Locked Wheels

Chapter 3

"You gotta meet this kid, man. He's fucking ridiculous."

"And who is he again?" John asked, his voice sounding flat and slightly grainy from my phone's speakers as we FaceTimed. "I didn't see him today. I had to work on some stuff with Mr. H during lunch."

"He's just this new kid, I guess," I said as I rolled up to the fridge. I propped it open on the back of my chair and stretched up to get the apple juice. "But he's, like, amazing."

"Wow. 'Amazing.' Sounds like a real compliment, coming from you. What, are you, like, in love with him or something?"

"Maybe," I said, picking up my phone so I could wiggle my eyebrows at John.

John smirked ever so slightly, his brilliantly blue eyes crinkling a bit at the edges. "What's so 'amazing' about him, then?"

"Well, for one, he's like barely five feet and he's 16," I said, pouring myself a cup of juice and starting to wheel back to my room. "I've never met anyone that short and that old who wasn't in a wheelchair or something."

"Woah, really?" John chuckled lightly. "Five foot?"

"Yeah. He's tiny. He kept trying to convince me he was five one, but he's a dirty fucking liar." I paused to push open my bedroom door. "And he gets so angry about the smallest things. It's hilarious."

"Sounds like just your type," John said from my lap.

"Yeah," I said as I hoisted myself up onto my bed. "And he's kinda cute, too."

John snorted softly. "Now who sounds like a twelve year old girl?"

"Shut up. At least Karkat's actually cute. Unlike Vriska."

"Ok, that was freshman year. Can't you just shut up about that already?" John looked down, his cheeks turning bright red.

"Yeah, but you wouldn't stop talking about her until last year." I sat back, putting my phone on my chest. "And even now I can see the way you still look at her."

John sighed, but didn't say anything else. "So what else about this Karkat kid's so amazing?"

"Well, he's tiny."

"Yeah, we already covered that."

"And he's, like..." I shook my head. "I don't even know, man. Just... everything about him's so, like, tiny and adorable. Like, he's got perhaps the smallest and cutest nose in the world. And his eyes, for some reason, are fucking huge and they're really round and pretty and he's got these ridiculously long eyelashes--he almost looks like a girl--and his eyes themselves are this, like, nice, reddish-auburn wine color, and they're so pretty--"

"Dave."

"--which, I know is kinda weird to hear coming from me, but it's all totally true. Oh, a-and he's got a whole bunch of freckles across his nose, like, not as many as me, no way, but I swear to god, they're all so fucking cute and I don't even know why--"

"Dave."

"--And he blushes, like, really, really easily, probably more than you, if that's even possible, and every time I tease him he gets this frozen, shocked look on his face, and he like freezes up and it's just so hilarious I can't even--"

"Dave!"

"What?"

"Are you done rambling about your future husband?" John asked with a chuckle. "You've been ranting about him for, like, the past 5 minutes."

"H-have I?" I mumbled, my cheeks burning dully.

"Yeah. I'm not judging you, but at least tell me you're gonna tell him how much you like him."