Vanilla

Sixty

[Vanilla]

The decision to allow us both some space apart had been mine. I'd perhaps responded to Leroy's baring of his heart in a way I hadn't quite expected myself to be responding. The odd quivering of one's bottom lip and the cold, numbing touch of a winter breeze at the tip of one's fingers were not signs of sadness and fear but reluctance and disbelief—characteristics far beyond my capacity for understanding.

It was after moments of silence in the midst of the soft falling of snow in the night, the brief, fleeting waves of heat from the electric appliance that Leroy came to terms with my lack of words. My inability to fill the air with something coherent in nature was, for all intents and purposes, an unbelievable phenomenon he may have struggled with. I hadn't myself quite been able to express the entirety of what happened then, but it was in the pause that he proposed some distance.

My immediate reaction had been to turn the offer down since we'd nearly always taken to resolving an issue by laying everything out on the table and communicating effectively about them—but I'd stopped myself upon quickly realizing how different the issue was and how it , logically speaking, would've required a different approach.

Leroy had walked me back to the infirmary, where I was able to inform Chen and the rest about having spoken to him but revealed nothing more. Despite the warmth of the room and the cup of tea I was handed by the school nurse before bed, the chill in my fingers and the stiffness of the heart refused to part.

Having noticed my inability to fall asleep, the nurse had been kind enough to allow a single visitor into the room who had apparently rushed over as soon as she'd heard from Chen and Tenner.

"Vanilla? Where were y—oh my god. You look like you're freezing." Si Yin had placed both hands on the sides of my cheeks only to realize that her fingers were much colder than the surface of my skin. Physically speaking, I was fine. Not in the greatest condition, with regard to yesterday's terrifying experience in the freezer, but, still. Fine. "Oh. You're okay. But you look... honestly, you look kinda... I don't know. Like."

"Cold?" I finished, not exactly certain if I'd chosen the right word. She nodded anyway, sitting on the edge of the bed and topping up my mug of tea.

"Uh, so... you found your man? He's okay? You know we were all pretty shocked when he started firing back at the Pierre guy and when I say fire I mean like F-I-R-E there was smoke and flames and he burned that guy to bits! Oh and everyone else was just too stunned to say anything 'cuz we were all like, nervous about the judging and stuff since we were all in the middle of it but so when he left the room everyone was like silent for a whole hour or something and then Chen went after him and Tenner went after Chen because ev-er-y thing was just falling apart and then Pierre even said something about 'don't you dare leave the room' or something like 'if you leave now, I'll personally ensure you get fired—I mean, expelled' or something like that. It was huge. Oh yeah, Leroy's chef's whites are always so clean even after making, like so many dishes in panic. I don't understand how that happens.

"So, anyway... Chef Allan was super in panic and he was like having this argument with Pierre but then Pierre got the headmaster involved and they paused the entire thing to deal with the situation but, like. I mean. They can't expel a scholarship holder, right? It makes sense to cut Li and Meyers off 'cuz of what they did to you, but I mean. They were stupid, for sure. But it's your man we're talking about and the school sponsored all of his education here and, like, his dad, for sure... I mean. They wouldn't want to offend him and like, if he does get expelled, don't scholars have to, like, return whatever funds they technically used? I don't know. Probably just a few couple grand but, I mean..."