The Wall and the Flower

Chapter 5: New Developments (Claire's POV)

The past few months of school have been grinding along. The workload piled up and both Wanda and I were buried under work, and yet, amazingly she found the time to work on her writing. She was...amazingly resilient. In the few months that I've known her, Wanda had opened up like a flower in bloom and showed me a more confident version of herself. She was more open with her writing and even found a mentor to help her with her writing.

As the months passed, Wanda and I became closer. We weren't just roommates anymore, but friends, and I was glad to finally have someone like her outside of Bucky. But lately, whenever Wanda and I would hang out or talk, I felt...I don't even know; I couldn't describe it. I just felt...weird. She had this way with words that she always made me laugh, and her writing...oh my God. There were things that I felt when I read her works that I've never felt before. It was like she got me, understood everything that I felt and was able to put it on the page in a way that I never could.

She currently sat at her desk; computer open to different tabs of documents and she scrolled through each one, her eyes scanning across the lines of words. She let out a sigh and flipped to another different tab and looked it over, sighing again.

"Everything okay, Little Red?" I asked her, looking up from and pausing the episode of Family Guy that played on my computer. She looked over at me, blushing a little. I felt my face heat up at hearing the nickname I gave her. I always used it in my head, but never had the guts to say it out loud, and now it slipped out because of my carelessness. I mentally slapped myself. What the hell was I thinking? She probably thought I was a weirdo now who gave her weird nicknames.

"Yeah, it's just an applica—wait, what did you just say?" Wanda asked with a smile on her face and a darker blush on her cheeks. My face grew hotter and I felt nervous.

"Um...uh...God, I don't—um..."

"'Little Red?' Is that my nickname now?" She sent a smirk my way and raised her eyebrow in a playful manner.

"I mean, if you don't like it, I can probably come up with something better—"

"No! I—I love it," she said, cutting me off and hiding behind her hair, her deep scarlet blush peeking out from the strands of dark red hair. I grinned at her and looked down at my computer briefly. Then, she grabbed hers off her desk and carried it over as she moved to sit beside me on my bed. "Which one do you think I should submit?" she asked as she turned the computer towards me, letting me read through her different short stories.

They were all fantastic, and it was hard to choose one. Why did she have to make me choose one? I felt her green eyes watch me as I read her work. I couldn't choose one; I loved all of them. Each one was different but I loved the same things about them. I loved how she describes things and how they each create a beautiful mental picture. I loved her story-telling and her world building. I loved her character development. I loved the way she always watched me whenever I read her stories. I loved the way she hid her face and her blush in her hair when she was nervous or embarrassed. I loved the sound of her laugh. I loved...God what was I thinking? I couldn't think like this; Wanda's my friend, and she's the only one I've got. I can't ruin the one friendship I have because of whatever fleeting feeling of infatuation I have for her.

"So...what do you think? Which one should I pick?" she asked, playing with her rings. I handed her computer back to her and looked into her green eyes.

"I um...liked the mystery one. It's my favorite."

"That's my favorite one too," she said as she dropped her hand from her lap, lightly grazing my crossed thigh, a blush creeping up on her face, matching the heat that creeped up on mine. She finished the submission process, closed her computer, leaned back on my bed, resting her head against the wall. "Thanks Claire. For helping me. You're a good friend."