Chapter 19
It didn’t take long.
It just felt long.
Maybe it was because Luisa was standing right there next to her with her hand clamped over her mouth and goodness, Clara could smell her this close – all honey and cinnamon like the soapipilas they sometimes had at school, only Luisa smelled so much better and, honestly, if she thought about it, she was sure Luisa would taste better, too, if they kissed – so much better than Johnny Neanderthal, who had tasted like spit and sweat and tongue and—
She wasn’t thinking about him. She was thinking about Luisa. Who would taste like gold.
Only not really like gold, because gold was a precious metal and metal didn’t taste good at all. Luisa would taste good. Like honey and cinnamon. Like soapipilas. Like powdered donuts. Like—
She could lick her hand and find out.
She was so gay.
Also that would be gross.
Also Luisa would definitely not like that, so she was just going to stand here and pretend that she didn’t feel really odd with Luisa’s hand clamped over her mouth standing this close to her.
Luisa let out a deep breath and finally moved her hand from Clara’s lips. “Okay,” she said, smiling. “I think we’re clear. It’s just really hard when Raf gets back, if he notices before we’re out of the way, he’ll be all up in our hair and I forgot to turn the light on, I’m so sorry, I’m not thinking—” She reached over behind her and flicked the light on.
The room was suddenly filled with a soft blue glow. Each wall had a different drawing of coral around its edge and just above those were different schools of fish swimming near or around or through them. Above the coral, there were more fish, but different ones. Sometimes there was an octopus or a little squid, but no sharks, no dolphins. One wall seemed to be dedicated just to different rays, one of them seeming to swim just over to Luisa’s bed.
And Luisa’s bed.
You’d think, maybe, a huge sea shell, all classical painting reminiscent, or maybe a sunken ship, with different layers, built like a bunkbed – but, no, because this was Luisa Alver we’re talking about. And Luisa Alver’s bed was shaped like a huge treasure chest with the top lopped off, big and open and the inside all scarlet and gold and plush because of course the real treasure was none other than Luisa herself.
“Wow,” Clara said, because she couldn’t think of anything else to say.
Luisa’s face lit up. “You like it?”
“It’s beautiful.”
There were even little bubbles drawn on the ceiling. Everything had been noticed and taken care of and just—
“Did you do all of this yourself?” Clara asked, trying to avoid going all fish-mouthed, even though in a room like this, she might have fit right in. She shifted the strap on her shoulder, trying to figure out if there was anywhere for her to put her backpack.
Luisa slipped her shoes off right at the doorway and dropped her backpack right there before digging her laptop out of it. Clara followed suit, only didn’t pull her laptop out. They only needed one for Netflix, after all, and compared to Luisa’s, hers was…not old but definitely a little bit clunky. The carpet underneath her feet was a soft sandy color, and it was just as soft as its color. “I had a little help,” Luisa admitted, curling up on her bed and patting the spot right next to her. “I started when I was really small. My mom and my dad and I used to go to aquariums all the time, and after my mom died—” She stopped abruptly. “That’s a little too real for sitting and watching Netflix, yeah? So we don’t have to talk about it. But, yeah, I did most of this myself. It’s calming. I really liked doing it.”
Clara carefully situated herself on the bed next to Luisa, leaving a good amount of space between them because she didn’t want Luisa to feel like she was too close. “You can be as real with me as you want,” she said.
“Thanks. You’re sweet.” Luisa patted the spot just next to her, gesturing for Clara to scoot closer. “You’re supposed to be my girlfriend if Dad walks in on us. You’ve got to sit closer.”
Clara’s eyes narrowed. “You locked the door.”
“So?” Luisa grinned at her. “Scoot closer. You’re going to have a hard time seeing the screen from there.”
“If you were really my girlfriend,” Clara started as she scooted so close that their thighs were just touching and then refused to scoot any closer because they were touching again and that was a little more than she could try and deal with right now, “you wouldn’t have cut off and told me what you were going to tell me.”
Luisa’s grin faltered. “No, I wouldn’t.” She looked away, winding one of the waves of her brown hair around one finger. “That’s not what I use girlfriends for.” Her lips pressed together. “I didn’t want to go to aquariums anymore, after my mom died,” she said, finally, “but I missed the fish and I thought, well, I was six, and you don’t really think that much when you’re six, and I just started taking pencils and crayons and drawing on the walls, and that kind of helped, only it didn’t really, and then Dad got me paint and we did the shading, and then I just…got good, I guess.” She shook her head. “So, um, what did you want to watch?” Her grin picked back up. “Ready to try Orange Is The New Black?”
Clara stared at Luisa, trying to process everything that she’d said so very very fast. Then she said, “No. I think, um. I think I’d like to hear more about you, if that’s…if it’s…if it wouldn’t bother you too—” She shook her head. “I’d be more comfortable with Buffy. It’s funny.”
“Orange Is The New Black is funny, too,” Luisa said, her head tilting to one side. “But if you want to learn more about me, I’ve got a better idea.” She shoved her laptop over to one side, and it landed on one of the coral, which Clara hadn’t noticed was shaped to be a side table. “Let’s play truth or dare.”
Clara’s gaze moved from where the laptop landed to Luisa, whose own eyes were sparkling with mischief. This couldn’t be a good thing. Definitely not a good thing. Not with the girl she liked. Calling her a crush felt so weird, like painful, and Luisa didn’t make Clara feel painful. Clara made Clara feel painful. All that embarrassment and saying the wrong things and stumbling over her words and blushing and looking away and—
“Uh, yeah,” she said instead. “Sure.” She bit her lower lip. “How do we decide who’s going to start?”
“Oh, you can start,” Luisa said, leaning back on the palms of her hands and stretching ever so slightly. Clara couldn’t help but stare.
Which wasn’t good. She shouldn’t stare. She looked away furiously.
“No,” Clara said, stammering over the word. “You can’t just let me start first. You can start first, since you already told me all of that about your mom and the aquarium and painting your room and everything.”
Luisa’s head tilted to one side. “That was just conversation,” she said. “You didn’t make me say any of that. Like in a game.”
“Well, why don’t we rock paper scissors for it?” Clara grinned, because that felt like a solid idea. “Best two out of three.” She clenched one hand into a fist and held it out at the ready. “And no cheating, and no letting me win.”
“Oh, you’re on!” Luisa held out her hand, too.
Two games later, and Clara flat out lost. Not intentionally, of course, she will have you know! She was just horrible at guessing what Luisa would do. Or maybe it was just that Luisa was really, really good at figuring her out. She blushed brightly and brushed her frizzy red hair back out of her face, not that it stayed at all. “Okay,” she said. “You go.”
Luisa grinned brightly. “Truth or Dare.”