Yours to love

Chapter 32: Lillian

Locked in each other's arms, the hammock swinging from left to right, his heartbeat is steady as I let it guide me to sleep. The rhythmic constancy of each beat is all I need in order to know everything will be okay.

Soon, he'll leave, and we'll be thousands of miles apart, but I will always remember his heartbeat, his breath on the nape of my neck, his kisses on my forehead, on the top of my head, on my cheeks, on my lips. And it's enough to keep me going.

I stare in the distance, watching my family around the fire pit. Laughing. Joking around. I had missed this. I was in need of a moment like this one. The lightness of being surrounded by people that don't drain you. The pleasure of simply being yourself. The feeling of belonging.

My phone dings in my pocket, Zora's name on the homescreen, accompanied with a text.

Zora: Hollow's Cove. 9 a.m. Bring a plate and a pen.

My eyebrows furrow.

"What's wrong?" Blake whispers in my ear, noticing the look on my face.

"Nothing, it's Zora, she's acting weird."

Me: Why?

Zora: You'll see ;)

"When is Zora acting completely normal?" he laughs at his own joke, but he isn't completely wrong.

She's a social butterfly, she loves meeting new people, hanging out, talking, but there's this part of her that is awkward, strange no matter how much time goes by. It's like, sometimes, craziness takes over her brain and body and makes odd decisions for herself.

Like this one time, we were at the park, enjoying the sun and milkshake and she just asked a stranger how much money he would give her if she poured her drink over her head. Or the time when we were at the grocery store and she just started dancing in the cleaning products aisle. I guess it's her outgoing side that comes out in these moments, just in a different way than usual. It's pretty obvious to me now that Zora lives under the motto You Only Live Once. She doesn't give a fuck about what other things, she never misses out on an opportunity to try something new.

I wish I was more like her in that sense. I would like to be the type of person who just wakes up one morning and decides to go skydiving or bungee jumping, someone who isn't afraid of changes, of failing, of letting people down, of disappointing. I wish I was a Don't give a fuck type of person, but I'm a GAF, and I guess that I always will be.

Or maybe I don't have to.

Me: I'll be there :)

Zora: I wasn't giving you a choice.

Typical Zora. I bet she would've showed up at my place tomorrow morning if I had told her no. She doesn't take no for an answer.

"I'm hanging out with Zora tomorrow," I announce to Blake, in case he had made plans for us in his mind.

"Adam and I have to go to the base for some sort of training, we'll be back on Monday."

"It'll be a short practice for when you'll leave."

"Two days without you, how am I going to survive this?" he says, his tone sarcastic, making my eyes roll. "Don't roll your eyes at me."

"Or what?" I dare him.

He gets off the hammock, throwing me over his shoulder as if I weigh nothing. Without anyone noticing us leaving, he walks beside the house, taking us to his. I beg him to put me down as he pushes the front door open, but he doesn't, not until we're in the living room. My back meets the soft cushions of the couch and he lowers himself on top of me, allowing me to help him out of his shirt.

He looks at me with a smile on his face and a shine I have never noticed before in his eyes before I can't see his face anymore. 

I know the chapters are quite short recently, but to make it up to you, there will be two today. I am currently proofreading the second one, so it shouldn't be long before I post it as well. 

I hope you are still enjoying my story even though I am not as active as I would like. 

Don't forget to comment, I love reading you guys, and I really want to know what you are thinking of the story. 

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Have a nice day!