Melted by You

10

"Landon, you're doing it wrong".
Owen sighs, and reaches for my hand. He grabs my fingers. I feel the strong urge to pull my hand away, but I fight it. I want to play the guitar.
"Your index finger goes here" he says, and he carefully moves my fingers. "And your middle finger... There. Now try again".
I feel relieved when he pulls his hand back, though strangely enough, I still feel all the places where he touched me. I guess I'm not used to people touching my hands anymore. I mean, I'll touch people's hands for a handshake, or a high five, but I don't like people holding my hands. Maggie used to do that. It always reminds me of Maggie. And when I think about Maggie, I start feeling all weird again, and I...

"Landon?"
"Oh, right, sorry" I say. I strum the guitar, and an actual nice sound comes out.
"I did it!" I yell, and I throw my hands in the air.
"No!" Owen says, and he sighs. "Now you have to search for the right position all in your own again".
I put my hands back down, and nod.
"Right, sorry" I murmur. He looks very stressed. Do I stress him out? I really hope not.

"Sorry" he suddenly says. "I'm a little tense".
"Oh, that's okay" I say. He squints his eyes, and nods slowly. Suddenly, he gets a big smile on his face.
"Let's do something fun" he says.
"What?"
"Something fun! Go to the city center, get some food, do stuff".
"Aren't we having fun right now?" I ask.
He shakes his head. "Listen, I don't think I can be a teacher. Maybe it'll be easier if I'm your friend first".
I smile excitedly.
"I'd love to be your friend!" I say. His smile grows.
"Well then, let's go".

We walk down the stairs, and I'm greeted by Lucy sniffing my leg.
"Hi Lucy" I say, and I pet her little head.
"Logan?" Owen yells.
"What?" Logan yells back. He's in the living room.
"We're going to the center for a while. Take care of Lucy".
He opens the door, and carefully pushes Lucy away with his foot.
"She wants to go outside, but she's not allowed to yet" he explains.

We walk towards the subway station. I look at all the trees and bushes around me, observing everything. I love being outside, there's so much to see.
"So, Landon. Tell me something about my little brother" Owen says, with a grin.
"Well, his name is Logan, and he is sixteen years old..."
"Alright. Something new. What's he like in school?" Owen interrupts me.
"Oh, he's very nice. Well, he actually doesn't talk much. He's usually on his phone, or doing homework, or staring at Willow when he thinks nobody notices it" I say. Owen's grin grows.
"Sometimes I get the feeling he doesn't really like me" I continue. "Or Alex. Maybe he just doesn't like anyone except for Willow".
"And Lucy" Owen adds. I laugh.

"What about you?" I ask him. "Why does he hate you so much?"
"Oh, he loves me" he says. "He just doesn't want to admit it".
I laugh again, and look at Owen. He's got his hands in the pockets of his coat, and he's staring at the bright sky. The sun is shining, even though it's nearly winter already. The sun gives his eyes a nice glow to them. Or a sparkle. A glarkle.

I laugh. Owen looks at me.
"What?"
"Glarkle" I mutter, and I stare at the pavement we're walking on, grinning.
"Again, what?"
"Oh, it's nothing" I quickly say. I may not be very smart, but I know it's weird for most people to tell them you were just staring at them and then made up a funny word and then laughed at your own word.
"So, Logan secretly loves you?"
"Well, that makes it sound like incest" Owen says. "But, I mean, I'm his brother. He can't hate me".
"So that means that you don't hate him either?" I ask.
"Of course not!" he says, and he looks at me.
"He's my little brother. Of course I love him".

We're both silent. And before I can stop it, I'm back in one of those moments. I stare at Owen's eyes, and I notice that his eyes aren't all that dark when he's in the sunlight. They have a glarkle, obviously, but they seem to have a strangely gold look to them. They're very pretty. They're hypnotizing, actually. I mean, I can't stop staring at them right now, even though that's probably very strange and awkward for Owen. I should really stop looking at his eyes. His brown-golden eyes that remind me of chocolate...

"Landon?"
I wake up from my trance, and smile.
"Yeah?"
Just pretend everything is normal.
"Where do you want to go?"
I bite my lip.
"I don't know. I don't really have any money..."
"Well, ice cream it is" he decides, and he claps his hands.
"What?"
"Well, if it's my treat, we're getting ice cream" he explains. "There's this place right next to the subway that's always open, even during Christmas, and he sells the best ice cream".

"You really feel like getting ice cream?" I ask. He rolls his eyes.
"I didn't think you're the kind of person who doesn't like ice cream in the winter because it's cold outside" he says.
"Oh, I'd love to get ice cream! It's just that my mom always says it's wrong to get ice cream in the winter because that's just not right" I explain. He scoffs.
"Yeah, and parents don't have to vaccine their kids because they 'just don't want to'. Everything needs a reason, and if you don't give me one I won't listen" he says.

I laugh, and look at my feet. Owen is such a nice guy, I wonder why Logan is so negative about him. He's not even stupid. I thought he'd be stupid, because Logan kept calling him an idiot, but he's actually very smart. Smarter than me, at least. But to be honest, that doesn't take much.

We arrive at the subway station, but we don't go down the stairs. Instead, Owen grabs my arm, and pulls me along with him.
"Where are we going?" I ask.
"The ice cream store! I said it's right by the subway station".
"Ooh, this subway station!" I say. "Well, alright. I don't really like public transport anyway".
He laughs, and shakes his head.

We walk inside, and I feel a smile on my face when I see all the different flavors of ice cream. There's the basics, chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla, but there are so much more. All kinds of nuts, probably every type of fruit on earth, there's even black coffee flavor, and something that appears to be cornflakes ice cream.

"I'll take lemon and pistache" Owen says. "What about you?"
I stare at the many, many choices. The salesman chuckles.
"First time here, I assume. You get the third scoop for free" he says. "If you promise you'll take only flavors you haven't had before".
I look at Owen. He grins encouragingly.
"I want cornflakes..." I say. "Ehm... Honey..."
"Take black coffee" Owen urges.
"No, I don't like coffee" I say. "Wait, not honey. I want cornflakes, cola, and cotton candy" I decide. The man behind the counter grins.
"Bold choice" he says. He hands Owen a come with a white and a green scoop, and starts making mine. First a light, golden-brown  scoop, then a dark brown one, and then bright pink.

I take it from him, and smile like a little kid when I taste a bit. Owen gives the man his money, and we walk out of the store.
"I had black coffee when I first came in here" he says, while we sit down on a bench. "It tasted horrible but I ate all of it".
I laugh quietly, and carefully lick the sides of the melting, pink ice cream, trying not to get it to touch the cola ice cream.
"How does it taste?" Owen asks.
"Like a spoon full of sugar. I love it".
He laughs and eats his ice cream.

"I'm glad you were there to save Lucy" he says, and he looks at me.
"I can imagine. What if she ran out? If not, Logan would've definitely..."
"No, I meant you specifically" he interrupts me. I close my mouth, and look at him. He smiles.
"If not, I probably wouldn't have met you" he says. I smile, and feel a weird feeling in my stomach. It's the same as whenever someone mentions Maggie, except that instead of making me sad, it's making me feel warm and fuzzy inside.
"Yeah" I say, and I look at his eyes again. It's probably a stupid thing to do. It's going to make me get lost in thought again. That's really annoying, because it often results in me awkwardly staring at someone like an idiot for a long time.

"I could never win that guitar if I didn't meet you" he suddenly says, and I snap out of my trance again.

"Oh, hahah. Yeah" I say, feeling strangely disappointed. Why else would he say something like that, Landon? It's not like you're his best friend or anything.
"Well, I guess it's a lucky coincidence" he says, and he raises his ice cream in the air.
"Cheers" he says. I smile again, and bump my ice cream gently against his, hoping it doesn't fall over.
"Oh, gross. Now there's cotton candy ice cream on mine" he pouts.
"Sorry" I say, and I chuckle. He laughs, and looks up towards the sky.

"Yeah, I think I can try being your teacher again" he says.
"Really? Does that mean we're friends then?" I ask, excited. He looks at me, and starts laughing. He laughs for a pretty long time, and I almost start to feel a little insecure.
"Of course we are!" he says, when he's done laughing.
"Oh" I say, and I smile shyly. "Cool".
He shakes his head, and pats my shoulder.
"I thought that was obvious man. We're a perfect duo".
"Yeah, definitely" I say, and I eat some more cotton candy ice cream. "Perfect".

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