A Season of Firsts

Chapter 19

My tears are still drying from our goodbye to Cara as I walk over to Rory's apartment. I didn't realise how much I missed having her around every day until she was here, and now she's gone it stings even more.

She left one of her sweatshirts for me and joked that I could cry into it when I miss her too much. She won't be laughing when that actually happens.

I guess it's fitting that I'm in an emotional mood, because I am currently psyching myself up to tell Rory about my feelings for him. I messaged him earlier to see if he was free tonight, hoping he wouldn't be so I could stall some more, but his schedule was annoyingly clear.

When his building comes into view in the dim light, I want to turn on my heel and run far into the mountains. I feel like my body has switched to autopilot as my feet move up the metal stairs, hand shaking as it skims against the railing, and not from the cold.

He must have seen me coming from the window, because the door opens before I get to it. I stop dead in my tracks as I look at him. He has black tracksuit pants on with a grey hoodie, and his dark hair is all ruffled, as if he's just woken up from a nap. He is not allowed to look that good in casual clothes.

"Hi," he says, flashing me a dazzling grin.

"Hi," I say back, slightly out of breath.

"Are you coming in?" he asks, moving to the side to make room for me to enter.

"Yes," I say dumbly and move past him into his living area. I hope I find words to form actual sentences at some point this evening, otherwise he's going to wish he never let me in.

"Is Cara gone?"

"Yeah, she left a while ago, but please can we not talk about that, because I've cried enough today already," I say, laughing and pointing at my puffy eyes.

"Damn it Dela, I was just about to put Titanic on," he laughs.

I feel immediately at ease when he uses that name for me, so I strip my coat off and throw myself on his sofa.

"Nope, sorry, we're going to have to watch something with absolutely no heartbreak featured in it."

"Okay, that crosses off just about all of my favourite romance films," he grins, sitting down next to me and lifting my legs so they rest over his thighs.

"Name one romance film that you have enjoyed," I scoff, calling his bluff.

"Uh, The Notebook, for one."

"Wait, seriously?"

He smiles at me sheepishly and says, "I have watched it, but not out of choice."

Embarrassingly, my mind immediately goes to ex-girlfriend before realising he has a twin sister. "Oh right, I forgot about Mabel for a second there."

"Don't let her here you say that, she likes to think she's the centre of everyone's universe."

"Oh, come on, she's not that bad," I say, defending her honour.

"You didn't live with her for the first 19 years of your life," he says, raising his eyebrows at me.

"I wish I had! Being an only child sucks."

"You don't have any siblings?"

"Nope, it's just me," I say, smiling sadly.

"Did it get lonely?"

"No, Cara's always been like a sister to me. And she has siblings, so they're like my own with the amount of time I spent at her house."