Sledgehammer
I don't admit it
I play it cool
But every minute
That I'm with you
I feel the fever and I won't lie
I break a sweat
My body's telling
All the secrets I ain't told you yet
~Fifth Harmony~
Donatello
Zoe said I should just tell April. Huh, easier said than done. If I can just make sense of it, certainly there's an explanation, how it works, why it happens… If I just unravel the mystery of it, maybe then I could talk to April, because I'd understand it myself.
"What'cha researching Donnie?"
Her melodic voice sends a jolt through me and I click the escape button, all but throwing my laptop up in the air. "Nnnnnothing April." With trembling fingers I snap it shut and try to set it to the side.
As I turn to face her my silly green cheek brushes against her perfectly freckled porcelain skin. She's so close I could kiss her right now. My heart slams against my plastron and I can feel my Adams apple bobbing in my throat. I swallow and try to slow my breathing.
You're so beautiful… but you're reaching for my computer.
"Wwwwhat are you doing April?" I try to lean away from her, even though I want to scoot closer, but I don't want her to know what I was studying.
"I want to know what you're looking at. Come on Donnie show me." Her coral colored lips quirk up in the sweetest grin and her eyes are shining an incredible cerulean blue with the most perfect flecks of periwinkle within them.
I could look at you all day.
"Iiiittt's nothing April, really." I try to move the laptop out of her reach, but she leans against me, reaching between my hands to grasp it.
As her body brushes against mine I'm dumbstruck by the electric current coursing throughout me. I thought I couldn't breathe before! Oh and she smells so good, like Madagascar vanilla bean, or maybe Tahitian… And her skin is as soft as rose petals.
Oh pheromones how I love and hate thee!
"Give it up Donnie. Something's on your mind, I can tell. You've been staring at this thing, scrolling, clicking, and shaking your head for hours and I know whatever it is must be important because your tongue keeps peeking out of the corner of your mouth." She raises a cinnamon colored eyebrow and her mouth scrunches up as she pulls on the laptop, while I hold onto it with one hand. She grumbles, yanking and tugging in a futile effort and it's all I can do not to laugh when her foot rises up against my thigh for leverage. "Give. It. Up," she demands, clenching her teeth as she grips the computer in her canary yellow nail polish covered fingers.
"Uh, April," I try to appear calm, but inside me there's at least three different chemical responses taking place, the kind that cause my heart to beat erratically, my limbs to tingle, and my mouth to run as dry as The Grand Canyon during a drought.
"What?" She grunts, still tugging furiously, her bright red locks slipping from her ponytail, sweeping against her cheeks while light wisps of it dance across her eyes.
Taking a deep breath, I sigh, raise one hand up behind her back and let go of the laptop. She flies back, landing safely in my outstretched arm, and stands up beaming as she lifts it victoriously over her head.
My stomach twists and dips as she sits down next to me, opens it and pours over the screen. I feel like sinking inside my shell as her eyes dart over the text, her lips moving as she reads. "Donnie, why are you reading an article about the biological basis of love, and what's this, love as a chemical reaction?" She peeks at me over the top of the computer and I feel heat rush across my face as I clear my throat and wring my hands.
Looking away from her shining blue eyes, I set my gaze on the floor, but in my peripheral I see her lower the lid to the computer and set it to the side. I close my eyes, bracing for something I know will surely hurt.
Then I feel the warmth of gentle fingers rest across my own, she spreads them wide, intertwining them with my three clunky green digits.
"Donatello, look at me."
And with blood rushing through my ears, I look at her perfect face, red hair wild and loose, eyes bright as sapphires, freckles like gold stardust across her cheeks with a sweep of pink dashing beneath them and she smiles a warm, honest smile as she touches my cheek.
"You can study love forever, but you won't find the answers you're looking for…" she shakes her head and moves even closer to me, lowering her lovely face to mine, and as those heavenly eyes close I'm swept away with the sweet press of her mouth against mine, then she whispers against my lips, "anywhere but here."
