An Endless Summer(64)

What if he doesn’t fold?

I was jolted from the fear of such a thought as Sean took a running dive onto my bed, bouncing once, twice, three times, like a giant kid. The springs of the mattress groaned under the pressure as he adjusted the pillows and cushions so he could casually lean back and watch me in the doorway. He entwined his hands behind his head and threw me his best cheesy smile as he sighed in delight.

I cocked my brow. “Make yourself at home.”

He rolled over onto his stomach, leaning over to look under my mattress. “Nice bed!”

His voice was muffled as he spoke directly into the darkness under my bed. God, I hoped he couldn’t make out all the junk under there, plus a decade’s worth of dust, no doubt. I quickly turned off the main light, which drew his attention instantly.

I then realised how suggestive that might have come across so I scurried over to the lamp and fumbled for the switch on my desk. In a blind panic I struggled, and swore under my breath before mercifully finding it. With a click, my bedroom lit with a warm, subtle glow from my leadlight lamp.

Yep! Real smooth, Amy.

Sean still lay on his stomach, except his fascination had moved from under my bed to me as he hitched himself onto his elbows. The real me wanted to tell him to take a picture as it would last longer, or to not even think about getting any ideas – the lamplight was not to build ambience, it was to stop you seeing surface dust. Yeah, it didn’t sound all that convincing even to my own ears.

Then I noticed his eyes moved from me to behind me. I turned to follow his gaze. Before I could raise a question, he hitched himself up and off the bed and was over to me in three quick strides.

“What do we have here?” Sean leaned past me and plucked something off my shelf with lightning speed, holding it up to the lamplight.

“A Rubik’s Cube?” I asked, stating the obvious.

He bounced the perfectly aligned cube in his hand, studying it. “I haven’t seen one of these in years.”

I straightened. “Well, I’ll have you know,” I said, plucking it from his hands, “that I am the Messiah of the Rubik’s Cube.”

Sean looked over at me. “Is that right?”

“The Messiah,” I accentuated the words with confidence.

“Oh, really?” He copied my actions from a second earlier and plucked it from my hand. “Well, let’s see you undo THIS.”

Sean turned his back to me, twisting the cube every which way in a conspiratorial fashion. He glanced over his shoulder at me every now and then to ensure I wasn’t peeking. It was the first time I allowed myself to openly roll my eyes at him as he spent what seemed like an eternity unravelling the colours of the Rubik’s Cube.

“Ah-ha!” He spun around and presented the cube to me, all twisted, the colours speckled throughout it. “Let’s see you get out of this one.” He smirked.

I sighed and grabbed it from him, as if bored by the challenge. Unlike Captain Mysterious, I chose not to turn my back. If anything, I wanted him to see exactly what I was about to do.

I blew on my knuckles for dramatic effect. “Watch and learn. Watch. And. Learn.”

Sean scoffed and folded his arms as if waiting for my failure.

I honed in on the green centre piece and worked on unscrambling the rainbow of twisted pieces. I had no time to watch for Sean’s reactions as I concentrated and counted my move notations.

Right inverted, right and down, I twisted with lightning speed, working through the algorithms in my mind.

Front inverted, up, left inverted, up inverted. I twisted on, speaking in my own language that I knew few could follow. Even fewer had a clue what an algorithm was all about. At first it didn’t look like much, as if I wasn’t getting anywhere, but I kept twisting, and twisted a series of carefully planned out sequences, my eyes darting over my quick-moving hands.

Right inverted, down inverted, right, down.

The corner of my mouth pinched into a smile when a wall of green formed in all its glory. I was on the downhill stretch now.

I stole a look at Sean who was watching my hands, captivated by every twist. I dug in, twisting in a blinding fury until I triumphantly held the perfectly formed cube up to Sean resting on my palm. My mouth twitched with a silent ‘shove that in your pipe and smoke it.’

Sean stood, stunned, staring at the perfectly aligned cube in my palm. He disguised his smile by rubbing his hand over his jaw and lips. I squared my shoulders, waiting for an apology.

He nodded. “Wow,” he said, plucking the cube from my hand and examining it thoroughly.

His eyes flicked up from the cube to me. “You really are a dork!”

My mouth gaped open. “Shut up!” I lashed out to hit him, but he was too quick and caught my wrist with his free hand, holding me in a firm grip.