you're beautiful here

s e v e n

Chapter 7

"Uh, what the hell?"

Claire's voice made them both jump away from each other. Their lips were tinged pink and their eyes bleary. Felix hastily stood up. "Uh," he started, looking back and forth between Claire and Alice, "this, uh—"

Alice stood up, extending a hand. "I'm Alice. It's nice to finally meet you," she smiled at her as if there was nothing weird about the situation.

"Hello, Alice, do you often have to tongue down my brother's throat?" Claire asked, staring at Alice like she had two heads. She shook her hand hesitantly.

Alice was shocked at the directness. Was this what she made people feel like?

"Claire!" Felix was extremely uncomfortable.

"Oh, bring it down. I just came out to get a snack. I'll leave you to continue," she dramatically shuttered, "whatever you were doing." She waltzed in and out of the kitchen quickly, leaving with a bottle of juice and a bag of fruit snacks.

When her door closed, Felix looked over at Alice. When she met his eyes, he looked down sheepishly. How do people act normal around people after they kiss? He didn't know if he would ever be able to look at her without blushing.

"So, what do you want to do for the rest of the night?" Alice asked this. Felix glanced at his watch. It was around 7:30.

He looked around. He knew that he wanted to continue, but he didn't want to say it. He felt like he would scare her off. "We could watch a movie?" It was again a statement that sounded like more of a question.

"Sure, whadaya got?" She waltzed over to his bookshelf with a number of DVDs lining one row.

"We could watch Netflix." He knew if they were watching on his laptop, they'd need to sit closer and that's all he wanted right now. He had never been this close to someone. The most romance he's ever been in was spin the bottle in a 7th grade sleepover that had ended with him locking himself in a bathroom to call his grandparents to come to get him.

"Oh, fun," she said, turning to him. "On your laptop?" she asked.

He nodded with a slight smile. "I'll go get it." He walked to his room. When he got in, he closed the door and leaned against it. What had just happened? Was he ever going to be able to act normal, in at least his definition of normal, with her? There was so much to process from the past hour that he didn't even know what to think. He lifted his fingers to his lips, surprised he couldn't feel the burning. He thought he could live in that feeling. He breathed deeply as he carried his laptop to the living room.

Alice had nestled into the middle of the couch with her shoes off and socked feet tucked under her. He almost stopped walking—he was forever obsessed with seeing her in a new light.

"So, what do you want to watch?" he asked, sliding in beside her. There was space between them that Alice quickly filled, leaning against his arm. He was also forever being startled by her.

"Anything," she mused, looking up at him. They were both still in a slight daze over the actions that had taken place previous. He gave her a soft smile and then turned towards the screen to scan his list.

They'd started watching a show, but by the second episode, Alice was cuddled so far into him that he couldn't watch at all—all he could pay attention to was her. When he got the nerve, he reached over and put his hand over top of hers.

"Your hands are so cold; do you need a blanket?" He hadn't even thought about it. She was normally colder than he was, but her fingers were like ice.