Ten & Levan

18. Eighteen

LEVAN

I jump to the knock on my door and scramble to my feet, tripping over myself. My heart starts to thud inside my chest like a drum. I know that he's home, I do. But he wouldn't care to come up here, he never does, he never did, he never will. Same old, same old. Ava's at her friend's house and she isn't returning until afternoon. I curse at the air when I realize that it has to be him. I walk to the door, leaving my pages and pen astray on the floor.

I take a deep breath a turn the knob, only to find the girl who kissed me square on the lips between last night and this morning, the girl who has ever since, been on my mind, my skin, my body, my pages. And she's standing at the door to my room, with wide eyes and damn, it makes my cheeks hot. I want this to stop, it's embarrassing. Holy crap.

"Hi," she says like a zombie, she looks completely freaked out, unlike the blissful state she's in all the time. And it's weird to see her freaked out. That's when I realize that someone must've opened the door for her, it has to have been dad. If it was him, I understand. Or she could've just barged in all on her own, she can do that, I know.

"Ten," I deadpan, realizing that I might just be equally freaked out because I can't make my body move. Damn you body, why don't you live in a freezer permanently?

Ten raises her brows at me, "Aren't you going to let me in?" she asks. My eyes widen. This isn't good, she can't enter my room. Resistant Levan starts to panic and run around inside me. No, no, no. You have to tell her no. You have to scream a big N to the O at her. She can't keep barging in like this, she can't!

I take a deep breath and calm myself down. She can't keep standing in the hallway either.

"Give me a second?" I say and slam the door shut before collecting on the sheets from the floor, from the bed, from the table, from the shelf, stack them all and stuff them under my mattress. Then I fix a few things here and there, my heart thudding like a canary bird's before I make it back to the door and open it.

Ten stands there still, only more freaked out than before, her head craned back, her mouth gaping. I swallow so hard, I bet she heard it. I hold the door wide open for her. And It feels as if I've just peeled off some of my skin but it doesn't even hurt.

"I had some mess to cleanup," I tell her. She melts into a smile immediately before she enters my room.

"I bet your room is cleaner than mine anyway," she says as I decide what to do with the door. Do I leave it open? Do I shut it? Do I just stand there? Ten looks at me over her shoulder and wrinkles her nose, "shut the door already," she says, so I do it.

"Yeah,"

"Hey, I don't think your father likes me," she tells me, lifting an eyebrow up. I cringe.

"Don't mind that, he doesn't like anyone," I tell her. He doesn't even like me.

"Oh, well," she shrugs casually.

My whole body is starting to turn red. I rub my palm over my face as Ten scans my room. There isn't a lot to see. The walls are a deep brown and beige, there's an empty shelf, a study table, a rickety single bed in the corner with tossed up sheets, an old wooden cupboard and that's it, Levan's room tour is over.

Ten's face falls with sheer disappointment. I didn't know people could be disappointed in four walls and some wood. She turns to me and brightens up again. Literally, brightens up. A thousand suns and sprinkle of stardust and there you have it, Ten, the girl who probably thinks my room looks like shit.

But it does, and I won't argue.

"Wow, your room's pretty...um, empty?" she says, moving over to my bed and plopping down on it. I watch her with the eyes I have in my gaping mouth for a few seconds, not long enough for her to notice that I think she's way too comfortable here. But that's just Ten being totally Ten.