“Do… you want to hang out with us a little bit tonight?” Jessica posed innocently to her brother once she’d finished cleaning his face of her saliva, though she still kept her pinky finger rested against his hand, which he responded to with a few friendly strokes.
Peter couldn’t help but feel immensely touched by his sister’s sweetness. Even though she had a new friend from that dance class of hers coming over to spend the night and engage in whatever frilly activities suited girls of their age, she clearly felt attached enough to him after his day of forward strides to want to split her time between her social life and her height-challenged sibling. It was awfully tough to say no to that prospect, especially when she looked down at him with such hope in her adorable eyes.
“You’re sure I’m not gonna cramp your style?” he chuckled.
“No! I don’t know, I just… want you around, big brother. Around me, I mean. It’s hard to see you as much with your regular pe- I mean, regular school now,” she drawled, avoiding his gaze for a moment, and sheepishly chewing on the corner of her lower lip. “You know?”
The freshman nodded, acknowledgement at last striking, a bit on the late side. For years, his home schooling meant he was always present when Jessica arrived home from a long day, ready to spend time with her in whatever way she wished to make up for the hours apart. Already their respective passages into their teenage years had created numerous divergences in their common interests.
Now especially, though, the demands of Peter’s homework and additional time out of the safety of the house had separated them far more than usual, and he realized it had taken something of a toll on his doting little sister. He couldn’t help but feel a rending twinge of guilt in his gut, despite there being nothing he could really do about this change in the norm. Clearly, there was only one correct answer here if he wanted an intact conscience after this little exchange.
“I… think I do, Jessie,” he said warmly, patting her finger. “Sure I’ll hang out with you. You and…”
“Stella’s her name. She should be here any minute now,” Jessica said with a goofy smile splayed over her face at his answer. “You’ll like her. She’s really cool.”
“I’m sure she is,” he said, just as the telltale bong of the doorbell echoed through every wall in the house. “Wow. You must be psychic.”
“Totally. Let’s go see her, okay?” Jessica said excitedly, bundling Peter into her cupped hands and bouncing off the end of the bed, practically pirouetting on the balls of her feet as she made her way to the stairs. She took the carpeted ledges two at a time on the way down but kept her brother firmly sandwiched between her palms to prevent bucking into the cruel grasp of gravity. Suzanne had already reached the front door ahead of her hosting daughter and swung it wide open to receive their guest. Peter righted himself in Jessica’s palm just as she came to a skidding stop in the doorframe, sunlight spilling in and momentarily blurring out his view of the newcomer. A few awkward blinks and some shadow provided by his sister’s thumb finally corrected this, however.
There stood Stella, who definitely wouldn’t have been a difficult individual to pick out of a police line-up even if Peter didn’t know she was from his sister’s dance class. Lithe and slender, almost willowy, the girl’s long honeyed hair reached down nearly to her waist, and was wavy enough to suggest innumerable tight buns it had been woven into so she could defy gravity more freely. Her posture, too, indicated a constant bodily vigilance, as her arms were folded before her waist and her spine remained ramrod straight. Her face, however, hadn’t taken on the narrower appearance of the rest of her body and was rounder, almost childlike, with dreamy almond-shaped eyes that beamed a deep sea green hue. If it wasn’t for the noticeable height advantage she held over Jessica, her frame might’ve almost suggested to Peter a fairy out of one of his childhood picture books.
“C’mon in, Stella!” Suzanne said with a wide beam, beckoning entrance as the girl nodded, lugging her purple overnight bag in over her shoulder. Her sneakers tapped quietly against the hardwood of the foyer, as though every step was made with the intention of walking across water without unspooling ripples over its cool surface. Peter couldn’t help but be impressed.
“You found us!” Jessica crooned with some light sarcasm.
“Somehow,” Stella snickered, her voice of a lower timbre than Peter was expecting considering her svelte build. Silky, and almost flinty in tone, like the vocal equivalent of warm syrup.
“Did your mom have an easy time finding us?” Suzanne asked, wordlessly accepting the flowery duffel from Stella. “You can leave this by the stairs if you like until you’re ready to take it up to Jessica’s room.”
“Thanks. We almost got lost a couple times, but I had the directions all written down. We live a lot closer to the dance studio, so it’s… a little bit of a drive,” Stella said. “It’s okay, though. I’m here now!”
“Yes you are, so I’ll let you girls get to it,” Suzanne said excitedly after a slightly embarrassed side-glance from her youngest daughter in regards to her continued presence. “I popped some cookies into the oven a few minutes ago, so those should be piping hot and ready to eat in a little while. I hope you like chocolate chip.”
“Awesome. That’s my fav,” Stella said. “I even…” The words began in the same confident tone but seemed to crawl back between her lips and melt away onto her tongue when her eyes at last fell to Jessica’s hands to take notice of the mythically tiny boy perched atop the girl’s fingers. Stella’s irises flared with invigoration in much the same way Peter had seen others at his school react, though she refrained from dropping her jaw, which he appreciated.
“Have fun, you two!” their mother said cheerily, turning and scuttling back into the kitchen to attend to her baked goods, which were already beginning to flood the ground floor with the hyper-sweet aroma of gooey cocoa chunks.
“Stella, this is my brother, Peter,” Jessica said proudly once they were alone at last, brandishing her clasped palms a little higher so that the five-inch boy wouldn’t have to be looked down upon during this introduction. It was a gratefully humanizing habit of hers that not even Suzanne always thought to address, and was another reason Peter preferred to be held by Jessica than most other human beings.
“I know. I’ve heard about him before,” Stella said pointedly. Her aquamarine irises were locked more intently now to the specimen in Jessica’s palms. “It’s nice to meet him.”
“Hi. Same to you,” he said, already growing unsure of himself under the prying scrutiny of the girl’s invasive gaze. It wasn’t simply that she’d subtly avoided speaking to him directly in her introduction. She wasn’t quite drilling into him with the silvery dexterity of say, Sharon, but she definitely was looking upon him with that distinctive depth that made Peter feel as though she was peeling his tiny clothes off his fragile little body with a mere bat of her eyelashes. The smile that now played upon her thin lips touted that this wasn’t an inaccurate sensation. Something was definitely cooking in that skull of hers.
“He’s going to hang out with us a little tonight, if that’s cool with you,” Jessica said, her tone implying the issue was already more or less decided without Stella’s input.
“Oh yeah. Duh. The more, the merrier,” Stella agreed, though Peter was half-hoping now she’d reject the opportunity and he could just try to make up quality time with his sister later in some less exacting context. Already he was beginning to wish he’d requested a more personal playdate with Jessica so he wouldn’t have to endure a pair of miniature emerald globes studying him for the whole evening.
“Good!” Jessica chimed, reminding Peter that he had to put up with this now for better or worse, as he’d already made a promise to his spurned sibling. “You guys are gonna be best friends. I know it.”
At this, the slimy tip of Stella’s tongue spilled out the corner of her lips for just a moment, glinting in the dimmed light of the chandelier above. It slithered back inside just as soon as it had appeared, but instantly caused Peter’s blood to run colder, even with Jessica’s warm fingers cuddled around his sides. Despite the fact that he’d fearlessly put up with an entire monstrous tongue from a different craftily playful girl mere minutes ago, even the sight of the same muscle flicking in his direction while Stella scrutinized him beneath her inquisitive survey was enough to inspire some jitters.
“Yes. Yes, we will be,” Stella confirmed, savoring the confounded expression on Peter’s face.
“Well. What do you want to do first?” Jessica asked, blissfully oblivious to the tangible tension congealing between her new friend and precious big brother. Peter briefly considered giving her thumb a tug in an effort to gain her attention, but with Stella staring him down with the precision of a military sniper now, it didn’t seem possible to convey a coded message even via cough without ousting himself as rude. So, he held his tongue.
“Oh, I don’t know exactly…” the teenage dancer sighed, belying the truth and rocking backward and forward from her toes to her heels. She slid her tongue along her top row of teeth, well-within Peter’s view as she continued staring him down. “But I think I’ve got some ideas for where to start.”