You Are the Shell to My Tortoise | ✓

34

I stared down at Blue, wondering if he could sense the love I was beaming at him through my eyes.

Or maybe it was too intimidating for him.

Blue had just finished eating a beetle I'd fed it. As I slowly reached out with my index finger towards him, he froze. I held my breath as I touched his head. He didn't run or fly away.

I lightly scratched the top of his head with my finger, and still he stayed. He felt so soft!

I raised my head to look at Nolan, who was watching me with a small smile on his face. "I did it! I won his love!"

"Yep, you've done it," he said, nodding at Blue. "Congratulations. You even got over your fear of insects for the sake of feeding it."

"I did! I mean, only temporarily I did, but still!" Even though my cheeks felt like they were about to split open, I couldn't stop grinning. "And it's thanks to you! Thank you, Nolan!"

He raised an eyebrow. "Me? You were the one patiently feeding it."

"Yeah, but you're the one who helped me," I said, gesturing to the little box of insects he held in his other hand.

If not for his presence here with me, I wouldn't even have been able to hold those insects, gloves or not.

"Alright, then. You can repay me with more mints," he said, nodding. "I could do with more of those."

"I literally just gave you the two promised boxes last week," I said, staring at him. "Not that I mind, since I have a lot, but did you already finish them?"

After that Friday when the rain cut short our little outing, things went back to normal between Nolan and me. I made a little more progress with Blue on Saturday when we went again, managing to get him to be more comfortable around me. When the school week started, we walked to classes together whenever we could, although he still continued to sleep during the actual lessons themselves.

"Of course not, but it's always nice to have more in stock," he said, shrugging.

"Well, you're not wrong there."

I had plans with Ashley and the others to go to the mall tomorrow, and I made a mental note to keep an eye out for other flavored mints. Maybe Nolan would want to try those blackberry-flavored ones that never managed to entice me.

I stroked Blue's back and, when he didn't try to escape from my touch, cooed over him.

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"You have longer legs, so it's not fair."

I could hear Melissa's voice even before I actually saw her.

I tiptoed so that I could peek over the bookshelf that I was behind, browsing through thriller novels that looked promising.

Sure enough, she was just entering the bookstore with Derek. The both of them kept looking around, probably in search of Ashley and me.

"You're just in denial that I'm clearly better than you at DDR," he said, strolling down the rows of bookshelves.

Melissa snorted as she walked next to him. "I'm just saying, it's obvious that if you have longer legs, it's more effortless for you to reach the buttons!"

"Hey," I said, coming out from the cozy spot I'd been huddled up for ... how long was I here?

I checked my phone, and my eyebrows instantly rose. I'd already been in here for two hours just browsing books. It wasn't exactly a huge surprise, since I did like to hole myself up in bookstores whenever I came to the mall, but I thought Melissa and Derek would've come looking for us sooner.