First Light

61 the sunset

Friday 29th of April 2022 (the following week)

Faye:

The sunset outside is beautiful, spreading pink and yellow and red over the sky, the last few minutes of light reaching across to hold onto Marlo's room before it has to slip away.

I should be finishing an assignment for class, but I can't seem to. Not while the sky looks like that. My computer screen is dim on his desk, it has long since gone to sleep. The way I rushed over to the window was like I had never witnessed the sky changing before, but I am sure that I've never seen colours as bright as these.

I turn to Marlo, to where he is on his bed, to get him to look at the sky, but he is already looking. Not at the sky, but at me. I wonder how long he has been looking for. Perhaps he hasn't noticed the sky, maybe he doesn't have as good a view of it as I do where I am.

"Did you see the sky?" I say to him, pointing in its general direction.

His eyes flick over to the window briefly before looking back at me. His expression doesn't change, apart from a smile.

"I saw." His voice is quiet.

I turn back to face the window. I don't want to miss the colours merging. They're like watercolour paints.

"It looks so pretty."

He hums in agreement, and I hear the sound of him getting up and walking over to me, feeling his chest briefly touch my back as he stands behind me. I look up at him, at him looking out the window like I have been. He is very close, a lot closer than I thought he'd be, so my nose nearly hits his chest at my head turn.

I laugh awkwardly. "Sorry."

He tilts his head down to me, smiles a little. "It's okay."

I turn back to the window and feel his arms wrap around and pull me back until I'm against his chest. One of his hands is resting on my left arm, and the other is across my collarbones along with his arm, and both are adding to how fast my heart is going. If he moves his right hand just a couple of centimetres down, he'd be able to feel it.

His head dips, and I feel his curls brush my skin before they're paired with his lips. Three slow, gentle kisses down the side of my neck with the final one onto the clothed part of my right shoulder, and I suddenly wish I owned a top that exposed them because feeling a kiss through fabric isn't enough.

I must lean into him, involuntarily, because just as he's bringing his head back up to continue looking at the sunset, he pauses. I think he initially meant there to be just three, but he must notice my reaction to them, because he brings his head back down to kiss me more. The slowness and how soft he is making them raises goosebumps along where his lips touch; along my neck and my shoulders. I feel the pulse of his heartbeat quicken against my back, ricocheting through my body, which only increases my own.

"Faye." His voice is suddenly husky, something I'm not that familiar with but what makes my mouth dry all the same.

"Yeah?" My voice is quiet, so quiet.

I turn my head to the side to look at him the same time he turns his to look at me. I am reading the expression on his face that tells me he's as affected from kissing me as I am at being kissed, and then his eyes flick down to look at my mouth, long eyelashes skimming the edge of where his cheekbones would start.