I focus back on the conversation around me, but we’ve thankfully moved on to less stressful topics, and I listen and speak up here and there as they all chat about their classes and other mundane things but as always, my mind doesn’t stray far from Gracie.
I want to see her, be with her, hold her.
I just want to spend time with her and bask in her presence.
I’ll be okay not seeing her for tonight though, because I do actually have some self-control.
Okay so maybe I don’t have any self-control at all.
I was planning on having an early night and then seeing Gracie between classes tomorrow, but I couldn’t sleep. I was just tossing and turning, unable to stop thinking about the fact that she had told Cole about us.
Well, not aboutus, but she had told Cole that she’s seeing someone.
And she wouldn’t do that if she wasn’t serious about me.
Which made me practically giddy.
And that’s why I’m here, letting myself into her apartment at 3 a.m. while wearing the mask because it would be a little weird forNoahto just show up like this.
But perfectly acceptable for her stalker to do it.
My heart warms when I spot her sleeping peacefully in bed, the covers pulled right up over her head with only a little of her face peeking out and her leg bent and sticking out.
She’s just so beautiful.
Too beautiful for words, really.
She shifts and I take a step back, a moment of anxiety hitting me. What if she wakes up? What do I do then? Things have been different lately, and there’s a part of my brain that insists she’s cheating on me… with me, when she texts the burner phone or draws my mask.
It’s ridiculous, I know that, but the logical side and the… fucked up side can’t seem to coincide.
She shifts again, but her eyes remain closed and her face stays peaceful.
Just another minute, and then I’ll leave.
All I needed was to lay my eyes on her for a few moments.
She mumbles something, so quietly that I can’t make it out, so I take a step towards her, then another, and another until I’m basically looming over the bed as I look down at her.
“Noah,” she whispers, her eyes still closed and her body still unmoving, and it hits me that she’s dreaming.
She’s dreaming aboutme.
All of those feelings of jealousy vanish at that one whispered word.
That’s all the proof I need that she isn’t just dating me to…what? Take her mind off her stalker?
I knew that wasn’t the case, but I couldn’t help the tiny part of me that thought, maybe, that was what she was doing, since she’s never once shown any interest in me, always claiming that I was like a brother to her.
But she’s dreaming about me, she’s saying my name in her sleep, and she wouldn’t be doing that if she didn’t feel something for me.
Hell, she told her brother about us, and if that isn’t serious, then I don’t know what is.
This moment just solidifies what I need to do. No more coming here in the mask.
I need to focus on our relationship asusand not hide behind the anonymity.
I carefully remove the mask from my face and lay it on the bed next to her before leaning down to place a soft kiss in her hair.
