"Does it really matter?" He questioned, unsure how to answer her question. Apparently she had more complex thought than he did. Was it always this specific? Heart beating a little quicker, he knew whatever he felt for her was just as complex as whatever she was thinking.
Janet bit her lower lip, thinking more about it. "Well, I guess it does, depending on things. Like if I'm comfortable with a person, then I'll describe or even tell them more than I would to someone I'm not so comfortable or close with. Then it also depends on if I even know what said feeling is myself. If I don't know what it is then I won't tell someone unless I think they can help me figure out what it is. Then if it's a love feeling then I won't tell the person I like them, unless it's family of course, because I don't like putting myself out there in vulnerable situations."
"Really?" He asked softly, feeling some odd sensation course through him. It lit him up, building something the longer he thought about her words. Hope, was what he assumed. Hope she liked him, or possibly love. Hope she was actually feeling something for him. Though it also caused a bad feeling. The first thing she had said, was that she would tell if she was comfortable around someone. To his knowledge, she hadn't said anything of the sort to him. Was he scaring her?
Janet nodded a little in response. "Like right now, I'm feeling comfortable, calm, happier than I have felt in a while, and… something else. I can't describe it, but it's not bad so I'm not going to worry about it." She said in a whisper. She decided telling him those would show him that she's comfortable around him and maybe she'd get closer to him soon as well.
Relaxing his worried figure, he brought her closer. He had loosened his hold around her, worried he was scaring her, but those reassuring words made him want to pull her closer. "Happy to hear that," He whispered, resting his head on her shoulder once more. "I really don't know how to describe how I'm feeling,"
"That's okay, sometimes it's hard to do so. I know it's difficult for me at times as well. "She said, looking out at the ocean. She rested her head on top of Axel's. She was completely relaxed and comfortable.
"Just because I'm curious-" Adjusting his position, he took her hand in his own- "How would you describe a romantic feeling?" He paused once more, trying to think of a good excuse. "There's this girl, and I honestly don't know how I feel about her."
Janet's spirit fell a little and she tensed up slightly, very sure Axel didn't mean her. She thought she would have to forget about being anything more than friends with this man. "U-um, well I'm not really sure I guess." She stopped, thinking deeper into his question, he was just full of questions today, but she wasn't really against it. "Well… I guess at first I probably think it's admiration or I just really want to get to know someone, but the more I think about it or the more I'm around that person I realize it's more than that. It's more of wanting to spend all your time with that person, sharing good and bad things but knowing everything will be okay as long as I'm with that person." Janet explained, Axel starting to come to mind when she thought about those things.
He fell into deep thought at her words, putting them to work. 'Admiration… I have plenty of that towards her.' He checked off, on his mental list. Looking down at he, he gave a soft smile. "I definitely have admiration for her," He hummed, giving her shoulder a squeeze. 'And I really want to spend more time with Janet, the longer we're together…' He admitted to himself, knowing it was true. 'I think I'm in love.'
Axel's silence concerned her a little. Not that she had necessarily said anything to reveal herself, but she was just worried that this girl he spoke of wasn't her. She didn't want that to be the case, but she was whole-heartedly convinced it was. She caught sight of two seagulls flying over the beach, cawing as they passed Janet and Axel.
Turning his gaze back on her, he noticed his heart rate picked up, and his face grew pinker than usual. "How long do you think it would take to know for sure you're in love?" He whispered, still not 100% sure this was actual love. 'I've never been in love before… I really don't know what I'm doing…' He told himself, scooting closer to her.
Janet furrowed her eyebrows again, deeply thinking about the question. "I actually don't know… I think it would probably depend on the person and how much time I spend with them. Like if I just see them at the diner for example, but don't interact at all or not very much, then I either won't fall for them at all or not as quickly. But if I miraculously end up talking and hanging out with them, then I have a significantly higher chance to fall for them. I wouldn't know all that well so I guess I'm just saying what I think is the case." She answered.
Her analogy was no coincidence, clearly, but he didn't want to think too much about it. "That's a good thing to go by, I'll remember that." He hummed, studying her face. There was no way… she didn't like him, did she? "Sorry for all the questions, I don't know the first thing about love." He laughed weakly, sighing with no meaning behind it.
Janet leaned her head on Axel's shoulder, a soft smile on her lips. "It's okay, I honestly don't either. I mean, I did have a couple of crushes in high school and middle school, but that's mostly it." She said, slightly emphisizing 'mostly', hoping Axel would catch up on that.
Which of course, the oblivious man didn't. "I don't think I ever really like a girl before, this is a new thing." He admitted, taking her hand in his own. "I don't know how to handle my feelings, I am so bad at it." Mumbling now, he gave her hand a squeeze.
"Well… she must be a lucky girl then…" She mumbled, just a little louder than she meant. She squeezed Axel's hand back, a little smile on her lips. "It's okay, it's not easy to handle feeling sometimes. If you ever need to spill your feelings on someone, I'm always there."
'That would be ironic, now wouldn't it?' He chuckled to himself, giving her a smile. "Will do. Though it's odd," He began pulling back from her, to study her face. "We haven't even known each other for a day, and I already feel incredibly close to you."
"I feel the same way. I don't quite understand why, I'm quite a shy person and it takes a decent amount of effort to get close to someone, it depends on the person, of course, but it's kind of strange." She agreed. It was indeed a rarity to get close to someone this quickly. With the friends she was with earlier, it took her at least a week of hanging out after school to get really close to them.
"Honestly, it's a dream that I found someone like you to grow close to. So quickly, as I pointed out before." He hummed, laughing softly before nuzzling her cheek with his nose. He was feeling affectionate, and Janet was the only one around to take the affection. "I think we should spend time together, sometime next week."
Janet giggled, turning her head to face Axel. With nervousness building up inside her, she somehow opted to plant a quick, soft kiss on his cheek. Her face turned red as she did so, turning back to face the ocean. "Uh, I think we s-should as well… with the um… the music thing we were thinking about doing…"
His face only continued to grow pink. His heart beating faster, and his eyes grew wide. For being a really easygoing guy, things like that seemed to set him off rather quickly. "Yeah… right… we should meet up to talk about that." He whispered, seeming confused. "But for today… we should just get to know each other."
Janet nodded, honestly too shy to say anything else. She leaned her head back on Axel in an attempt to hide her redness. She was definitely questioning her self as to why she did that, heavily regretting it. She was convinced that was the end of anything that could have had. With people she's comfortable with, she gets some impulsiveness. She has impulses around strangers or by herself, but she's a lot less likely to go through with them than when she's around friends or family.
'She kissed me! She actually kissed me!' The poor man was doing his best to hide the grin forming on his lips. But there wasn't much he could do about his rapid heartbeat and flushed face. 'Goodness gracious, I'm acting like a schoolboy…' A slight chuckle escaped his lips, and he couldn't keep from lauging out.
Janet felt him chuckle. She felt increasingly nervous, the redness going away just a slight, worried frown set on her lips. "… s-sorry…" She whispered, not lifting her head to see his reaction. In her mind, that had totally been the wrong move, the worst thing she could have done. It was, in a sense, very harmless, but she thought the opposite.
Hearing her soft tone, he pulled away just enough to look at her. "Why are you sorry? It didn't bother me." He gave her a smile, and squeezed her shoulder. "You didn't do anything wrong Janet, just unexpected." Axel told her, leaning in slowly. He wanted to kiss her, but wasn't sure that would help her case. She seemed nervous, and fidgety.