“Let me try, let me try!” Ash remarked, picking up a grape of his own. “Get ready,” he ordered.
I shouted “Ready!” and opened my mouth.
He tossed the grape toward me, and I caught it! “Ohhhh!” we shouted again in unison, this time louder than before. A stab of pain shot through my left hip.
Ouch.
I ignored it.
Ash pounded his hands against the marble countertop. “OK, OK. Grape me.” He opened his mouth even wider than before. I tossed the grape, and he caught it again!
“OHHHHH!” we shouted, jumping up and down.
Ouch.
My body hurt from the jumps, but my heart was bursting with so much excitement that I didn’t even care. I couldn’t stop laughing from shock that we somehow caught three grapes right in a row. I felt like we should’ve played the lottery.
Ash rushed over to me and gave me a high five. “Hell yeah, Karla!”
“That was wild!” I expressed, beaming with excitement from freaking grape catching. I didn’t know why, but it felt like the most exciting thing that had happened in a long time. I couldn’t stop laughing at it, to the point that I snorted from mygiggles. I covered my mouth from embarrassment, but instead of making fun of me, Ash seemed amazed.
“Your laugh is my favorite sound,” he told me, so straightforwardly, so sweetly.
My heart skipped a million beats, and my breath caught in my throat. For a millisecond, I saw something more than a friend when I looked at Ash. For a millisecond, I saw the faint hints of a crush.
Wait, no.
We were just friends.
Really good friends, Karla. That’s it; that’s all. Don’t make your one friendship uncomfortable. You have too much to lose.
Before I could reply to his comment, Ellie came into the room looking alarmed. “I heard a lot of noise. Is everything OK?”
Ash smiled toward Ellie. “We just realized that we are professional grape catchers.”
I quietly giggled.
Ellie noticed the sound.
She grinned. “OK, sorry. Just wanted to check in.” She gave me a wink, then headed out of the kitchen. I wished the woman would stop winking at me. It was such a millennial thing for her to do—so awkward.
Ash and I stood quiet for a moment before he cleared his throat and slid his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “Got any board games?”
Ouch.
My leg.
It was achingly painful.
I shook it off the best I could.
Board games, board games... gosh... I hadn’t played a board game in ages.
Not since Mom...
“Yeah. In my room I have a drawer of games. You can follow me.” We headed toward my room, and the moment we stepped inside, he glanced around. There wasn’t much to take in, seeing as how I took down all my posters and photographs after Mom passed away. The walls were bare, and the space pretty much summed up the emptiness I’d been feeling for a while now.
His eyes fell to the closet door with the caution tape and “Do Not Enter” sign. He parted his mouth as if he was going to ask about it, but instead, he shut his mouth and pushed out a tight smile.
