Puddle Jumping(14)

I didn’t know if he even liked holding hands.

It was so frustrating not knowing what he was thinking.

He was quiet as we walked into the room, and suddenly it felt like all eyes were on us. Scratch that. They totally were on us.

Harper raced over and pulled me in for a hug. And then she took a step back and looked at Colton, offering a genuine smile. “Glad you made it,” she said.

“You’re glad I made what?” Colton frowned and looked at her for explanation but she just shook her head and laughed.

“I’m glad you’re going to be helping us ice these cupcakes,” she corrected herself. And I was so effing proud of her for listening to the small tidbits of information I had given her the night before. She led us over to our table, where a few people were busy working on the sweets. Some were decorating and some were wrapping things in colorful plastic wrap. Others were boxing and writing on tags and I had to wonder what Colton would be most comfortable doing.

“Do you want to help put icing on the cupcakes?” I asked him as quietly as I could.

He said no because it was too sticky.

“What about gloves?”

“Plastic and latex make my hands sweat and it’s uncomfortable.” His usual calm demeanor was starting to crack.

I leaned over and picked up a shaker of edible glitter for the tops of the colorful cupcakes. “Hold this,” I whispered and watched as his fingers looped around the plastic container. “Is that okay?”

His eyes slid to mine briefly. “Yes.”

“Good. Then, I’ll ice the cupcakes and slide ‘em to you so you can shake some glitter on top. But only a little bit. Like this.” I showed him with my hand over his and my heart stopped beating when he started to pull back slightly. But he endured and I continued, knowing full well he would catch on fast. Which he did.

Within thirty minutes, we were lost in the redundancy of me icing and pushing the cupcakes over so he could sprinkle. Somewhere during that time, Harper came over to check on us. Then I noticed more of the girls were coming over to compliment Colton on his glitter shaking ability. Like he needed it. Frankly, it felt a little condescending.

He didn’t really reply, given he was focused on the task at hand. But it didn’t escape my notice the other girls seemed to be just a tiny bit too interested in him. Whispering a little too low at the other tables. When Harper came by again a few minutes later, I asked her what the hell was going on.

She leaned in close and told me all the girls were talking about how cute Colton was. How none of them had ever paid attention to him before, but his quiet nature and good looks were making the girls circle like sharks.

“‘Cute’ and ‘hot’ have come up at least twenty times.” She chuckled, nudging my shoulder with her own.

And because I am me, I lost my footing and fell backward. Into Colton.

A shower of edible glitter rained down on my head and I looked up to see him staring down at me, his hands pushed up over his ears, as if he had no idea what to do. They were covered in pink sparkles, his palms leaving trails of it across his cheeks and up into his hair. It made me laugh because I knew I had to be a mess since the shaker had lost its top and bounced, showering me with the Herpes of Arts and Crafts.

It was such a damn disaster, and I started to laugh harder than I had in a very long time, struggling to stand and apologize to Colton. But by the time I made it up on my feet, I only saw the back of his head as he rushed out of the room.

I broke into a run, a trail of glitter falling from me with each footstep. “Colton!” I yelled down the hall for him, but he had his chin tucked and his button up shirt was open, flying behind him like some sort of super-hero cape.

When I finally made it to him, I jumped in front and held out my hands to stop him from walking away. He tried to move to the left, but seemed to be just as uncoordinated as I was, so he ran into me instead.

“You were laughing at me,” he said, his neck veins bulging and jaw locked as his eyes avoided mine.

“No, I wasn’t.” I was trying my hardest not to raise my voice at him, but the lump in my throat made keeping my voice low almost impossible.

“You were.”

I couldn’t handle him thinking that of me, and in a moment of rash judgment, I did take his hand in mine, pulling us toward our lockers as he tried to back away. But my grasp only tightened further, and only once it reached an almost painful grip, did his hand stop trying to fight mine. It was like the harder I touched him, the less he tried to pull away.

Finally reaching my locker, I used my unoccupied hand to open it and pointed to the vanity mirror hanging inside. “You,” I pointed to his reflection, “are covered in glitter.” My hand pointed to my face and I finished. “Just like me. I did this. I fell onto you. Remember how I used to be?”

He blinked at his reflection and looked at me before nodding.

“It hasn’t changed. I just don’t get hit by lightning anymore.” With every shake of my head more glitter spilled to the floor.

And suddenly he smiled, his gaze raking over the sparkly shit all over my head, face, arms and hands. It traveled the length of my torso until it landed on our sparkle covered palms. Clasped tightly together.

With a small sigh he squeezed my hand tighter. “I wish you were like me.”

The breath in my body just rushed out all at once as I asked him why.