What a Tryst: Chapter 3: Part 2

It had been a mile and a half past the house to reach the art supply shop, then another mile to get to the all natural store (for the loose leaf tea and such). Despite having Google Maps on Alice’s phone to guide me, I still managed to get lost a few times. I also wasn’t sure if I grabbed the right art supplies. The clerk wasn’t able to read Claire’s cursive so I had to do some guesswork. I was shivering by the last turn--or so I’d hoped--before the house; warmth was in sight.

I went through the gated green fence and rushed for the door. I was nearly salivating at the thought of biting into that Snicker’s Bar in bed, wrapped up in a blanket.
“Joining us for tea?” Jonathan asked.

I took off my shoes in the entryway. “Uh, maybe in a bit. I need to give this stuff to Claire first.” I raised the bag to show him.

“Ah, Alice bribed you to do her dirty work did she?” he laughed. “Well, tea will be ready in a few. Sarah and Savanna are in the living room already waiting. It’s not good to make women wait, you know.”

“Yeah, I’ve gathered that much so far.” I headed toward the hallway. I had to get Claire these supplies and give Alice back her phone, then I’d be free to devour the Snicker’s Bar and join them for tea downstairs. I heard Johnathan’s laugh from the living room as I arrived at Alice’s door; I knocked on it. She waited at least two minutes before she answered, not that I was counting or anything.

Alice was wearing a white T-shirt covered in Zelda characters, and some PJ bottoms with tiny grey skulls; her hair was ruffled, probably from laying in bed. “Interrupting my reading is a pretty serious offense.”

“I figured not returning your phone was a more serious offense,” I offered. “I’d rather take the penalties for interrupting your reading for a second.”

She held out her hand. “Fair enough.”

The phone fell short when I tried placing it in her hand. We both tried reaching for it. It was in that moment that I realized that letting it fall would’ve been a better plan.

Alice tripped and fell forward. I was still locked on to the phone. I reached for it, trying to stop the phone from colliding against the floor. I’d never hear the end of it if I damaged her phone, even if it were partially her fault. Instead of the phone, though, I grabbed Alice’s chest--which was both the softest and firmest thing I’d ever touched--and heard her gasp as she landed on top of me; I opened my eyes and saw a hand, then felt it sting the side of my face. The scent of sunflower seeds bit at my nose almost as much as her slap had bit at my cheek.

“That was a more serious offense than not bringing my phone back,” Alice huffed. “I should’ve just gone to get that stuff myself.”

“Could you just get off of me,” I said, “before someone sees us.”

“Everything okay here?” Jonathan called.

I turned and saw him coming into the hallway.

“You’re so lewd,” she hissed. She pushed herself off of me, then tried to slam the door to her room. Unfortunately, for both of us, my foot was in the way.

I yelped and brought my foot back. Jonathan offered a hand to help me up.

Jonathan approached with a raised eyebrow. “What was all of that about? It looked like you two were having some fun.”

“I can still hear you two, you know!” Alice yelled from her room.

“I tried to give her back her phone and she fell for me,” I told him.

“A likely story,” Jonathan laughed. “Ready for tea? The girls are still waiting.”

“Soon,” I got to my feet. “I need to ice my foot after I deliver this to Claire.”

“Hmm,” Jonathan said, “some of those look to be in rough shape.”

Maybe the snapping sound I had heard when Alice fell on me hadn’t come from my back. I checked the contents of the bag and sighed:

“Doesn’t look too good.”

“Yeah, I’m probably not going to keep the girls waiting for tea. Good luck sorting that one out.” His smile wasn’t very reassuring.

I limped up the stairs. There was less dust and not as many webs hanging from the ceiling. I approached Claire’s door, almost shaking. My nerves started to get to me as I went to knock on her door.

Before I knocked, the doorknob started to turn. I nearly stumbled as I tried to step back, but I steadied myself on the doorframe before falling.

“H-Hi,” Claire said. “I thought I heard you coming up the stairs.”

“Yeah,” I managed to say. “I might have to go back to the store to pick you up more art stuff.”

She held out her hand and I passed her the bag. Every time I saw those marks across her hand I found myself transfixed, always staring for a bit too long.

“Some of them are still intact,” she said. “The ones that broke were the wrong type of pencils anyway.”

“That’s good at least.”

It was the first time I had gotten a chance to really see Claire. She was wearing a tie-dye shirt, covered in mostly purple and green spots, and some khakis littered with holes. Her snow-white hair was parted to the right. The one eye that I could see was almost a teal color, the other was covered by her bangs. I wasn’t sure if I had stared, or if the moment had just seemed to linger. I looked away.

“U-Um,” Claire said.

“Yeah?”

“Would you mind picking up the things that broke?”

“You said I got the wrong ones, right?”

She nodded. “Sometimes Alice gets the wrong ones, too. It’s not a big deal.”

I went to hand her money and she looked confused.

“For the ones I broke,” I explained.

“Don’t worry about that,” she stepped back into her room.

The walls were painted an array of colors. The designs were intricate, molding into each other and coming together as one piece of art. The ceilings had those glow in the dark stars spread across it. Claire almost tripped on the papers she had scattered across the floor coming back to the door.

“Savanna says you get lost everywhere,” Claire said. “I’ll walk with you and show you the right type of pencils to grab in case you go to get supplies for me again. It’s really impressive that you only messed up the pencils; I remember Alice’s first trip when she forgot almost everything.”

My foot throbbed. I wasn’t really in the best shape to be walking for another mile and a half to the art store and then walking back. That, and I wanted to spend some time in my room with the Snicker’s Bar. It was the first time Claire had actually talked with me, though, without sliding letters under the door.

Claire checked her phone. “We have about an hour before the store closes, so we don’t have to walk too fast.”

I tried to hide my limp as I walked toward the stairs.

“Um, did you notice anything about the hallways?” she looked down at her feet as she walked, but I caught her blush.

“Yeah, less spider webs and dust,” I leaned on the railings to take pressure off of my foot.

“I heard you coughing at night and talking to yourself about the webs as you walked by my room.”

Well, that was a bit embarrassing. I didn’t like the idea of her hearing me talking to myself. I wondered what else she had heard.

“So, why do you have people pick up your art supplies if they get you the wrong things?”

“Well,” she stopped climbing down the stairs for a second, “I don’t like going outside very often. Today I’m feeling well, though. So I figured it might be nice. You know, to walk.”

I nodded.

We were walking past the hallway and into the entryway when Jonathan called out, “Did you get that ice for your foot yet?”

He came into the entryway before I had a chance to respond.

“Oh, I didn’t notice you Claire. It’s nice to see you out and about during the daylight,” he smiled at her.

She scowled at him. “I come out during the day... Sometimes.”

“That’s not what your attendance record says.”

“B-But,” she started.

“If you keep skipping school, I’m going to have to talk to Gram about it.”

“I know. I just want to finish this project first,” she scratched at her arms.

“The store is closing soon,” I said, opening the door. “We should probably get going if we’re going to make it.”

“Yeah,” Claire swiftly agreed.

Jonathan gave Claire one last look of concern, then nodded. “I suppose you two probably won’t make it back for tea--we’ll see you at dinner, right?”

He didn’t take his eyes off Claire.

Claire nodded and rushed out the door.

“Take care of her, okay?” Jonathan asked, though it didn’t really sound like a question.

“I’ll do my best,” I said as I followed Claire out the door.

We walked silently for a few minutes. The wind was beginning to pick up. I adjusted the zipper on my jacket, then shoved my hands into my pockets. Claire looked chilly in just her windbreaker, especially with the holes in her khakis; I shivered just thinking about it.

“Thanks,” Claire said, breaking the silence.

“For what?”

“Back there, when you helped me get away from Jonathan’s questions and stuff.”

“Oh, no problem.”

After we walked another block, we stopped at a traffic light and waited for the signal to cross.

Claire looked down at my feet. “Is your foot okay?”

“Yeah, it’s fine. It stopped hurting by the time we left the house.”

“What happened to it?”

I felt my cheeks burn, remembering how Alice had been on top of me and how she smelled of sunflower seeds and old books.

“Alice slammed my foot in her door when I brought her phone back.”

“Oh,” she said. “That seems a bit rude for her.”

“She’s kind of a rude person,” I muttered. The wind whistled as I spoke.

“What was that?” she asked.

A gust of wind rushed by us as we started to cross the street. It threw Claire off balance and she almost fell. Her hair was pushed off to the left, exposing the side of her face that her bangs usually covered.

Claire’s right eye was pale, and that side of her face was the same fascinating shade of purple that covered her hands. I imagined that it’d feel the same as her hands had. It looked like part of her neck had been burned, too.

She quickly adjusted her hair as she steadied herself. “Did you see?” she asked, her voice worried.

“We don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to,” I said quickly.

Claire hesitated for a second, then nodded. “Thanks.”

We walked in silence, but it was comfortable; we had a mutual understanding.
We reached the store with plenty of time left. The aisle the ‘correct’ pencils were in was a part of the store I hadn’t explored yet.

“These ones help me do tiny details,” Claire explained as she grabbed a package of them. We went to another aisle for a set of pens. She handed me the art supplies and some money.

“You don’t want to pay yourself?” I asked.

She shook her head. “I don’t like the clerk that’s working today. He makes me nervous.”

I headed toward the counter and she hid behind me. I felt a little odd, but whatever made things easier for Claire.  She must have gone through a lot, however she’d gotten those burns. If I made things easier for her by doing something small like paying for her art supplies then why shouldn’t I?

We headed back to the house. The wind had died down, but the sun had almost set completely. I saw Claire shiver as we left the store; her windbreaker shook with the wind.

“You should take my jacket,” I said, and began to remove it.

She shook her head. “You’ll be cold.”

“Just let me borrow yours or something ‘til we get back.”

She shook her head again.

I stopped walking. “I’m going to give you this jacket to wear either way. It’ll look bad for me if you walk into the house shivering.”

After a moment’s consideration she traded jackets. Hers smelled faintly of ink; maybe she spilled some of it earlier and it got on her jacket. It wasn’t an unpleasant smell at least, but it felt odd wearing a girl’s jacket; her warmth was still on it, if that made any sense.

The walk back seemed a lot shorter than the walk there--that was how it usually worked I guess. Before we went inside we switched jackets back.

“Thanks,” Claire said, putting her jacket back on.

“Anytime,” I opened the door for her.

I felt awkward saying goodbye at the door when we still had to walk up the same stairs and down the same hallway to get to our rooms; I’d imagined things with Claire being awkward anyway. At least the silences weren’t.