"I like Nelson Mandela," Elsa said to me, that one day when I came into the library. I sat down beside her. She had made it to "M" in the encyclopedias.
"He reminds me of Ghandi," she added, looking at me expectantly.
Not sure what I supposed to do, I reached in my pocket, withdrawing a chocolate bar. I set it near her hand.
She looked from it to me, before slowly bringing it up to her mouth. When she ate it, a bit of chocolate smeared over her lips, making me giggle. When she looked at me questioningly, I pointed to my own lips. Her tongue darted out, searching around, basically skimming over every place but where the chocolate was. I continued pointing.
"What?!" she laughed. Her laugh was light and wonderful, and it made my mood that much better. In fact, my giggle grew into an all-out laugh.
We laughed until we both fell onto the floor, grabbing our sides and gasping fro breaths. She rolled over to face me. We were very close.
"I like your laugh," she whispered, giving me a lopsided smile. In that moment, I realized that Elsa wasn't perfect. But I liked her like that. I liked her.
I moved closer to her, until our bodies were flush against each other. My tongue clumsily fell out of my mouth, running over her lips, ridding them of the remaining chocolate. I only realized after I moved back, that my eyes had closed.
Her eyes were just opening as well. We stared at each other, eyes wide, before we both climbed back up on our chairs.
"Ben...Benoit Mandelbrot..." she breathed. "A Polish math-something, I guess..."