Let Yourself Fall // sequel to My Ethan Karpathy

Chapter 109.

PAISLEYS POV:

I feel someone tickling my nose. At first it feels like an itch, but then I hear giggling and the feeling just doesn't go away. I snap out of my sleep and my eyes flutter open. Ethan's kneeling by the bed, using the tip of his thumb to tickle my nose.

"Morning, birthday girl." he smiles, tapping the end of my nose lightly.

"Mm, morning." I mumble, not appreciating being awake right now.

"Can I go back to s-" I start but am cut off by a pair of lips. It's a long, deep, passionate kiss. Kisses like these only belong in movies, but somehow one got here. He pulls away, looks me in the eye, turns, and leaves. He just gets up and leaves. I sit there and notice that I'm feeling much better this morning. I check the time- 10:30. I guess I got to sleep a bit. I see the ring on the bedside table and slide it onto my finger. It still fits perfectly. It still is perfect.

The door opens again and Ethan walks in with two glasses of juice, and a box under his arm. A present. Great, just great. Please note sarcasm. He puts the glasses down on the table, just out of my reach. He then hands me the box, forcing me to take it.

"Ethan, I do-" I start, but he cuts me off.

"Do I need to kiss you again?" He warns, smiling softly at me again, gesturing me towards the box. I sigh and take the lid off. Inside I find..

Another box?

Except this box is different.. Familiar. It's wooden, but it's badly finished. Then I remember where I've seen this box. It's the box Ethan and I made in woodwork a few years back. I see there's something engraved on top of it, and look closer. It reads 'Paisley and Ethan'. He's watching me carefully as I open it, he's almost looking nervous. He's kneeling by my bed, but a little way back. I open the lid and find a whole heap of different things in there. My eyes scan over everything, but end up on the photos. I pick them up, trying to stop my hands from shaking. I sort through all the pictures, all the memories hidden in them. I start to tear up, but they're tears of happiness. I see some crumpled pieces of paper and pick one up. It's our old notes we used to pass in class. He kept those? I notice a not so crumpled one on the bottom, and pull it out. It has a date at the top. Two weeks ago.

'Dear Paisley,

I hope you can read this on your birthday, but if not, I know you will some day.

I'm hoping to find you, I'm not going to be doing so well without you. I need you, and I miss you. I miss your hugs and kisses, I miss the way you would eat your cereal and the way you would skip down the stairs in the morning. I want everything we had back again, and I want it as soon as possible. I need to feel your arms around me, your hand in mine, your body against me at night, your lips on mine. I crave your love, I crave you.

I am in love with you, and everything about you makes me smile. You stuff up my mind in every fantastic way possible, you send me out of this world, just knowing that you love me. There's billions of people in the world, and you chose me. That's nothing I will ever be able to repay you for.

I can, however, offer you my world. I can give you everything you need. I'll give you a home, an income, a family, a husband that loves you more than anything. I'm going to marry you some day, you know that's certain. You can't get rid of me, I'm stuck. And the only reason I'm sitting here right now, looking like an idiot, tears streaming down my face, feeling like a baby, is you, Paisley. It's you.

You can't ever forget how much you mean to me. You are my everything. It sounds so much like a schoolyard crush when I put my feelings on paper, but what we have definitely isn't a schoolyard crush. It started that way, but it won't end that way. I'm always going to be here for you, I'll hold you whenever you need to be held, I'll kiss you whenever you need to be kissed, I'll always be here when you need me. You don't need to run anymore, you don't need to be scared.

I love you, and I can't wait to find you.

Love as always, Ethan xoxo'

ETHANS POV:

She picks up the note and starts to read. I start to feel nervous because I don't know how she's going to react. I small smile creeps across her face but then fades to tears. Soon her tears are rolling down her face and she has to clap one hand over her mouth to catch them and stop them from falling on the paper. I can see her eyes, though. Her eyes are happy, not sad. She puts down the note and looks right into my eyes, right into me. I am frozen, and my trance is only cut off when she launches herself off the bed and wraps me in her arms. I hold her just as tightly and listen to her sobs. They aren't painful sobs, they are sort of mixed with laughing and they are sort of half silent.

"Hey, hey, it's okay." I say, trying not to laugh at her.

"Thank you so much." she laughs through her sobs.

"Oh my god, it's okay, don't cry." I say, not being able to control the massive smile on my face.

"I love you." she whispers in my ear.

"I love you too." I reply, tightening my grip.

She pulls away and cups both my cheeks with her hands. She holds my head still and leans down to kiss me. The kiss was short and wet with tears, but it seems as though every kiss we share means a little more each time. She pulls away again and let's me wipe away her tears with my thumbs. Just then, the door opens and Anna, Khloe, Jai and Chris burst in. She drops her hands from my face to my shoulders and looks up at them.

"Are we interrupting anything?" I hear someone say, but I don't know who because my back is turned to them.

"No." Paisley laughs, sitting back away from me and letting me turn around.

"Happy birthday!" They all shout together.

"We thought we should let Ethan get in here first, but his time is up. You're sixteen, we need to see you before midday." Anna says, rolling her eyes.

"Thanks, guys." Paisley sighs, standing up and hugging each of them.

"And since we didn't know until yesterday, we don't have anything for you. But we are taking you out for dinner tonight." Khloe States.

"Guys, you don't need to do anything." Paisley tries.

"No, we are. We're all going out together." Chris says.

"I know a place." Jai adds. Paisley just smiles around the room and walks over to me, holding out two hands. I grab them and she pulls me up.

"You guys are too cute." Anna says.

"I know we are." Paisley says, throwing her arms around me dramatically.

"Alright, alright, I don't want to see any more PDA. Let's go downstairs and work out what we can do today." Khloe says.

"You guys go, I'll be down in a second" Paisley says.

Everyone shrugs and leaves the room, leaving us alone again. I look at her with a questioning glance.

"Are you okay?" I ask.

"Yeah, I'm all good." she smiles at me.

"See you down there in a minute." I say and leave her alone.

I walk down the stairs and join the others on the couch. We talk for fifteen minutes, and she's still not down. I stand up and walk back over to the stairs, listening. Nothing, I hear nothing. I walk up the stairs slowly and almost bump into her.

"Hey, I was just getting worrie-" I try and cover, but she cuts me off.

"Doesn't matter. Let's go." she smiles, pulling me away and down the stairs.

A/N: OOH WHAT HAPPENED UPSTAIRS?!

So if you guys could comment and tell me what your favourite chapter/part of this book and/or 'My Ethan Karpathy' was, that would mean a lot to me.

Peace, love and Ethan Karpathy.