starring role ▶ McCall

six

There were three gentle knocks on the hospital door that caused Amara Larsen to refrain from continuing. Everyone turned to look at the door and for some reason no one said anything. The person didn't let themselves in after knocking, which led them to assume it wasn't anyone who worked in the building. Amara glanced over at her daughter before she looked at the door again, allowing the person to enter the room.

With two balloons in his hands -one saying the words 'it's a girl' and the other 'get well soon'- and a small handful of flowers that seemed to be picked straight out of the ground, Scott McCall hesitantly entered the hospital room. His gaze dropped to the floor when he noticed more than one person was present and didn't move from the entryway.

Amara let out a laugh, one that sounded similar to Rainbow's own laugh, and she ushered Scott in. "We won't bite you, you can come in, sweetheart."

Something about the woman's voice, so calming and reassuring, made Scott's feet move on their own and suddenly he found himself standing in the middle of the room resembling a lost animal. Benjamin snorted, muttering something incoherent under his breath. Amara Larsen gave her son a scolding look while she stood up, collecting her purse and her son before she bid both teenagers a quick goodbye.

"I'll just be in the waiting room until you two get done with...this," Amara graced the two with a smile, one that made Scott unintentionally smile back.

Rainbow gave the teenager a smug look as she repositioned herself on the uncomfortable hospital bed. "I see you have the hots for my mom."

"W-what? No, of course not! I mean she's-but like I would never-" Scott struggled to come up with something to say that actually made sense. "I don't have the 'hots' for your mom."

Rainbow smiled, chuckling to herself. "It was a joke, McCall, don't worry. Even if you did like my mom, I wouldn't be surprised, a lot of my friends do."

Scott nodded, shoving his left hand into his pocket. "Yeah, she's beau-I got you these flowers, and these balloons."

"...it's a girl?" Rainbow clicked her tongue, holding back a laugh as Scott sheepishly handed over the pair of balloons.

"I may have just grabbed random balloons from different rooms," he admitted, scratching the nape of his neck now that his hands were free.

Rainbow's left eyebrow raised considerably as she looked at the boy in front of her. "So you stole them?"

"Well I wouldn't say-"

"Did you steal the flowers from a patient too or did you get them out of your own well tended garden?" she asked rhetorically, not giving Scott time to answer her first question.

"...technically I got them from in front of the hospital," Scott defending himself, pointing to the few flowers Rainbow held in her hand. He wasn't sure of what colors she liked so he randomly chose both yellow and white. "My mom said you'd like them."

"Well stolen or not, they're nice," she smiled, setting them down gently on her lap while she allowed the balloons to lift up to the ceiling. "Plus, yellow is my favorite color; you should listen to your mother more often."

Scott smiled in reply, unsure of what to say next. He knew what he wanted to say and he had the chance to say it since there was no one else here to take away Rainbow's attention but he couldn't. Instead of speaking, he just found himself staring blankly at Rainbow, admiring all of her features. Her eyelashes were long and they occasionally touched her cheeks when she glanced down to inspect the flowers he had gotten her. The teenager also had freckles adorning her face, scattered amongst her cheeks and nose. Hers weren't as noticeable as her younger brother's but they were just as admirable.

"Why are you blankly staring at me? Do I have something on my face?" Rainbow asked suddenly, bringing Scott out of his daze. Her deep brown eyes stared into Scott's own, waiting for some sort of answer.

Scott took a step back since he realized just how close they were, not wanting to suffocate her. "No, it's just...I wanted to apologize."

"Maybe you should apologize to the people you stole these balloons from, not me," Rainbow laughed lightly, though she stopped when she realized that Scott was serious. "Scott you didn't do anything wrong, there's no need for you to apologize."

"If I hadn't jumped out in front of you so quickly, you wouldn't be in pain and you wouldn't be in here." Scott stared at Rainbow oddly, unsure of why she wasn't blaming him; he sure was. He had expected her to be angry at  him for her minor injuries but instead, she was putting his apology off.

"If I had been paying attention, I would've seen you," the teenager countered with a reassuring smile. "Scott, don't worry about it, none of this is your fault; though I do appreciate the stolen gifts."

They both erupted into a small bit of laughter, catching the attention of Amara Larsen who sat on the other side of the door. She smiled to herself before she went back to immersing herself into the book she had been reading.

Knowing the girl in front of him would take no form of apology on his part, Scott rocked back and forth on his heels, thinking of something to say to fill in the silence. Rainbow noticed this of course and sighed, pushing curly strands of hair behind her pierced ear, mumbling about how he didn't need to fill the silence if there was nothing to be said. She noticed how uncomfortable the boy was so she spared him the effort. "I'll see you at school tomorrow, Scott."

"Yeah I'll see you." Letting out a breath of air he didn't know he had been holding in, Scott awkwardly laughed. Suddenly, a thought popped into his head and without thinking he spoke, "You'll still come to the party tomorrow night, right?"

Rainbow offered Scott another one of her breathtaking smiles that had him on the brink of ecstasy. "My shoulder might be screwed up for a bit but, I can still party, McCall. Why do you ask?" Her innocent smile had turned into a smirk that had Scott turning his head in an effort to catch his breath.

"Well I figured..." Scott's hands accompanied his strung out words poorly while he tried to finish his un-put together sentence. After a small bit of silence, Scott finally managed to somewhat ask Bow out to a party -one that she was already going to- and now he was holding in a breath while he awaited her answer.

She held back her reply, purposefully of course. Rainbow knew her actions were causing distress to the boy across from her while he waited for her to say something but, she enjoyed it. It was slightly cruel but she couldn't help but somewhat admire how flustered he'd get whenever she caught him staring for too long. Being high up in the social rankings that high school offered, Bow was used to guys being flustered around her and to be honest, she kind of hated it. She preferred partners that were somewhat confident and could take charge. Scott, however, was an exception.

Perhaps the only exception.

So with a smile, she looked up at the teenager who was anxiously waiting for an answer. "..I guess."