Bloom

16. dripping blueness

Haven

"Ladies and gentlemen," William clapped his hands, in order to gain our attention. "I personally think that it's way too warm today to give you all a lecture, let's be real- all the thinking makes you sweat- and thought I'd treat you guys with some ice cream?"

The class cheered, and even if I was excited about what to learn next, I couldn't help but breathe out in relief. It was a pretty warm day, not many students got motivated by the warmth that hung in the lecture hall.

"Uhm, yes?!" Tara grinned, shamelessly doing a happy dance once everybody shoved their chairs away, standing up after that as they packed their bags.

"Gotta love him," I mumbled, packing my Herschel bag myself, secretly craving the ice cream we were about to get.

William chuckled at the enthusiastic response but told us to quiet down once again, "Okay, guys. I know you're all excited, but keep your voices low in the hallways. We'll meet at the parlor around the corner. Be there in ten minutes."

Loud chatter soon turned into whispering or mumbling, and soon enough everybody left the hall to either go to their lockers- or walk towards the parlor already.

I waited for Tara and Norah, noticing a lost looking Zephaniah, who hesitated once he saw us standing near Tara's locker.

Zephaniah. He had given me a tiny smile when we first saw each other this morning, which had made me feel rather special, as he hadn't done that before. I had smiled back instantly, secretly also feeling relieved that he wasn't upset with me.

Something I had thought after I had made the comment about him never asking questions. He had become awfully quiet after that, and I was afraid I had hurt him as, typically Haven, barely thought the words she was about to say through, and therefore blurted it out before I had the chance to overthink it.

I hadn't meant it in a bad way, I was just genuinely curious about it.

Once Zephaniah locked eyes with me for a brief moment, I waved him over. His cheeks were flushed, but I wasn't sure if it was because of the heat or his inscrutable feelings

"Hi.." Zephaniah gave me a short, shy smile, turning his face away before I had the chance to greet him back.

I did so, anyway. "Hey, Zephaniah! You want to join us?" I wondered, trying to gain our eye contact back.

Zephaniah nodded quickly, subconsciously taking a step closer towards me. I wasn't sure why, but I had the feeling it made him feel less lost. "Okay,"

Once Tara and Norah had returned from their lockers without their backpacks, we were ready to go and silently left the building.

"Why don't you go with Abel, Louis and Luke?" Tara had sneered towards her cousin. Zephaniah hadn't answered.

Once everyone had arrived at the parlor, William had instructed us to simply line up, order and search a place on the grass. "We don't want to occupy every single seat here. Tourists want to sit too,"

Once we were lined up, Norah behind me, Zephaniah and Tara in front of me, I tried to look at all the different flavors, deciding which one I was feeling like today.

I wasn't the only one who was already deciding, Zephaniah tapping on Tara's shoulder. "Which one will you have, Tara?" He asked, his eyes squinting as he stared up at the roof, his lips parted and moving slowly as he was saying something, probably to himself.

"I'm not going to tell you, because you'll choose the same. What are you looking at, anyway?" Tara chuckled, staring up at the roof as well.

"There's- there's a spot they missed with painting," Zephaniah said quietly and as my curiosity got ahead of me, I looked up as well but it took me more than a few minutes to finally find the tiny spot he was looking at.