First Light

40 alstroemerias

Monday 24th of January 2022

Marlo:

I'm in the kitchen stealing some of Jonah's snacks to accompany me for working on my assignment when the door swings open. I immediately stuff the stolen cookies into my hoodie pocket in case it's Jonah, but it's Becca.

I didn't think many things could ruin my mood today, what with me seeing Faye later, but maybe I was wrong.

She gives me a very over-the-top smile, like she's surprise to see me here. "Oh. Hey, Marlo."

"Hi," I say bluntly, going back to the cupboard to take a packet of crisps. I doubt Jonah would notice.

"I barely see you around anymore. It's like you're avoiding me or something." She laughs like I'm going to correct her.

I turn back to her. "I am."

Her eyebrows raise. "Wait, what? Why?"

"You think I don't know how you treat Faye? I can see how much you dislike her. She's done nothing wrong to you."

Becca rolls her eyes, sighing exasperatedly. This only annoys me further. "Of course I like Faye."

"No, you don't. And since she's someone I care about very much, I don't care for people who treat her like you do."

Her expression wavers slightly, and then she smirks. "Oh, yes, your little hook-up thing that's going on. I completely forgot."

"Not that it's any of your business at all, but it's not a 'hook-up thing'. Best to stay out of both our lives, Becca. I don't want anything to do with you, we're not friends."

She laughs, her face shocked. "Are you actually being serious? We literally live in the same flat, we're going to see each other."

I shrug, and head for the door, opening it before turning back to her. "Just going to have to find some way to cope with it, aren't you?"

Faye:

Marlo has told me to meet him outside the gates of the accommodation at 4.15. He's somehow there first, even though I purposefully left to be earlier than him.

He's got a huge smile on his face which only gets wider the closer I get to him, which obviously makes me smile.

"Why do you look so happy?" I ask, half-speaking half-laughing, as I lean in to hug him.

He pulls a I don't know what you're talking about look when he lets go of me, and then motions for us to walk.

I narrow my eyes at him slightly, still smiling, trying to see if he'll give something away. He doesn't.

Once we've been walking for a few minutes in the woods, he turns to me, that same wide smile from earlier back on his face. "Okay, we're getting there. I'm going to need you to close your eyes."

"Close my eyes?" I echo, confused.

"That's what I said, Faye, yes."

I laugh. "Why do I need to do that?"

"For the surprise, obviously. You trust me, don't you?"

A surprise?

I smile at him. With the last of the sun hitting his face directly, his eyes look like pools of warm honey. "Of course I trust you."

He smiles. "Okay, so close them. I promise you won't trip or anything."

I do as he says, and he walks beside me the whole time, one hand around me so that both are guiding me by my shoulders, telling me where to step and any obstacles that are in my path. The weight of his hands is making my heart pound, and I lick my lips nervously.

After about a minute, he stops me gently, and I feel his position move to behind me, both hands still on the sides of my shoulders.

"Alright, you can open them now."

So I do, and I involuntarily gasp at the view before me. He has strung up lights all around the low branches of trees and bushes in this little space in the forest, contrasting with the darkness around us from the setting sun, and I wonder how something so simple can look so beautiful.

"They're only temporary, of course, just while we're here. Don't want to be hurting any wild-life or anything." Marlo says, still behind me.

"It looks so pretty," I say softly, stepping away from him to turn around and marvel at the whole scene.

My eyes settle back on him with a smile. He's smiling right back. "I got something for you, by the way."

I watch wordlessly as he unzips his bag, pulling out a bouquet of orange alstroemerias, holding them out to me. My favourite flowers.

I gasp again, my cold fingertips pressing against my mouth, and then hold out my arm to take them.

"You remembered." My voice comes out quietly.

"Of course I did."

I look back up at him. "Thank you, Marlo. So much."

"That's not it. There's another thing."

"Another?" I am smiling so hard that it's starting to hurt a little.

He nods, his smile faltering slightly into what looks like nerves. He swallows, waits a beat as if he's trying to compose himself. "I was wondering... If you'd want to be my girlfriend?"

The silence is broken by a very unattractive quiet squeal from me, and then I am nodding, nodding so much that my head might just snap off my neck, but I can't seem to stop. "Yes. Yes, I want to be your girlfriend."

Marlo pulls me to him and kisses me before I can embarrass myself any further, both of us are laughing, kissing between smiles and laughs and breaths and hearts thumping.

The flowers have been flattened slightly when we break apart, so I try to gently even them out again, careful not to break any of them.

"I am genuinely so sorry that it took this long," Marlo says, and I look up from my petal straightening. "I didn't want to do it too closely to Jonah's birthday, so I thought I'd wait a bit, but the florist didn't have your flowers for ages. Then while I was waiting for the flowers, I thought that I might just ask you on a day that we were both free for long enough, but I didn't want to do it half-assed, I wanted to put some effort into it.

And then I decided I couldn't do it anymore. I couldn't go a second longer without asking you."

I smile at him. "It's okay. You've asked me now, so that's all that matters."

He nods. "I would've asked you on new year's but I think that might've been too soon."

I laugh loudly at this, him joining. "Yeah, probably."

"People aren't going to hear the end of this, by the way. I'm going to be bringing you up in every conversation."

I don't think I've ever smiled this much in this amount of time. I don't think I even did stop smiling once, actually, in this whole time I've been here.

Marlo is my boyfriend. My. Mine all mine all mine.*

***

* reference to mitski btw

BUT YAYYY FINALLY TOGETHER