Chapter Twenty Eight-2

But he would be really happy with some sort of description as well. "Oh," came Jesse's voice. He cleared his throat before saying, "For some reason, that wasn't what I expected." "And what exactly were you expecting?" Jesse chuckled. "I have no idea, but that was so not it. Okay, wow. So, Lizzie . . ." he paused, trying to gather his thoughts and paint a good picture in his head of Lizzie before describing her to Everett. "Well, she's pretty. But somehow I think you knew that already." Everett could hear the smirk in his voice and promptly threw his arm out and slugged his younger brother in the shoulder. "Ouch, yeesh. Okay, okay. Lizzie is, I guess sort of petite looking. Her hair is getting a little lot longer, which yeah, you knew cause you've hugged her. You know. It's brown, but not just, bleh, brown. It's," Jesse exhaled and continued, "shiny. And soft looking. And the shade is just right. She's got bluish, green eyes. I'm not sure which one they are more of, though." A pause came about and Everett assumed Jesse was trying to think of the best way to describe the next feature of Lizzie. In anticipation, Everett closed his eyes and began to put the pieces of what Jesse gave him together in his mind. "She has really warm eyes," Jesse finally revealed. "Like, usually, warm eyes are connected to brown or hazel, but Lizzie has the warmest eyes I've ever seen. She just always has a friendly look, even if the rest of her body language says go away." The words were followed by a chuckle, which made Everett curious. So he asked what was up. "Nothing, I just remembered how Lizzie and I met," Jesse replied fondly. "And that was . . . how exactly?" "Well," he said sheepishly, "I sort of tried to hit on her. She didn't like it very much and proceeded to put me in my place. Then we were art partners and ta-da. Stuck together for life." Everett nodded, a slight frown on his face. He tried not to be, but maybe at the moment he was a teensy bit jealous. He wasn't an idiot; he knew the experience happened long before he even befriended Lizzie. But it still didn't make him jump for joy that his younger brother tried to flirt with his... His . . . what? His human? They kissed. Yeah. But Everett realized they hadn't exactly sat down and talked about what it meant. They didn't make anything official. Their last few days in Arizona were spent with Kate driving them places, visiting Mandy. The two didn't really get a chance to just talk. But he wanted to. Everett really, really wanted to talk about it. "I don't know, Ev. I'm not entirely sure what else I can say, you know? I'll tell you more as it comes, I guess but . . . for right now, that's the biggest bit." But Jesse didn't quite realize how the information he gave was plenty enough for Everett's imagination to catch fire. His mind slowly pulled together an image of one Lizzie Baldwin. His imagination took over completely, using what he knew about Lizzie personality wise and what Jesse described to him to create some sort of visual he could pull up when he and Lizzie were talking. It made him smile to know that he had something to go off of now. Did the girl inside of his head match up perfectly with the girl in real life? To be honest, he had absolutely no way of knowing. But he did know that the two versions of Lizzie matched up better now. And he knew that with every new experience with Lizzie, the picture in his mind would get more and more refined, more clear. "Everett?" "Hm?" "You really, really like her don't you?" Everett sighed heavily. "Pretty much." * * * * * * * * * * The doorbell rang at precisely 4:37 PM. Jesse's body flinched when it happened; the entire afternoon, he spent alone in the living room. Everett started to get a bit snoozy after their talk ("Shut up, sun heat is calming, you noob.") and went to take a nap. Which left Jesse to his own devices. Which is why he decided to binge watch as many episodes of Little House On The Prairie as he could. It took about five minutes into the first episode for Jesse to realize he had way to many secret obsessions. And maybe he should narrow those down just a bit. But back to the doorbell. It really wasn't that difficult for him to deduce who stood on the other side of the door. "Nellie is such a pain," Jesse muttered as he paused his show, slowly standing up and stretching in the process. "Clearly Laura is so much more well suited for Almanzo. Get over it, peasant." He began the walk towards the door, tripping over a random Cole toy before continuing. "I got it! The door! I got the door, I mean," Everett came out of the hall at warp speed, with Jesse staring at him in stunned silence. "Just let me get - OW - for the love of - - I used to know this house like the back of my hand. What happened?!" Everett hobbled closer to the door and Jesse found himself stepping in his path. "Wanna tell me why you're looking super panicked right now?" The older North brother turned a lovely shade of pink, before mumbling out, "It's Lizzie." When Jesse offered no more words, Everett continued, "At the door, I meant." "No, no, I knew what you meant," Jesse replied, leaning against the wall. "Just trying to figure out why you're all weird about it." Everett sighed, sounding exasperated and annoyed and a little embarrassed. But Jesse just pressed harder. "What's up?" Running a hand through his hair, Everett contemplated his next words. He finally settled on, "I'm really nervous that she changed her mind." The first thing Jesse wanted to do was laugh, but when he realized how much concern Everett had written on his face, he sober up fast. "I don't understand. Why would she change her mind?" The doorbell rang again, reminding both brothers they were on a time limit. Eyes wide, Everett rushed out his thoughts in one big jumbled mess. "I'm worried that since we've been apart and haven't really talked for several days that she's going to realize she can do better and I'm worried that if she doesn't see it already, I'll do something today to cement it in. I don't want to do something idiotic and childish and drive her off." Jesse stared dumbfounded at Everett. "You mean more idiotic and childish than trying to shove her off the piano bench?" Everett's cheeks turned pink again, biting his lip. "Or pretending you don't hear anything when she would talk to you?" And there went Everett's ears, turning neon. "Or, hey! How about the time you literally locked out her outside when it was raining and she was pressed up against the back door because it was the only dry spot?"