paper rings (l.h.)

17

He laid on top of me the same way he did before we had taken our clothes off. His bare skin and mine against each other's. I felt his heartbeat calm as his head laid on my chest, my hands through his hair as I stared at his off-white popcorn ceiling. I felt his soft breath graze the skin on my chest.

My hands trail down the back of his neck, and my nails gently scratching his back before moving up once again to his hair. He seemed to enjoy it — for a second I had though he had fallen asleep.

"I think you're beautiful, too," I said after a second, wondering if he was even awake to hear me say it.

As his head lifts from my chest, I realize that it was heard by him. A red tint to his cheeks as his eyes meet mine. He leans down to press his lips against mine again, and I kiss back just as I did before we had gotten here.

"Have you ever dated a celebrity, Mary?" He asks, his voice raspy and just above a whisper. He leans down to kiss me again, his lips slowly moving down my jawline.

"I can't say that I have," I smile as I lay my head to the side to allow him better access. I'm afraid to see the aftermath of this evening, and how my Mom would react if she were to see it.

"Would you mind having your photograph taken every restaurant we would go to?"

"If it was you I'd be at that restaurant with," I respond, his face lifting from the crook of my neck to meet my eyes. "I'd get over it."

"It can be bad at times, Mary," he continues. "They've swarmed a wedding I went to. My cousin's," he whispers. "I don't want to do that to you. People on the internet can be really mean sometimes."

"I don't care," I say confidently, watching his eyes widen when he realizes I am genuine. "I want to be your girlfriend. And I don't care what that means. I fell for you, Luke. And that is all of you."

"You said," he pulls himself off of me to lay on his back. He lays directly beside me, and I watch as his jaw tenses up. "You didn't like the noise and fuss in a city."

"I don't."

"I just don't want you to get into anything that you'd end up resenting me for." He finally admits. "I don't want you to resent me for asking."

"If I didn't want to date you, I wouldn't have said yes in the first place," I lay on my side to face him, my head resting on my arm as his eyes begin to water yet again. "I've done nothing but enjoy every second I've spent with you. Don't you see? I want this. I don't mind what may come with it."

He lets out a shallow sigh, gulping down whatever emotions that were about to make an appearance. I place my hand on his bicep, resting my head on his shoulder.

"It's not like I don't come with baggage of my own, Luke," I slide my body closer to his. "If you don't want to, that's fine. I'll back off. But if you're worried about me resenting you, I won't."

"It's not that I don't want to," he wraps his arm around my shoulders, so that my head rests on his chest. I wrap my bare leg around his, glancing at his messy closet that he must have accidentally left open.

I look up at him, raising my head off of his chest to look down at his face. "You said you weren't planning on sticking around."

"That was before I had something to keep me here."

I feel my face soften as he says this. I lower my head back down onto his chest.

"I want to be yours." I say after a slight pause. A sort of desperate, very desperate last attempt for him to hear me out. I haven't felt this way in so long. I haven't felt truly heard by someone I wasn't related to in a while. I haven't met someone so kind and enchanting. I adored everything Luke was, and I had since before I knew he was famous.