SAFETY PIN

Chapter-6: Secrets and Smiles

"Umm... hi," I said softly, walking in. Amara was drawing on a sketchpad, listening to music, her headphones secure.
"Hey, Peter." Her eyes slowly widened, and she hurriedly closed her sketchbook, took off her headphones, stood up and started dusting off the sides of her sweater vest. 
"What're you doing here?"
"Oh...uh I just came to say hi!" I said, overenthusiastically.

She giggled, standing up and drawing the curtains to let the light in

" I was just gonna come and apologise in a bit. It wasn't nice of me to doubt you. You're the guest ." She smiled apologetically. "Oh, also. You're in my room. Please take off your shoes." She spoke.

"Oh my god! You too? Thank goodness someone realises how unhygienic that is!"
"Exactly! Like are you seriously telling me you wanna drag your crusty shoes with dog shit from the road on my clean carpet? No!"
She laughed, throwing her head back.

Objectively, that laugh wasn't pretty, or sweet, but it was full of emotions I've never even heard about, and somehow, I felt so grateful that, after a month, she was comfortable enough to share it with me.

Her laugh...oh god...

"Umm yeah, it's fine, I'll take it off," I whispered. She got up and watered her plants.
"Dude! Your view's awesome!" I gasped. Her room overlooked Central Park, and you could see the beautiful greenery. Everything was so picturesque.

"Yeah. I got this one cause I loved the view of the park." 

"The Park," I shouted abruptly. She looked at me weirdly.
Great.

"I-I meant, do you wanna go to the park with me, just to hang out? I-I know that you're probably busy, and just came back from Mrs. T's, but Mr. Stark's given me a break for the rest of the day, so we can hang out together? J-Just as friends, if you're feeling weird, but I just thought it sounded really fun-" 

"I'd love to." She smiled, her dimples showing.

A glow of pride grew in my chest.

I made her smile. 

  I smiled back, and I grabbed her hand, beckoning her out of the door. "Come on, let's go!" 

"Hey, Amara, what're you drawing?" I asked her. We were sitting at the park, and eating the ice cream that she bought. Well, I was.

She was drawing. "You." She muttered.

"You're drawing me?!" I whispered. That guy in the drawing looked so good. So handsome. No way it was me. Did this count as narcissism?

 "Oh god! Did I say that out loud?! If I did I'm so sorry I had no right to draw you-" She began, nervously.

"It's- it's ok. It is a really beautiful drawing. Thank you. Can I keep it?" I asked in a small voice. 

"Yeah, I guess." Amara handed me the drawing, fully shaded in. I kept it between the pages of my atlas, for geography class and put it in my bag. 

We sat in silence, and I took this time to look at her. Her eyes were dark brown, but if you looked long enough, there were specks of blue. 

They were perfect.
I could stare at them all day if I could.

"Wanna play Truth or Dare?" Amara asked me. "I used to play it a lot with my brother when we were younger."
 I quickly looked away and muttered yes.

She caught me staring at her. 

Everything I did seemed to make one of us flush.

"You go first," she said.
"Truth or dare?" I asked.
"Truth."
"What's your favourite colour?" 
"Sage green." 

I looked at her weirdly.
"It's a very nice colour! Why're you staring at me?!" 
"No reason. Okay, dare."

"Go and lick that lady's purse." 
"WHAT?!"

"Did I stutter?" she said menacingly, her eyebrows wiggling.
"Clever. Not for long!" 

I jumped on her and started tickling her. She started laughing hysterically, and we fell off the bench and rolled into the grass.

"P-Peter stop" she giggled. I stopped tickling her, and we stopped laughing. I was on top of her, my arms propping me up.

Her lips were a hairsbreadth away from mine, and I swore I felt a cool sensation run down my spine.

My face flushed. Neither of us was moving. I could feel her breath tickling my neck. 
She then got up, gently pushing me off to the side.

 "I should be headed back home," she muttered.
"Um, yeah, I should probably check up on Aunt May," I said.

 I embarrassed myself. Again.

"See you at school, or at Stark Tower," she said. We packed our bags and threw the cups. 

We started walking away in opposite directions. I felt awful. All I wanted to do was run up to her and kiss her. To look into her eyes and ask her to be my girlfriend.

 And the weirdest thing is I knew her for a month.
One month.

I turned around to see her one last time when Amara ran up to me and gave me a folded piece of paper. "See you later," she whispered and ran in the opposite direction. 

As I opened the paper, sprawled in ink, was a poem, written by Amara.

"He had caramel brown eyes and messy hair.
And his smile seemed to hold my heart and his secrets, all at once.
His existence was a beautiful discovery."

-Amara Kulkarni