Constellations

sagitta

Eli grabs the apple off my plate mid-conversation.

I can just feel Arabella's gaze boring into the back of my head.

"It's these teachers that don't know how to take a bloody joke." He takes a large bite out of the center of the apple and continues to talk while he chews on it, "How was I supposed to know cabron and carbon weren't the same thing?" He goes on and on about how angry his dad will be at him for having detention for the rest of the week because of that incident. And how this is all spell-check's fault for not correcting his essay.

A familiar whiff of perfume makes me tune him out completely. I nudge my head a bit to the side in time to see Arabella wandering right past me without so much as a glance in my direction. Void of any words or acknowledgement my way, she saunters right out of the cafeteria.

I look down at the ground next to my feet. Sure enough, there's her light yellow post-it note folded up neatly right where it should be. It's almost like she's practiced this, I smirk to myself.

"I'll be right back," I say to the rest of my friends.

"Where're you going so fast?" Eli mimics with a skeptical brow raised.

It really is an excellent ability to be able to read a room precisely. "The restroom. I sat here listening to you talk so much, my bladder feels like it's gonna burst." I hear the rest of our friends at the table taunting him for how much he talks. Therefore he's too distracted with trying to defend himself than to even bother watching me go the same direction Arabella just did.

Once I hear the doors finally close behind me, I fish out the folded square from my jacket pocket. Meet me under the stairwell her slanted handwriting says. There's a few of those, but I'm guessing it's the one nearest to the cafeteria.

As per usual, I'm right.

The second she sees me, Arabella pulls me toward her and places my hands at her waist. Her arms move up and around my neck as she leans in to kiss me. Our lips sync up perfectly. Simultaneously slowing down and speeding up. She grazes her teeth against my bottom lip. I use the wall behind her to deepen our kiss. My god, she is addictive. From her sweet perfume filling my nostrils to the chills her fingers leave behind on my skin. She is a dream.

"No 'hi'?" I mutter against her lips. She hums out a slow, distracted no and she kisses me again. However this time I pull away with a cheeky smile. "No 'how's your day'? What happened to your manners, Arabella?" While I poke fun at her hastiness, I drag my hands down to her hips. I'm no better than her in the sense that we can never keep our hands off each other.

It's been that way for nearly three months. Although the concept of time seems to have subsided when we started dating because it's unfathomable to me that it's been that long since I climbed into her bedroom window for the first time.

And that certainly wasn't the last time.

I asked her to be my girlfriend almost a week after that night. Yes, I pondered all the risks. Yes, I knew that if the wrong person found out it could have been the end of something that had barely begun. But for the last four years, that's always been the case. Too many reasons not to talk to her, too many things left unsaid, too many excuses. I was through with it. I figured there was a reason we connected this year. Why we became friends, why we spent so much time together, why she told me she liked me. It was because finally, something was meant to happen. Something we both wanted.