“I missed you,” she murmured into my ear.
“I missed you too,” I responded.
With that, the rest of the night faded away. There was no rush, no distance left between us. The heat, the familiarity, and the way our bodies remembered each other all came without permission from anything or anyone. Our touches were desperate, and each word we spoke to one another was lost in the urgency of finally being together after so long.
When we finished, Princess laid her head on my chest with my arm around her. I tenderly ran my fingers through her wet hair as we lost ourselves in the quiet of the room around us.
“I love you,” she said softly.
I kissed her shoulder. “I love you too.”
We lay that way until she fell asleep. I chuckled at her snores. They were peaceful and quiet, as if she were holding them back, even in her sleep.
For the first time in a long time, I not only felt at peace, but I felt something else I couldn’t put into words. It was a calm feeling, more of a connection that I couldn’t quite put into words, over anything else.
I hadn’t felt that way in so long.
But I knew I was exactly where I was supposed to be.
5
Music that blasted from the kitchen was the first thing I heard when I woke up the next morning. I was lying on my back when I opened my eyes and slowly let them adjust to the light. I turned on my side and jumped when I saw a brown body lying next to me. It took me a moment to recall the events of the night before, and I smiled when I recalled them.
Princess was still beside me, tangled in the sheets, hair wild. Her face was relaxed in such a way that it made her look younger, the way she used to look when we were teenagers. She looked so peaceful, like she never needed to question who she was or what she wanted. It was also a trait that I admired about her.
I scooted close to her, brushed her hair back with my hand, and kissed her on the cheek. “Good morning, Prin,” I said gently.
She groaned, turned on her back, and faced the ceiling. Her eyes slowly opened, and once they adjusted to the light, she faced me.
“Hey,” she stated through a smile.
“Hey, baby,” I replied. “You look like you slept good.”
She giggled and yawned, stretching her arms out into the air. Suddenly, she bolted upright. “Oh—fuck.”
My brows furrowed. “What?”
She threw the covers back like they’d burned her skin. “Zay. Oh my god. Yana’s probably already up.”
“And?” I sat up and stretched my arms.
“And I’m still in your bed!” She hissed. She stared at me like I was supposed to have an escape plan.
I laughed, low and lazy. “Princess, she’s sixteen. She not blind.”
She shot me a look through squinted eyes. “You think this is funny.”
“It kind of is,” I said. “Relax.”
She paced the room with a blanket wrapped around her. “We didn’t plan this. We didn’t talk about this.”
“Okay,” I said, sitting up now. “I get it. Just sit down. Let’s talk about this.”
It was then that I’d realized that Princess wasn’t panicking because of guilt. She was thinking like a mother, like a parent. I hadn’t been in that position before or ever thought about how to handle a situation like that. Princess was thinking about not confusing her, about not putting something fragile in front of her before we were even sure what it was.
She stopped pacing and looked at me. “What are we gonna say?”
I shrugged. “The truth.”
