Artists Curse

Maddie was still. When she looked up and saw he wore the mask, she smiled shyly. Without a second thought, Maddie threw her arms around him and gave him such a tight hug that her chest rested against his lower chest.

Maddie hadn't hugged anyone outside of her family before, and she felt odd doing it now, but there was such a surge of relief in her stomach from not having offended one of her first friends here, that she couldn't help herself.

She didn't know what to say, so she said nothing about it. She could have reaffirmed that yes, this world was very new to her, but he already knew that, and it was a little embarrassing to have to repeat such information. Maddie already felt miles behind everyone in her grade, in this entire place.

Maddie hugged him harder before she let go and took three small steps away. Nervously, she reached up and brushed a strand of hair from her eyes. Her face may have been red as a firetruck right about then. It certainly felt scalding to her.

"You're one of the nicest people I've ever met. Then again, I haven't met that many people outside of my family, so maybe that's not too hard a role to fill." Now her smile turned sly, and she snuck a glance at his face. "You better hope someone better doesn't come along and steal your spot, that would be really unfortunate."

Maddie's breath hitched when he floated on over, all casual like, and tapped her reddened cheek. She did happen to catch that wink, and it's debatable whether that was a good thing or not. Wait, was that flirting? Was that how people flirted? Nope, it most certainly couldn't be!

Wait, did he ask her a question? Shit...what did he say? Shh, breathe Maddie, just be casual and nod. Yup, nothing is wrong with nodding. Nodding could be a correct response to anything. Unless he asked her something like, "where do you live" or anything that needed a direct answer. Drat!

"Uh, the dor--" she stopped herself. Why was she on addresses? Just nod and follow! There's a seventy-five percent chance she won't come off as a creep!

Maddie nodded and, well, followed. Whew, jumped that hurdle.

((xD This is too fun))

Maddie did hesitate, but probably not for the reasons he was thinking. Okay, it was still surprising (but refreshing) to her that portals existed, and they didn't have to walk all the way to find somewhere to eat. But in reality, she had hesitated because didn't the portal lead to his room?

What had he said to her? Maybe she shouldn't have nodded? No no, stay calm. Go with it. She had a new friend, no reason to get all weird now. You have to show them your crazy slowly as not to scare them off.

She took his hand, trying to act casual. It came off clumsy. She was seriously bad at pretending her face wasn't practically glowing red. If there were a stair on this portal, she would have been tripping, that's how clumsy and not casual she came off.

Maddie looked around. This wasn't a bedroom. This wasn't a bedroom at all.

Lucky for her, she did hear his question this time. That sounded like a food thing. Were they getting food? Sure, roll with it. She debated offering to pay for herself, but she was just too relieved to have realized what they were on about to fight any points.

"If there's one thing the human world taught me it's that you can never go wrong with pizza." A true statement. Who didn't like pizza? Did they have pizza here? Of course they did. It's mother fricking pizza. Every land ever has pizza. It's the rule of the universe.

"I might go as far as to say pizza may very well be the meaning of life. You should eat it, at least, one every two months. Agree or disagree? I will only accept one answer as correct."

She kept pace with him as he floated. She imagined that if she could float, she'd be doing it all the time too. Way less pain on the feet.