Who She Is

~26~

Alyx's POV

"I'm so glad I left my phone at home. It's so relaxing without it. It'd be going off every five seconds if I did have it right now," Amaya says, laying out on my bed. I wonder if she's talked to Jason since she punched him. I know he's got to be mad. She did punch him in front of everyone.

"Have you talked to him since lunch yesterday?"

She sighs and rolls her eyes. "Yeah. He texted me calling me a fucked up bitch and that I humiliated him." She lets a little laugh out. "Was everyone staring at him after I left?"

"Yeah, they were. And you're not what he said," I tell her.

She sits back up, and a little smile shows up on her face. "That's sweet. Not true but sweet." She stands up and walks around my room. She drags her finger across the top of my desk. I follow her with my eyes and drop them when she looks over at me. I hear her laugh. She stops in front of me, causing me to look up at her.

"Are you shy around everyone or just me?" she asks.

"Uh, I'm still shy around other people. You're just... Uh..." It's so hard to say.

"I know. You think I'm amazing," she says, giggling. She steps back and plops back on my bed.

"Yeah. You're harder to talk to than anyone else." I slightly blush.

"It doesn't have to be. You can say whatever you want around me. I like knowing what's on your mind."

I give her a nod and say, "Okay." I like that she wants to know what I'm thinking, but that doesn't make it easier to say.

"Don't be nervous around me anymore, okay?"

"Saying not to doesn't exactly stop me from feeling it," I mumble. "It's not like a bad nervous feeling or anything, either. So it's okay." I'd rather feel nervous around her than over someone else. Plus, this kind of nervous is the 'being a shy, awkward virgin around your crush' nervous. It's not like I'm having to public speak or do something embarrassing in front of a crowd. Or deal with conflict. Or anything else that makes me nervous. Which is a lot.

"Hmm, okay. As long as it's not the bad kind." She lays her head on my pillow and closes her eyes. She looks tired. "Would you mind if I just lay here for a little while? Your bed is so comfortable."

"I don't mind. You need to take your shoes off, though."

She whines and holds one of her feet in the air. "Will you take them off for me?"

What? I blush again. That's kind of like undressing her. I know it's just her shoes but still. I walk up to her and slowly reach for her foot. I grab her ankle with one hand.

She peeks an eye open and says, "You're not weirded out by feet, are you?" She must notice my awkwardness doing this.

"Uh, no." I unbuckle her sandal strap and slide the shoe off her foot. She actually kind of has pretty feet. Of course she does.

I set the shoe on the floor. She lays that leg down and lifts her other. I undo that shoe and set it by the other one.

She yawns and says thanks to me before rolling on her side. She's out in seconds. I grab the blanket I used last night and cover her with it before I walk downstairs. I grab another slice of pizza out of the fridge and eat it cold.

I hear a knock, making me drop my pizza back on the plate. I get up and go open the front door.

"What the hell, man? Where were you, and why aren't you answering your phone?" Wes asks, angrily. Shit, I haven't even looked at my phone since we were at Ronnie's earlier. I pull it out of my pocket and see five missed calls from him and a few texts.