“I can carry you just fine, Rose,” he says and walks us towards a corner.
Sitting down, he leans against the wall and keeps me in his lap. I try to get off him but he stops me by putting his hand on my thigh and squeezes hard.
Heat pools into my stomach and I look at him.
“I’m not letting you get anywhere, Rose.” Lifting his hand, he wipes away all my tears and then cups the side of my face. “I told you, I’ve got you.”
“I can’t sit here for long. Your legs will start to hurt.”
“You can sit here forever and I won’t complain.” He tells me softly, “My legs will be just fine. Don’t worry about me.”
“Someone has to,” I say.
His eyes soften and he leans down and kisses me. “I promise I’ll be fine.”
He starts pulling away but I put my hand on his neck and stop him. That pulse I felt earlier is right there, fluttering under his hot skin.
“I think it’s best if we stop seeing each other.” Tears cloud my vision. “I don’t want you to get hurt because of me.”
“Maybe I want to get hurt for you.”
“Heath…”
He grabs my hand that’s holding his neck and brings it to his chest where his heart is beating. “Do you really want that, Rose?”
I stay silent and look down in my lap because looking into his eyes and telling him that I don’t want to see him will be the biggest lie I’ve ever spoken. And even if I somehow say it, I know my heart will shatter into a million pieces, right here, right now.
“You don’t want it. Good. Otherwise it would’ve been alarming to others that I had resorted to stalking.”
That makes me look at him.
He leans closer. “What? You thought I’d just give up on the only girl that makes my heart beat this fast.” He presses my palm harder into his chest. My hand vibrates with the strong thrum of his heartbeats, each one strong and fast, as if calling for my name. “I’m not letting you go and I’m not giving up on you. From now on you’re my girl.”
“Your girl?” I ask, clutching his T-shirt into my fingers.
He nods, staring deep into my eyes.“Yeah.”
My cheek turn red and I quickly break the eye contact.
His girl?
What does that mean?
Are we in a relationship now?
Heath Travon is my boyfriend.
No, wait. That seems too good to be true.
“Look at me, Rose.”
As if he’s put a spell on me, my body does as he says.
“It isn’t your fault.”
I shake my head. “It is. If you hadn’t met me?—”
“Then my life would’ve been miserable. I would’ve been alone and angry with no hope in life. Ever since you’ve come into my life, I have this light that casts away my darkness, and I want to bathe in it all the time. I wake up in the morning because I want to, not because I need to. And when I’m with you… I just want to stay with you. Because I like talking to you, listening to you. I even like making bracelets with you. And when you smile at me or laugh at something, I get this feeling inside of me. It’s like fireflies or some shit is fluttering in my stomach. There’s warmth, light and this sense of nervousness because I don’t ever want this thing—that is between us—to go away.” He pauses. “Maybe you can try and stay away from me, Rose. But I can’t.I fucking can’t.I will not let you go, not because you asked me to and I have to be the nice guy—which I’m not—but becauseI know youand I know deep down you want me.”
