Pupa

She laughed. 

Shamelessly, she just laughed.

"Pfft-hahahahahhaha..haha-ha...hahahahahah!"

She fell back on the bed, holding her stomach as she cackled heartily.

I think..wait..do I see tears in her eyes?

"Hahaha! Greg, you're hilarious!" she said ardently, slowly working herself down from her snickering fit.

Wait, was it really that funny? Or is she just laughing ironically?

Ugh, this is really confusing!

She slowly sat up, inhaling deeply before exhaling one final chuckle, then turned to me.

"No, I'm not dating him Greg. Why would you think that?" she inquired, smiling cheekily as she wiped her eyes with her fingers.

I shifted uncomfortably, revisioning my eyes downward facing as I responded quickly: "Uh, well you guys seemed pretty friendly the other day. It was..back on the first day of school, I think?"

I looked back up at her cautiously, as she stared up at the ceiling, pondering my reply (I'm assuming?)

"...Oh! Yeah I remember. When we crossed each other in the hallway right? Yeah yeah" she said, immediately focusing back onto me, beaming as bright as a star (God she's so beautiful!). 

"He's just my friend. I don't really see him like that" she continued, waving her hand in her face with a playful expression.

So I don't have anything to worry about then? Hold on a sec, wait wait wait...if Mr.Chindelin doesn't mind us together (judging this assumption off of his tone when he joked about me being her boyfriend earlier) and J.B. isn't even remotely a potential prospect in the slightest (that thankless wretch, bottom feeder filth that barely qualifies as a homo sapien), then does that mean I'm free to move in on her?!

"O-oh..I see" I muttered, looking down as I placed my hands between my legs

"Why do you ask? Just curious"

I blinked, looking at her.

Huh?

Didn't..didn't I just answer that?

"Just because I saw you two together. Uhm, remember?"

She shook her head.

"I mean do you have any other reason?"

"..."

I fell silent for a few tense seconds, my eyes darting across the room, my mind and body desperately pleading for my escape. Heck, I feel like jumping out of this bed and bolting straight out the door and never turning back just from that question alone.

I was nervous. Terrified, even.

But I didn't run. No, I can't run

As soon as I steeled my swiftly fleeting, barely dwindling resolve and looked back at her to answer the question, I immediately noticed a blatantly perceptible difference in her stature.

She was closer. A lot closer, in fact.

She's..moving in on me?!

I gulped, before replying:

"N-not really. I mean, not s-seriously..j-just wondering w-who you liked, ma-maybe..?" I said, forcing every fiber of my being to remain still, staring straight into her prepossessingly captivating orbs of vision (A.K.A. her eyes, if you couldn't tell from my Shakespearean language).

"Oh..really.." she said softly, almost as if her voice was fading.

She suddenly began to pull back a little faster than she moved in, but not that much faster.

Is that like, a good sign? Perhaps it's a potentially fatal omen for things to come for my fragile heart, because lord knows I can't take any more of this palpable tension, this room already filled with the thick aroma of lustful desire!

Or maybe it's just my imagination. Honestly, I don't even know what I know anymore. Huh, did that sentence even make sense? Whatever, my point is that I need to wrap this conversation up swiftly.

No-it might be even more than just that. I have to end this study session as quickly and efficiently as possible, so that I don't conclude this visit with a spell of immense embarrassment at best, or the loss of my chastity at worse.

Or perhaps the "worst" outcome isn't really that bad..I might want to consider staying over a little longer than planned actually...

Wha-n-no! What are you saying you fool?! Don't let your impulses get the best of you idiot!

"Are you ready to start?" she said, her words and accompanying simper (her almost ingratiating smile) pulling me back to reality once more.

Jeez, this girl is dangerous in the way that she can just alter my perception of the material world. Is she Scarlet Witch?!

"U-ohm-y-yeah-I'm gooood~" I said with a cocky grin, gazing at her with slanted-happy eyes.

What the heck am I doing?! I'm not supposed to be trying to woo her you dimwit!

Silently cursing myself, I listened closely as I heard Penny make a "ahem" sound to prepare for her fast approaching dissertation (or something like that, I don't exactly know how best to describe it in this sort of situation).

 "Okay, I'll just start with the basics. There are four big stages that butterflies go through. The egg, the larva, the pupa, and the adult, the final big one" she stated gently, yet practically.

"H-huh..yeah well, thanks for the refresher. I definitely needed an update since the last time I've learned anything about them..hehe.." I chuckled quietly, scratching the back of my head.

Dang it, what kinda half-cracked joke was that? Does it even qualify?!

I know for a fact that was a stupid, corny line. Certainly a sorry excuse for a quip that would never in my wildest dreams ever make Penny even release a whiff of amusement!

"He he" 

...Did she just..did she just giggle?

At that stupid line?! 

You're telling me that actually worked?!

"Well I'm glad I could give you that update. I'll give you more too if you want" she winked.

H-Huh? What's that supposed to mean? What sorta "updates" are we talking about exactly? More of the salacious sort? The ardent lovey-dovey kinda "updates"?

If so, I'll gladly take more than just the updates. 

I'll accept the full course!

"Ah-w-well uh I appreciate it" I said, trying to gather my thoughts and silently pondering those next words.

For a small moment we sat next to each other silently, not moving a muscle.

Quickly in order to avoid any sort of long-drawn out and painful awkwardness, I came up with an arbitrary (yet somewhat related) question on the spot.

"S-so I've been wondering this for a while but uh..oh, h-hey, why are you always surrounded by butterflies anyway? At school lunch, I mean. What attracts them to you?" I stumbled out (yet again, unceremoniously).

"Ah-mmm...good question. I like to...uh-ahh..mmm..how do I put this.." she murmured to herself.

Is she thinking out loud right now? Why is she (dare I say) blundering her sentence like how do with the majority of mine (specifically in the context of this situation, you guys know I'm not usually like this)?

"I use marigold like a scented perfume to attract them. I've been doing it for a long time, ever since my Grandpa taught me that little trick. I never really liked the smell very much" she expelled disjointedly.

I noticed that she, whether intentionally or not, skillfully evaded answering my question directly, since I relied more on an assumed interpretation for her to grasp hold of what I was asking.

In other words, what I was trying to get across was "what started your butterfly attraction", but she answered it as "what literally attracts 'them' to 'you'".

I'm not suspicious of her or anything, I'm just noting an observation. I could just be reading too much into things, but if my scrutiny is correct, then she's probably hiding something personal. I have no issues with that in all honesty though.. her business is hers, and I don't want to intrude on that

Aside from that, I do have a more pressing issue at hand.

What the heck is marigold?

I guess she noticed my confused expression, so she continued her explanation after a brief pause.

"Marigold is a type of flower. It looks sort of like a sunflower, except it's even more yellow and doesn't have a dark center. Its botanical name is the tagetes, which is a kind of genus. Hehe, a genus is a taxonomic rank above species, but right below family in the plant kingdom too. But like I was saying, it can bloom in every season except winter, and it's also special because it comes in different colors too! Orange-red-white-and multicolors! It also attracts butterflies, and that's why I use the spray, and I don't really care for the smell-but I think it's worth it, and-"

She kept going on, and on.

Not really about any sort of particularly scientific information, either. From there she just went on about her opinions.

On, and on, and on..

I wholeheartedly did not expect her to geek out about something like this, but I shouldn't be surprised now that I think about it. Why wouldn't she know all of this extremely, expressly specific info for a topic I know she's acutely invested in (referring to the butterflies)?

It took her like 10 minutes to wrap up, I think? I lost track of time...but it was definitely less than 20 minutes. Probably.

After she finally took a breath, I grabbed my chance to insert my own dialogue.

"Uh-you're really interested in all this stuff, aren't you? What..what got you so interested in them in the first place, if you don't mind me asking?"

She paused, and hesitated for a moment. 

She's probably deliberating on her answer if my earlier conjecture is correct, but even so I'm still sort of surprised she doesn't have an immediate answer.

Or maybe she does, and is just debating on whether to tell me or not.

Perhaps I'm wrong in thinking this way..maybe? Of course, it could just be one of those things where people just get so used to doing something for so long they kind of forget or misremember their original reason for beginning certain habits, which kinda makes everything get lost in the mix.

"My grandfather" she said.

???

Her grandpa? What's he got to do with this?

Wait, didn't she briefly mention him before, when I asked her about the marigold perfume thing?

"Hm? He influenced you?" 

"Yes...he's been..very important, to me. For a long time" she murmured somberly, with quite a gloomy, almost maltreated (though I might have misinterpreted it a bit with that impression) expression.

"I'm really blessed to have him, after all this time" she continued. "My grandma passed away when I was a toddler, so I didn't get to meet her. Still, I think I'm in a good place"

With a wistfully smile, she looked down and chuckled softly to herself.

It was quite stereotypical of her, really. How her elegance shines even in despair. It's always such a beautiful sight to behold.

But this time is a bit different. As alluringly bonny as it was, I still couldn't help but feel an immense level of sadness for her. Of course this was partly due to her admission to the loss of a loved one, but it was also because of something else, more significantly so.

It's because...I can relate to her.

"I get that. My great grandparents..both of them..have passed. My great grandpa died before I was born, but my grandma just died only a couple of years ago. My..my grandpa..n..not the great one, the other one, less great..uh..yeah..him. He died before even my older sister was in middle school. But at least I still have my grandma around" I detailed gravely.

"Sometimes..I wish I could've seen them. Just at least talked to them, just once. I've heard so many stories about my grandparents, about how kind and happy they were to everyone, how considerate they were to people less fortunate to them. I missed out on that. Heh..even my grandma is starting..to have some issues. Heh heh..s..sorry..I didn't mean to ramble..jeez..apologies..hm.."

As I gazed down at the mattress, salty orbs of liquid began to fill my vision.

Tears. Are these..tears?

Swelling..I feel them swelling..

Really? Right now? Dang it..now's not the time to be getting emotional. Not here, not in front of Penny. I need to straighten myself up as quickly as I can, then-

Suddenly, I felt warm, tender arms wrap around my torso, as a hand delicately palmed the back of my neck, the other resting on my back.

"I'm sorry..I'm so sorry.." she whispered, caressing me slowly.

"I'm sorry..."