Between the Lines | ✓

Cliche 31: Dramatic Entrances

Elias and I just lay there for a while, wrapped up in each other's arms and giddily giggling with each other. Every now and then, Elias would raise his head from where it was resting on my shoulder to stare at my face incredulously, like he couldn't believe that it was me there lying beneath him, before breaking out into the most dazzling smile I had ever seen.

After doing this repeatedly, Elias suddenly hoisted himself up, pinching his cheek before reaching down to pinch mine, making me yelp.

"What was that for?!" I groaned with feigned anger, looping my arm around Elias's waist and flipping the two of us over as the soccer captain laughed at my attempt at making an angry face. His fingers reached up and poked at the wrinkles between my brows, eyes warming with unabashed fondness.

"Just making sure this isn't a dream," Elias said, his fingers trailing down my sharp nose bridge before his thumb began softly rubbing against my bottom lip. Elias's own mouth parted slightly, the boy swallowing slowly. 

"Believe me, it's not," I whispered hoarsely, our noses bumping as Elias took a sharp inhale of breath, eyes looking into mine.

I knew where this was going. I had read and dreamed about this moment for so long, writers going on and on about the 'fireworks' and 'heat' and 'sparks' when the protagonist finally kisses the main lead. Sure, maybe they were overselling things, but with the way my heart was beating rapidly in my chest, they got at least one thing right.

But, there was just one little thing missing.

Eyes locked onto Elias's, I blindly fumbled around to find the switch on the special projector I had set up amongst the pillows, struggling to find it. Elias felt me slapping my hand around frantically and raised a brow as I swore under my breath, before finally latching onto the little switch, flicking it on.

Suddenly, the white sheet I had carefully stretched out above us as a roof became illuminated with the gorgeous image of the galaxy. Elias's mouth opened further in surprise, the soccer captain's eyes tearing themselves from mine to look over my shoulder. The galaxy swirled and swirled around before zooming in to see an array of stars in various famous constellations. 

"Alex..." Elias whispered, eyes becoming wet again as he turned back to me in a daze, the image of distant stars dancing over him. "Did you..."

"I, uh, know you like stars and... since we can't see lots of the famous constellations here in the Southern hemisphere, I thought I'd try to bring them to you," I said awkwardly, blushing a bit at the disgustingly cheesy gesture. However, when Elias let out an overwhelmed laugh and wrapped his arms around my shoulders, all of the embarrassment ebbed away and was replaced by relief. When Elias was so honestly and sincerely happy that he couldn't stop smiling, that in itself made all of the embarrassment worth it and more.

"How are you even real?" Elias murmured, again tracing my cheeks with his hands before cupping my face carefully like he would shatter whatever illusion I was if he held me too roughly. I just smiled, stomach flipping at his words and moving to cover one of his hands with mine as I wondered the same thing about him. 

Because, in my original world, Elias wasn't real. He was just a bunch of letters, of zeroes and ones online, a figment of a reader's imagination.

But, here in my arms he is alive. I could feel his warmth seeping into my skin and into my heart, and that feeling itself was more real than anything.

"Well, instead of pinching me, there are other ways to make sure I'm real," I said, smiling a little when Elias just laughed with a small shake of his head, before sliding his arms up around my neck to softly tug me down.