Of June

19- Farewell

"Why. . .don't you say something, Maddie?" Adam asks with a nervous smile, tapping on his empty bowl earlier filled with vanilla ice cream. "You're so quiet it's starting to get suspicious. . ."

Licking another spoon of the dessert in my own bowl, I recline against the bean bag chair in his room, right in front of where he's sweating buckets sitting on his bed. It's already about nine o'clock, but once Adam came back from his 'project' work the idea of cooking dinner suddenly seemed too arduous to me and we both resorted to ordering food from the restaurant. Now, enjoying some sweet treat despite a full stomach.

"What even do you want me to say?" I point the spoon at him, "Explain in detail the events before and after the kiss? How the gap between you guys at that moment was so close to zero that even air couldn't pass? Or how you both looked like you wanted more even after she pulled herself-"

A soft pillow hits my face, falling limp on my lap as I restrain my giggles. "Hey, it could've fallen over my icecream."

"How can you say b-big words like that so. . .casually!" He cries, blushing simultaneously, "And it was just a. . .peck! It's not, you-know-what. . ."

"It lasted for more than one second. Maybe not a proper one, but definitely a kiss." I state bluntly. "Stop lying to yourself."

"It was not!"

"It was."

"No it wasn't!"

"Okay." I savour another spoonful. "Whatever floats your boat."

". . .It wasn't?" His face falls, inner corners of eyebrows raised.

"Gosh", I say out loud and roll up my eyes, "You ask me to say something, and you attack me when I do so. You ask me my opinion, then disagree with it, and when I agree with your opinion, you disagree again. What is it you really want?!"

He pouts while keeping the downhearted gaze. "I just wanted to make sure it was all. . .real. Not just a figment of my imagination. And you're the only one who saw everything, so. . ."

There he goes with that look again.

"But I don't understand the long face." I place my now empty bowl on a small desk. "Shouldn't you be celebrating? I thought you both would take forever to confess, but it finally happened today, right?"

"Yeah. . ." He faces down, suppressing a shy grin, though a second later switches to fix his eyes on me. "What do you mean by 'both'? Wait a minute. . ." Realisation settles over him and he exclaims, "You knew?!"

I scoff with a smile. "Ofcourse, from the very first day."

"And when. . .was that?"

"When we went to watch the movie, dummy." I relax back deeper into my seat. "It was impossible to miss her fading smile the moment she saw me. And you'd be a real idiot- which you are, by the way- to think a girl would walk all the way to your house just to return a notebook. She could've given it to someone that lived closer to your place, but she took it with herself."

He blinks, still skeptic. "You're not joking. . .right?"

"You know I don't joke often. Remember when she left, you asked me exactly what kind of doubts I was testing by telling her about us? Well. . .", I let my eyes wander up to the ceiling, "I wanted to check her reaction by telling her about the hoodie you gave me or the game you let me win. I thought she was provoked enough that I was living with you, but then her reaction made it even more clear. She was jealous."