CHAPTER 14
Neru stared at the door, daring herself to knock, not to run away. She raised her shaking hand, bare millimeters from the surface of it. She willed herself to knock, but her hand would not obey. She stared for about a minute longer before she turned around and, with the melting ice cream in hand, ran full on into something. She fell hard, and felt sticky cold splash, spill, and seep into her shirt. It sent a chill down her spine, as the floor sent a shudder through it.
She cried out a little.
When she looked up she saw Len, who was equally covered in ice cream. Neru's heart stopped.
"Oh no!" Neru gasped. "I got the ice cream all over you, Len." Neru stood up and tried to wipe some of the ice cream off of him. Neru could feel something prickling at the corners of her eyes. "It was supposed to be for you," she whispered.
Len grabbed Neru's shoulders and looked into her eyes.
"It's alright Neru," Len said with a smile. He took a finger and swiped some ice cream off of Neru's cheek. He placed his finger in his mouth and smiled around it, and laughed. "It's good."
Neru felt startled, she was uncomfortable when Len smiled, when he laughed. It felt good though, it warmed her from the inside. Her cheek tingled where he had touched it, and she felt her face grow hot.
"You sure were staring at the door for a while," Len said with a giggle.
Neru's face burned, and she felt the heat grow to the tips of her ears.
"I…." Neru started, she stalled. She looked down unable to look Len in the eye.
Len stooped down into Neru's field of vision and looked her strait in the eye. He smiled wider, a knowing smile.
Neru felt a tingle up her spine again, and she felt something that she could only compare to fear. She knew it wasn't the same. It was close to when you got caught doing something wrong, something bad, red handed. The sinking in your chest, with a sudden freeze, and stop of your heart.
Neru let out a breath. It felt hotter than it was supposed to be.
"I…uh," Neru tried again unable to grasp words, to fit together a sentence. She didn't know why her mind froze like this, or why she could feel her pulse in her eardrum, or why Len was standing up slowly.
By the time he was all the way up he was only centimeters from her face.
Neru felt self-conscious. She didn't want to breathe, or stop breathing. She didn't want to stay there that close to Len, or to move away from him. She couldn't process what was happening.
Len tilted his head back until his face was parallel to hers. His smile faded, until it was no longer childlike, but and adult smile. It made him look years older, and Neru's brain betrayed her, she could feel that he was somehow older than her, despite his height.
Len started to move up on his tip toes, easing closer to a frozen and ice cream covered Neru.