Twinkle

I

In Grace's mind, there was nothing more constant than Zachary Duncan's smile. While it had taken a brief hiatus from the summer before their senior year to shortly before their senior homecoming, once it had made its reappearance, it stayed as stubbornly fixed on his face as it had before that one fateful summer day that had started this odd, whirlwind friendship the two of them had.

It was Zachary's smile that had her mind preoccupied the morning after homecoming as she lay on her back, staring up at the glow in the dark stars that Melody had stuck to her ceiling.

"I just don't get it," she mused to her best friend, turning her head to face the strawberry blonde beside her. "Not four months ago, I basically hated the guy, and now I can barely stop thinking about him."

Melody smirked and wiggled her eyebrows at Grace. "Funny what seeing a guy shirtless can do to a girl."

Grace's face flamed. "That's not what happened."

"Uh-huh. Sure, Grace," Melody teased, nudging Grace with her elbow. "Okay, but real talk. What are you guys now? Call me crazy, but I'm pretty sure acquaintances—or friends or whatever it is that you're calling yourselves—don't make out on the dance floor like you two did last night."

Rolling over onto her stomach, Grace buried her face in one of Melody's pillows and screamed a little, trying to loosen some of the tension in her stomach. Honestly, she had no idea where she and Zach stood. Did she really like him, or had she just gotten caught up in all the magic of last night? She'd spent so long intensely disliking him... could she really have switched sentiments so quickly?

"I don't know, Mel," she mumbled, finally. Feeling defeated she let her head fall back onto the pillow. I really don't know.

Melody sighed beside her, and reached over, poking her in the shoulder. "Hey, it's cool." Grace lifted her face to look skeptically at her friend. "It's not like you have to all this figured out. It hasn't even been 24 hours yet. You could always just talk to him."

As close as Zachary and Grace had gotten over the past couple of months, the thought of talking to him about feelings was incredibly daunting, and caused her stomach to do backflips. Suddenly, she felt like she was about to hurl all over Melody's bedspread.

"Uh-huh," she agreed weakly, mostly focusing on keeping her breakfast down. "Maybe."

Her response earned her a surprisingly solid punch in the shoulder. "No. Not 'maybe'. You know this is something you should actually do."

Grace just glowered at her friend, rubbing her now-sore shoulder. "What the heck, Mel? Have you been taking boxing lessons or something? Jeez..."

"Don't try to change the subject, Grace Fletcher." Melody leveled a glare scathing enough to rival Superman's laser-vision at her until she began to squirm uncomfortably.

"Alright, alright. I'll talk to him, okay? Are you happy now?"

Almost instantaneously, Melody's expression changed to that of a serene angel. "Very. Now come on, I think mom's making pancakes."

***

It was Zachary's smile that greeted her first thing Monday morning, two days after the homecoming dance, and all Grace could think was, does he really have to do that to my brain right now?

"Hey," he greeted as he strode up her driveway, keys in hand. His smile was wider than normal, his brown eyes dancing with something that made Grace's stomach twist itself into knots.

"Hey," she answered, nearly breathlessly. One glance at his mouth and she was suddenly experiencing major flashbacks to homecoming. He was a good kisser.