I was finally able to sit up straight, after an hour of attempting and failing. I sat up and hugged my knees close to my chest, watching the fire, made by Christian, flicker flames into the night. I could feel its heat send waves of warmth over to my sore body.
I watched the colors of the fire jump up from the wood, as if wanting to escape. But it also looked so alive and comforting, as both deadly and dangerous. I moved up my hands and hugged my shoulders, resting my chin on my arms.
From the corner of my eyes, I could see Christian sitting on the ground, only about two feet away from me. I looked over at him, and surely enough, he was already staring at me, with such serious green eyes. He looked at me like he was thinking something, but I didn’t know what.
I quickly looked away just as I began feeling a blush warming on my cheeks. I looked back at the fire, feeling the intensity of his eyes on me. I was having trouble breathing with just the thought of him looking at me, it got my heart racing and my thoughts cluttering.
I began to think back to that slow song that was playing at the club, how Joseph held Charlotte close to him. I wanted something like that, someone who truly cared about me. Why did I always go for players?
I had to ask Christian, it was beginning to bug me. “Christian?” I breathed in the flames.
“Yeah?” He asked, his eyes dropping mine right as I looked over to him.
“Why do you hate me?” The question was left hanging in the air, all around us. He sighed after a long, painful minute.
“I don’t hate you.”
I laughed silently to myself. “I’m pretty sure you do. You made it pretty clear.”
“I’m sorry about that.” He muttered.
Something must’ve been wrong with my ears. Did he just…apologize? Not possible. But he did, and I heard it loud and clearly. It had me taken aback. I didn’t know what to say, so instead, I stayed silent, and waited, watched him.
He sighed, “Look, I seriously don’t hate you, okay?”
“Then why did you act like it?” I asked, letting all my hurt show. Everything he said really did hurt. I couldn’t pretend that it didn’t.
“It’s…weird.” He murmured silently. He hung his head and stared at the ground.
“I don’t bite. I promise. Tell me.”
He looked back up at me, his eyes flaring, reflecting off the flames from the fire. He looked so helpless right now; it was something I wasn’t used to.
Hesitantly, he spoke, “Don’t think I’m weird, but…Before I met you, I had dreams about you…Like, I would see you in my dreams. When Robert first brought you, I acted kinda nice and all, figuring it wasn’t real, it was just another dream or something. But it wasn’t, it isn’t. You’re real. Obviously.” He chuckled, and I listened.
“Don’t think of me as creepy or anything…” He cut himself off.
“I don’t.” I reassured him quickly, not wanting him to feel bad or anything. I didn’t want him to feel as lonely as he looked right now. He looked up from the ground and into my eyes, and this time, he held my gaze. I smiled with a little giggle escaping my throat. He chuckled deeply, his eyes soulful.
“Hey,” He muttered, as if asking me something.
“Huh?” I asked, no longer hurt, no longer having to ignore him. It felt good not ignoring him. He was one of the most real people I’ve ever met, and the fact that he had dreamed about me, though it was a bit unusual, was taken as a sign of fate.
“Can I try something?” He looked at me with pleading eyes. Just that question got my gut to clench, got my heart to race, everything inside me wanted to puke up.
I didn’t know what he wanted to try, but I just nodded. The flames of the fire continued to rage and sparkle in the air, they were the only noise left as I watched Christian slowly crawl towards me, inch, by inch, by inch. I held in my breath, afraid to move, as his face got even closer.
Within seconds, his cold breath was washing over my face, into my mouth. I inhaled his breath deeply, and shut my eyes. All my thoughts were lost in that moment, I couldn’t think. I didn’t want to think. I just wanted to live in this moment, right here, right now.
Slowly, very, very slowly he leaned down, reached across my knees and cupped my right cheek, and after a long, silent moment, his lips gently brushed against my mine. His lips fit right into the gap between mine just perfectly, and even more perfectly as our lips began to move.
I could still feel his touch against my cheek, the warmth from the fire, the fireflies of the night. It was all so perfect, so passionate, so warm and so comfortable. It was something I never expected to happen, considering just earlier today I thought he hated me. He had dreamed about me, instead.
His hands pushed down my knees, and I wrapped my legs around him to scoot him even closer. His hands began to explore my backside as he continued on with the soft, unbreakable kiss.
That’s when everything began to darken into blackness.
