I hugged him tight.
It was so warm in his embrace.
Despite the lack of layers on us both and the chill that came with nighttime, I was perfectly warm – very happily warm within his arms.
In the past few years, he’d gotten taller. He wasn’t wearing a shirt. I was touching his bare skin. It was making me crazy… but I wasn’t about to be gentle and I wasn’t about to let go. I tightened my arms around him a little, again. I didn’t want to let go. Ever.
All of those fears, potential issues in our relationship going forward… they all melted away with him. This was Lee. This Lee wasn’t pushing us apart, he was holding on, just as tightly as I was.
He knew how I felt… and he felt the same about me.
Too good to be true, right?
Except… it was true. It was happening.
I hadn’t realized how much I missed just being in his presence, how I missed hearing him speak, and seeing his face as he talked. A lone tear slipped down my cheek. Relief was pouring through every part of me. He’d grown up a lot since I’d last seen him. There was no way I could tell myself he was just a kid and move on, not that I would’ve done that anyway. In fact, neither of us were kids anymore.
We were both… in a sense… adults.
I could feel his warm hands on my back through the thin shirt I was wearing.
Lee… I love you.
I couldn’t say it out loud yet. I couldn’t.
My heart pounded in my chest, just being this close, just being able to talk to him, like this, to hold him in this new way. Feel this warmth between us. Nothing else ever felt close to this. He was really here. This was really…
I was hugging Lee, after all this time.
And it felt so good to finally admit everything, all of it, to myself now… to not hold back these wild thoughts.
Because he was here.
He…
We were both holding on.
We had both been afraid of today.
And we both knew what this was.
True Mates.
We were.
Fate… fate asked for this.
Us.
“I missed you,” he whispered into my ear. “I missed you so much.”
I smiled.
“You’ll write and call more now, right?”
He nodded into my shoulder.
“Yeah, I’m going to. Every day.”
There was a sudden tension in him. I closed my eyes for whatever he had to say, as he tightened his hold on me.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry I was pushing you away.”
I could hear the pain in his voice, the regret. I knew it all too well. This whole time, I could’ve been contacting him more too… I could’ve reached out to him more. And… I didn’t. Because I was the same.
We were doing the same thing.
We were bracing for the worst together… by staying apart.
We didn’t need that anymore.
I didn’t want that.
“You’re forgiven… I did it too. I was scared too… I’m sorry.”
His body started to shake and I pulled him off of me. Tears were falling from his eyes and I wiped each of them away slowly, without a word. All I wore was a gentle smile as I looked at him.
When he reached up a hand to wipe mine away, that was when I realized I was crying too. When did that start?
When it became too much to brush all of them aside, he leaned his head down against mine.
“I feel like I’m dreaming right now.”
“Me too,” I replied. “It’s almost unreal.”
“Yet, it makes perfect sense.”
I nodded.
“Yet, nothing else has felt like this.”
He smiled back at me, agreeing.
And suddenly, as we both exhaled, we froze.
I knew what he wanted.
I… I wanted it too.
Neither of us wanted to hold back anymore.
Not now.
Not ever again.
In the next second, without a word between us, we both reached for each other and sought out lips with our own.
It was warm.
Wet with tears.
We were a mess.
I lost my breath to him as he lost his to me.
My hands were in his hair, drawing his face to me as one of his was tangled lovingly in mine, the other caressing my face.
Our lips were soft, our teeth rough.
It was frenzied and full of every word we had yet to say, every feeling we had yet to explore.
It was full of everything.
But we didn’t stop.
No.
Not until our lips were throbbing and our brains screamed for oxygen.
We both drew in gasps of breath, while we paused, our faces a mere inch apart. I licked my lips, dying to bring back that sensation of his on mine.
“I should go back.”
“Yeah, me too.”
Before we do something completely crazy, like make a mess of the kitchen… or get caught.
Crazy…
Very… crazy.
Insane, really.
I turned to go first, making it several paces to the door leading to the living room before I stopped and spun, racing back to him.
We barely had a chance to say anything here tonight. I wanted to talk to him again before we headed back to our homes. It wasn’t enough just to say we felt the same way.
“Lee, wait!” I hissed as he moved to put the crackers back in the cabinet.
He paused and turned my way as I came to a skidding halt next to him, sliding on my socks the last stretch between us. As I closed the gap between us, he grabbed my elbows to steady me, quickly setting the box on the counter.
We needed to talk again, alone, away from everyone else.
“Let’s meet under the balcony tomorrow evening, secretly.”
He smiled and nodded. With a lone hand he reached up and brushed a stray hair from my face.
“I’ll be there.”
I grinned, suddenly feeling overwhelmingly happy.
“Okay. Good night.”
I kissed him on the cheek and raced back toward our rooms. I glanced back a couple times as he slowly followed the same path, grinning to himself happily, tilting his head and letting out a near silent sigh.
I rounded the corner to our set of rooms and slowed down, only a little. As I reached the third door on the left, it opened suddenly and I yelped in surprise, sliding to a stop. I didn’t dare turn around to see if Lee was going to stop out of sight. It would draw their attention to…
Staring back at me with half-lidded eyes and rubbing the side of her face grumpily was Kat.
I let out a relieved sigh. Even though I knew I was sharing a room with her, it was hard to restrain the urge to punch someone when they scared me like that.
“Kat! What’re you doing up?”
“I had to go pee. Why? What’re you doing?” Kat grumbled, sounding more than a little tired.
Jeez, was she even going to remember this in the morning?
“Getting a snack. Come on, let’s head back.”
She dropped her hand from her face and stared at me thoughtfully.
“Is your face red?”
“You – you scared me that bad.”
“Oh… oops. Sorry.” She looked down the hallway and I resisted the urge to follow her gaze. Please, Lee, be out of sight. “Why were you running?” She asked me eventually, her eyes returning to my face.
“I was trying to be sneaky and fast.”
“Oh. Sorry that didn’t work for you.” She shrugged. “I’m going pee, be right back.”
“Eh…”
Oh crap.
Uhh…
I spun and watched her go, not seeing any sign of Lee.
Which… was good.
I didn’t want to hear all of the questions that would come with us being up at the same time, coming from the same place. Questions like that could reveal everything we didn’t want to share at the present moment.
I wanted it a secret in the first place because I didn’t want everyone fawning over us and asking questions incessantly. I especially didn’t want our parents putting some kind of regulation on us or something… not that they would, but it happened in all of the scenarios in my mind.
The door to the bathroom opened and closed without incident.
I held my breath, waiting.
Was he still there somewhere?
I didn’t have to wonder for very long. Sneaking silently, tiptoeing across the floor by the bathroom and coming to the middle of the hallway, he paused, looking at me.
He gave me a thumbs up and I sighed, feeling the tension drain out of me, my shoulders relaxing. He sprinted quietly down the hallway to me, heading to his at the very end.
I gave him a small smile as he approached me. He stopped briefly instead of simply passing me by.
His lips landed on my cheek and then he was gone as my face grew ever warmer.
He just…
He…
Oh my gosh.
I turned to look at him, my eyes wide.
He glanced over his shoulder as he opened his door, grinning at me like a cat that caught a mouse.
Oh.
My.
Gosh.
What a…
Tease.
I heard the bathroom door open again as his clicked shut. Still stunned, I managed to turn back around to Kat to beckon her back to our room.
“You waited for me?”
I nodded.
Sure.
Why not?
When she reached me, I held out my arms. She sleepily smiled and she hugged me.
“Awwww.”
I squeezed her tight.
“Today was a good day, Kat.” I nodded to myself, smiling a bit. “It was a good day.”
She looked at me curiously.
“Was it the dress?”
I laughed, unable to help myself from nodding.
“Yeah. I love that dress.”
“I knew it.”
I put her in her bed and tucked her in as she drifted off, almost instantly as she hit the mattress.
Thanks, Kat.
I kissed her forehead lightly in silent gratitude. She sucked in a breath, swatting at the air by her head.
“Mmnhm.”
Thank you, for helping me… because if I hadn’t come, I wouldn’t be feeling this happy and excited. I wouldn’t know about Lee’s feelings. We would be talking less and less, not planning to talk more and more.
I went to my own bed and sighed as I stared up at the ceiling, wide awake.
Smiling, I heard his admission in the kitchen again and again in my mind.
Him… asking to hold my hand, unsure how to say the words at first.
“You look happy.”
I turned to see Kat watching me with a small smile.
“I am.”
Kat nodded, her eyes closing.
“Good.”
I hesitated. I didn’t want Lee and I to be the only happy ones…
“Are you?”
She smiled.
“Yeah.” She sighed, slumping more into the bed. “Night sis. Love you.”
“Me too, Kat. Love you too… sis.”
We were like sisters, I thought. We were going to look out for each other our whole lives long.
As night became light and dawn emerged, that was tested.
Since when were we going to the lake?
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