Guided by the Stars (GxG)

No.24

I shivered at the comfort her touch was giving me, how her hand carefully caressed my arm while the other rubbed slow circles on my cheek as she kept on whispering sweet nothings into my ear.

"Am I dead?"

A tiny chuckle, the one I remembered leaving her lips, so vivid yet impossible to be real, was I beginning to lose my mind...?

"My sweet girl," she spoke without any sign of urgency, just calmness as if we were drifting in the middle of the ocean with no one around to disturb our peace. "Not yet." The sound of her voice was enough to cause my heart to race. So the surprise when the suffering had stopped took me aback.

"Shame..." I muttered.

A short silence before she asked with a touch of worry. "Do you wish to be?"

As I wished to reach for her hand, I found myself unable to move, causing the irritation to grow I scoffed, "At least you would be real, we would meet in the afterlife and live happily ever after."

Her laughter made me pout. "What?" I grumbled.

"Maybe we could have our happily ever after here?" her lips whispered against mine, and my stomach fluttered at the closure.

Closing my eyes in order to soak in the moment, I opened them slowly and looked into those eyes, full of wonders and love.

"I love your eyes," I blurted out.

Her lip curved upwards, and she giggled. "Do you now?"

"Mhm," I hummed. "I never got to tell you that..." the pang of guilt filled my heart. "I never got to tell you how much you occupy my mind, how every second I think of you, and how I wish to make you mine."

"It's okay my love," she reassured. "I knew. It's mutual."

"You have?"

She blessed me with a warm smile. "Yes silly, sometimes you just know, even without doing much, even when you haven't touched a lot..." she uttered and slowly ran her finger down my neck towards the collarbone. "Sometimes you just know it's the one when their presence makes you question everything and nothing at once."

I couldn't help but enjoy the moment and tease her slightly, "That's too confusing Nahla, your teacher's side is showing."

Her pupils dilated and she huffed with an adorable pout showing afterward. "Well, I am older and wiser!"

"Older, yes. Wiser? Well..." she nudged my side and I smirked.

"You have quite an attitude you know that?"

I gasped and she worried thinking she might have offended me; it was endearing how empathetic and gentle this woman was.

"I really wish I could touch you," I confessed with a sigh, still unable to move.

"It's better this way," she told me surely.

My brows knitted closer together at her quick response. "How so?"

She smiled wearily and pecked my lips. "If you could, it would be difficult to leave... it was safe in your arms."

"Then don't leave," I almost begged, where was she going? My heart began to ache at the uneasiness this question has brought to my confused mind.

"I'm glad we had this moment," she spoke avoiding my question entirely.

"Where are you going?" I asked beginning to panic.