Unicorns

"Scarlet!"

As soon as I heard it, I nearly laughed out loud. June burst in holding a large plastic pencil case waving a new packet of glitter glue in the air. "Scarlet Scarlet Scarlet!! Mom bought us glue with glitter in it!!!"  

Penny followed behind her, holding June's school bag, and her own. When she saw James sitting on the floor with me, instead of behind the curtain, she squealed so loud it rivalled Leafy's best efforts. Then she dropped both bags and jumped on him.

"Jay-Jay!!" she exclaimed, wrapping her arms around his neck. "Are you gonna draw with us?"  To my surprise, he hugged her back. 

"I was invited", he said, glancing at me. For a second, I forgot how to breathe.

June sat down on the floor and dumped the contents of her pencil case everywhere. Then she handed out paper, while Penny sorted the glitter glue tubs into a rainbow.

"We're gonna draw unicorns, guys", June announced. 

"Oh good," James said. "I was worried it was gonna be something complicated."

June raised an eyebrow at him, suspicious. "Do you even know how to draw a unicorn?"

"I'll figure it out," he said, already grabbing a purple marker. "How hard can it be?"

"Very hard," Penny whispered, deadly serious. "It takes a lot of practice."

We sat together on the floor for almost an hour,  drawing whatever the girls told us to. Penny sat right next to James the entire time, occasionally checking over his shoulder and criticising his work. June gave a backstory to every single unicorn she drew. 

"This one's Princess Moonshine, and she lives in a cloud, and this one's her evil twin, but she's not evil anymore. Mostly." She pointed at each one as she spoke.

"I know you copied that from My Little Pony, June", Penny said matter-of-factly.

"Nuh uh", she protested. "I changed the names!"

I doodled little hearts and stars on my page as I watched. Watched James pretending to be serious about colouring inside the lines, even though he was clearly doing it wrong on purpose. He made Penny laugh so hard she started choking. He let the girls boss him around, and draw on him, and cover him in as much glitter as they liked.  He didn't talk to them the way most adults do. He laughed and smiled and really looked like he was having fun.

I didn't know I was actually staring until June waved a marker at my face. 

"Oooooh, Scarlet has a cruuuussshhh", she whispered in my ear, and I swatted her away, hissing, "I do not," before glancing over to make sure James hadn't heard. He was deep in conversation with Penny about something, and wasn't paying attention.

"Yes you do," June whispered back, grinning like she'd just cracked a secret code. "It's okay to have a crush, you know. Harry in my class has a crush on me, and nobody cares".

She leaned over and coloured the hearts on my page. "You just gotta stop being weird about it, or everyone will know". 

I blinked at her, half-offended, half-impressed.

"I'm not being weird," I muttered.

She raised an eyebrow and pointed her marker at me accusingly. "You're being so weird. You stare at him like you forgot how blinking works."

I opened my mouth to argue, but she wasn't wrong.

How old is this girl?

Before I could think of a comeback, Penny held up her drawing for June to see. "Look! This is Jay-Jay as a unicorn prince. He has sparkles in his hair."

James grinned. "I love it. You really captured my majestic energy."

"You don't have majestic energy," I said without looking up.

"I do now. Penny says so."

June giggled and leaned closer again to whisper in my ear. "You could be the unicorn princess. Then you'd have to get married."

"I will glue this entire marker to your face."

"You'd still have a crush."

I sighed, shaking my head.

Oh, yeah. This girl is eight.

After a while, Mom came in to take June home. June stood up, picked up her school bag and pranced out the door without even cleaning up. Penny went home too with her things, leaving us sitting alone to clean their mess.

There were unicorn drawings everywhere. One had three horns. Another had what I think was supposed to be a skateboard. The glitter glue hadn't dried yet, and I managed to smear it across my elbow trying to stand up.

"So," James said, "That was fun."

"Speak for yourself," I muttered, trying to peel a unicorn sticker off the floor. "I'm pretty sure I have glitter in my bloodstream now."

"It could be worse."

I looked at him. His cheek had a gold smear across it. One of June's drawings was stuck to his shoe.

"You've got something on your face."

He reached up to wipe it without thinking, and of course missed completely.

"Other side," I said, trying not to laugh. "Nope, still missed it. Here." I leaned forward and brushed the glitter away with my thumb.

James froze a little at the touch. I did too.

We didn't move.

Then he blinked and said, "Thanks," a little too quickly. "I was hoping to avoid becoming a disco ball."

"Too late," I said, sitting back. "We're both doomed."

He smiled again, and started gathering up the paper and pens. I sorted through the drawings, scrunching up the random ones and keeping a few.

"She likes you, you know," he said after a minute.

"Who? Penny?"

"Yeah. She usually doesn't like people. She used to cry when nurses looked at her."

I blinked. "She jumped on your head."

"I'm special," he said with pride. "But it's not just her. You're different now."

I frowned. "Different how?"

He shrugged, looking down as he picked up a capless marker. "You were all walls and fire a couple of days ago. Now you're... still kind of fire. But like, less burny."

I gave him a flat look. "Wow. Thanks."

He grinned. "You're welcome. But it's true. You don't have to try so hard all the time."

I didn't know what to say to that. So I didn't say anything. I just smiled, feeling the tug in my chest again. June's words echoed in my head.

You just gotta stop being weird about it.

But how can I, when I'm in love with someone so sweet, and gorgeous, and amazing, and... kind of terrifying because I don't know how to do this at all?

"Hey, Red?" he asked, putting the last marker back in June's pencil case. "Wanna sneak out again, later?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Where this time?"

"We can go to garden again, but we don't talk about trauma this time."

I pretended to think hard about it, but in reality I knew my answer already.

"Sure", I said, standing up. 

"Cool". He stood up too. "We should go find the janitor to vacuum the glitter"

"Yeah".

We snuck out again that night. It was easier this time and I knew what to expect. The garden was still, lit only by the moon, and we ended up lying in the grass, side by side, staring at the stars.

James kept making up stupid constellation names, and I laughed so hard I nearly died. He said I should laugh like that more often. I told him not to push it. We didn't talk about serious stuff this time. There were no big confessions or heavy thoughts. Just smiles and laughter and things that didn't mean anything. 

I remember he brushed grass out of my hair and didn't make a joke about it. I remember thinking that I would tell him how I felt that night. I didn't, because I was scared I'd ruin the precious moments we already had.

That was my biggest mistake.

(1245 words)

Ooohhh susPENSE.

Ummm 2 chapters left!! Because I know I could've made this longer, but I only had two weeks to write this, and there's only so much you can do in two weeks.

The next chapter will be tomorrow, and then you'll have to wait till Monday night for the one after that.

ALSO. I need ideas on another fic, since this one's nearly over. Gimme a ship, and some background info or a prompt!!

Hope you enjoyed!

~Blue <3