, not knowing how to respond to that. 

"Is that one for the book?" Celia asked, delighted to bring it out once again. 

Boo shrugged. "If you think so."

The Hawaiian cocked her head at the smaller girl. "And you say I'm curious?"

"You are." Boo replied with a girl. "You're curious and I think in metaphors. Two different tea's with the same bag."

Lilo raised a brow. "That didn't even make sense." She looked up. "Did that make sense?" Sully was shrugging and Celia nodded, making her feel as if she were the only one who didn't understand. Even though Sully clearly didn't,  he stood like someone who did. Possibly only to avoid another one of her spiels. 

She glanced back at the nearly full book of Boo's thoughts and metaphors. Thoughts from joy and metaphors from not having so for too long. Or at least that's what it sounded like to Lilo because any amount of time without joy was too long. She took Boo's arm, tugging her towards the door. "Come on."

"Where are we going?" She asked through her sudden bout of laughter. 

Lilo twirled Boo out the door, planting a soft kiss on her lips. "To the arcade."