Page 54 of Play Along

“I’m not buying you a beige toothbrush. You can see every single color on the spectrum, and you pick beige? C’mon, Kenny.”

I examine the wall in front of me, a small smile lifting. “Maybe purple?” Reaching up on my toes, I try for the purple toothbrush on the row second from the top.

Even in my platform Vans, I can’t reach it, so Isaiah leans over me to grab it.

I notice he’s careful not to let any part of him touch any part of me.

I think I hate that.

“Is it this one?” he asks, pointing to the one I was going for.

“Yes.”

He pulls it off the wall for me.

“Are purples hard for you to see too?”

“Yeah, I thought this was blue.”

His attention lands on my left hand, but he doesn’t touch it.

“That,” he says, referring to his mom’s ring. “That’s purple though, right? I always thought it was purple.”

“Yes.” I examine the amethyst stone. “It’s the prettiest shade of purple I’ve ever seen.”

He smiles at that, nodding towards the cash register. “Come on. Let’s go pay for this.”

Isaiah walks side by side with me as we leave the aisle.

“So do you have a favorite color?” I ask.

The backs of his fingers graze mine.

The movement earns my attention, but I don’t flinch or pull away. The touch is gentle, tentative, but very much purposeful.

“Besides my favorite shade of auburn, no, I don’t have a favorite color.”

Our hands continue to rub against each other as we walk.

“Why not?”

He shrugs, keeping close enough that our hands never lose contact. “I was always nervous that I was going to get it wrong. Like what if I picked a dumb color but thought it was cool, you know?”

I chuckle. “There are no dumb colors.”

We get in line at the cash register just as his fingertips fall in the spaces between mine. He asked me if I wanted him to touch me, and he’s doing just that at a pace I feel comfortable with.

It makes me want to cry.

“Will you pick a favorite color for me?”

I huff a laugh under my breath. I vaguely remember thinking about this answer before. “Yellow.”

“Yellow.” He appraises my answer. “Why yellow?”

“It’s like you. Bright. Happy.”

Reminds me of the sun.

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