The Boy in Blue

Chapter 15

We finish dinner, and my mom, being her annoying self, immediately invited Lance to stay the night, "Lance, honey, it's getting kind of late, would your mother be okay with you spending the night?" She smiles sweetly, but it doesn't convince me that she's not planning something.

Luckily, though, Lance declined, "Sorry, mom, I have to go home. Even if she knew where I was, my mother would worry, it is a school night, after all." He grabs his jacket from the stand near the front door, "Thank you for the lovely dinner, I hope to see you soon."

He opens the door to exit my house, but I stop him, "Do you want me to drive you home?"

He shakes his head 'no,' "I live right down the street, remember? I can just walk."

I blush, embarrassed that I forgot that detail, "O-of course I remember, baka! I m-meant to ask if you wanted me to walk you home."

He laughs, "Sure, sure, I would love it if you walked me home."

I walk up to the door and hold it open for him, and then turn around to mom, "I'll be back in a few minutes," I walk out of the house, and close the door behind me.

I walk up next to Lance, "S-so, about tonight-"

He interrupts me, "Don't worry, I won't tell Pidge, I don't need her teasing, either."

I smile softly, "Thanks."

"Anything for my princess," he kisses my cheek.

I blush again and start walking faster, not aware that I'm doing so.

We eventually arrive at his doorstep, "Here we are." He turns towards me, and I know what he's about to do. I really shouldn't be awkward about this, we've kissed several times, but I can't help it. He leans in casually, it should be normal for us to kiss, after all, why should he make a big deal out of it? We kiss quickly, he opens his door, "See you tomorrow at school!" and shuts the door behind him.

I look at the door for a second longer before walking back to my own home. I open the door to find mom sitting on the couch. Without even turning around to look at me, she asks a question, "Did you guys kiss as the door?"

I stutter, "I-It's none of your business." I start to walk up the stairs.

"I'm only asking, because if you didn't, you'd have a problem," she scrolls through the movies on the TV.

I just roll my eyes and walk upstairs. I close the door, turn the lights off, and lay on my bed without even taking my clothes off. On my ceiling, I have several glow-in-the-dark stars, even a sun and a moon. It always helps me to go to sleep whenever I just count the stars. There are 57, I know since I've counted them so many times. 

I knew I wouldn't be able to fall asleep tonight, but I closed my eyes anyway. I had a feeling that counting the stars on my ceiling wouldn't help much. I thought back to the kiss at his doorstep. Since I had been thinking before he kissed me this time, unlike the other times, when he kissed me by surprise, I got a good look at his face. 

Tonight, instead of counting the stars, I imagined his face from right before he kissed me. He really was beautiful, I loved everything about him, but the one thing that stood out to me at this moment were the hundreds upon thousands of freckles that dotted the line across his nose. I counted each of them, one by one. 

55...56...57...zzz