I'll Love You For A Lifetime [Heartstopper, Tara x Darcy]

Year 9: Remember this is the room?

Darcy's pov

I glanced at the message on my phone: Music room after school.

I grinned to myself as I entered the seemingly empty room.

"Hey," I said into void. My voice seemed to reverberate a bit.

"Hi," a voice replied, a voice I knew so well now, I was confident I could recognise it anywhere. I knew how it sounded with a soar throat, I knew how it sounded over the phone, I knew how it sounded in audio messages and I knew how it sounded from across the other side of a street. I felt a pair of arms grasp me from behind, clasping together at the hem of my school skirt.

I turned around and looked at her - those brown eyes piercing right through my heart...my eyes dropped down to her plump lips and she smiled knowingly.

"How are you baby," she said, raising her hands to my collar, fiddling with them absent-mindedly.

"Better now that you are near me," I said, and she scoffed, shaking her head at me. "Darcy Olsson, the charmer as always," she said, looking at me with such adoring eyes I wanted to melt away right in her arms.

"You love it, don't you?" I said, putting my finger under her chin and tilting her head up, kissing her softly on the lips.

"You're so adorably short," I said, untying the scarf in her hair and running my hand through the curly mess, my lips leaving invisible prints on her cheeks.

"Shut up, I'm close to you," she said, touching my cheek lightly with the tips of her finger.

"Are you now," I said, leaning down and kissing her again. She tilted her head back, giving me space to leave little kisses on her neck. I needed her so badly, I loved her so much, but I could not bring myself to say either of these statements to her, I don't know why. Maybe a part of me feared it would make the intensity of both the statements fade away. I did not want that to happen, ever.

"Darcy," she said, digging her hand in my hair, "I think we should...stop."

"Mmhm, sure," I moved a couple of steps back and leaned my hand innocently against the knob of the door.

"Darcy, no!-"

"Whoops," I said, letting the door close on its own, until both of us heard it lock shut, "guess we are locked in here now."

"Darcy..." she said, as I walked up to her again, "what if we are locking in here forever?"

"I won't mind as long as it's you I am locked in with," I said, letting her giggle as I stole another swift kiss from her lips.

"Let's call someone," she said urgently now, "we need to leave before..."

I leaned down and pressed my lips on hers successfully shutting her up. She was making me worry. I didn't want to worry right now. Nevertheless, I pulled my phone out and tried calling a friend of ours but there was no network.

"No network," I shrugged, slipping my phone back into my pocket.

"Okay," she said, "good."

"Good?" I said, sarcasm leaving my brain as she slipped her hand to the hem of my skirt, pulling it down slightly and letting loose the neatly tucked-in shirt. She slipped her hand underneath.

"Tara," I said, my skin tingling pleasantly as her hands went the same course they had gone many times before.

"Darcy," she said back. I could never get sick of hearing my name from her lips.

I moved my own hands and unbuttoned her shirt halfway, touching her softly first, fierce next, her breathing making my heart race. She pressed a hand on the small of my back, pulling me close to her.

"God, Tara," I gasped.

"Is somebody in here?" a voice shouted from outside making both of us jump apart and start fixing our clothes.

"Yes, ma'am," Tara said immediately, "Darcy and I accidentally got stuck while keeping the instruments in here."

The teacher opened the door and frowned at me, "Darcy, you are not in the orchestra. What were you doing here?"

"Oh, I was just, uhm," I looked at Tara who was giving me a get a grip, Darcy look. "I was helping her," I said but she still looked inconvinced so I added, "actually, I was wondering about joining the orchestra as well. It sounds cool."

"Is it?" she tilted her head slightly, then shook her head, "you two are inseparable, aren't you?"

I looked at my feet, desparately trying to hide the blush gathering around my cheeks.

She smiled, "Okay, now out you two. Chop chop. And Darcy meet me tomorrow after school if you really think the orchestra is cool."

"Yes'm," I said, as we scurried out of the room and immediately broke into fits of laughter.

"Are you really going to join the orchestra now?" Tara said, wiping away nonexistent tears from her face.

"I mean, I guess I have to? How bad can it be?"

"You will get to know soon, love."

"Can I come over to your place?" I asked as soon as we were out of the school premises.

"Sorry, dad's home today," she said. She looked distracted all of a sudden.

"What's up?" I said, putting one hand on her cheek, my thumb gently caressing her skin.

"Nothing, I just..." she closed her eyes, placing a hand on top of mine, "don't want him to get suspicious."

"Oh. Okay." I tried to sound as cool as possible but I think Tara sort of knew that I was having a hard time hiding myself in the closet again. But it was for the best. We both knew that we were not ready for it to be the next big news yet.

We looked at each other silently. There was so much I wanted to say at that moment but I just said it in my head, over and over again, hoping she would hear it somehow and say it for me.

I love you. I. Love. You.