Relationship Imagines

Book Club (M)

When I read I become entranced in my own little world. My own world with no jobs, grades, bills, a world free of all the evils in the world. 

As I opened the book, I placed the bookmark he made me next to me on the floor. 

I traced the crisp pages with my fingertip as I turned the page with such care. 

The potent smell of the paper filled my entire being with a sense of nirvana, a feeling I rarely felt. 

As I read a page after another, I snapped my head to my window as it cracked open, and slowly lifted all the way up. A boy slid himself inside and cursed under his breath as he scraped his elbow on the chipped paint on my windowsill. 

"Sorry I'm late, my mom was nagging me about my room and-" he started, but quickly paused as he saw the open book resting in my lap.

"Don't tell me you started to read without me," he said and pointed to my lap, the book in his hand. 

I shrugged. 

"I didn't know if you'd ever make it here tonight!" I said trying to excuse myself. 

"When you were grounded for two weeks I didn't even touch the book because I was waiting for you!" He whisper-shouted at me, a playful grin starting to display on his face. 

I nervously chuckled. 

"You know I'm impatient! That's why we work, you're too patient and I have zero patience."

"What does that have to do with anything?" He asked as he began to sit next to me on the floor, crossing his legs. 

"I don't know," I said and nervously laughed. 

He sighed and shook his head. 

"Let me catch up to you, then." He said and opened his book. I closed mine and began to rub his back. 

"How far ahead are you?" He asked. "Just five pages." 

My hand began to trace up from his back to his neck and tangled into his hair. 

As soon as I touched him I felt his entire body relax. It seemed like he was one-hundred pounds lighter. 

When he was about three pages into the new chapter he said, "Wow, okay I can see why you read ahead."

Once he caught up he closed the book and said "Your turn!"

He laid his head in my lap and stared at my wall as I read aloud to him. 

Later, once I finished reading, it was time for him to have to go back home. 

As he grabbed his book and slid his shoes back on, I grabbed his hand and asked, "Do you have to go now?" 

"Yes, if your parents find me here or if mine find me gone they'll kill me."

"I don't want you to go," I said. He stared me in the eye for a moment, a glimmer of sadness flickering in his eyes. 

"It's 3:30, I have to go." He said after a few moments of the heavy silence.

"Can I see you tomorrow?"

"Of course, hun." He said to me. He kissed me on the forehead and began to slide back out of my window. Before he could leave my window I said, "I'll miss you."

"I miss you already," He whispered back. He came back to my window and stuck his head in to kiss me goodbye. 

As I watched him walk away until he faded into the neverending darkness, the same four words weighed heavy in my mind: 

This one's gonna hurt.