Room 537

Chapter 23

Charlie

2 months later

"Now can I open them?" I ask bouncing up and down.

"Almost there." Elijah says keeping his hands covered over my eyes.

"We've been almost there forever! Walk faster."

"Sorry I'm trying to keep you from falling."

Too late.

I try to decipher where we're going as Elijah continues to guide me to my birthday surprise. I can feel that we're outside by the breeze and sun hitting my skin. The leaves on the grass crunch beneath my shoes. There's only so many places we can go here.

The movie room. Library. There's an old shed but it's off limits and not to mention that it's not really romantic. There's a pretty good amount of open field but it's too risky.

If I think about the layout of this place, the movie room is the first building after the main one and we've been walking for a few minutes so we definitely passed it. So all that's really left is the library.

We come to a stop as I ask, "Are you taking me to the library?"

Elijah sighs as he removes his hands. "Way to ruin the surprise." I turn around, placing the quickest peck on his cheek before walking in. I may have ruined the surprise of where we're going but I couldn't have predicted what's on the inside.

The table right in the middle of the room is absolutely decked. In the middle is a picnic basket with a drawing of the two of us right in the middle of the lid. His arm is around me and we have the flower crowns I made for us that day on the field on our heads. Elijah's placing a kiss on my cheek. In front of the basket are four sandwiches with the glasses of orange juice next to it. In front of our two chairs are to mini canvases with paint in the middle and paintbrushes on the side.

I turn to Elijah who's standing there awkwardly with his shoulder raised and his hands in his pockets. "I know it's not a lot and I definitely would've done more if we weren't in here but happy birthday Charlie."

He barely gets the words out before my hands grip the side of his face pulling him in for a kiss. His hands snake around my waist pulling me as close to him as possible. I feel like caterpillar inside my cocoon, like I belong here, like this was where I was meant to be all my life. There are no doubts in my head that Elijah was meant to come into my life. Even if I didn't come here he would've come into my life somehow. Maybe he would've escaped here. Maybe he would've lived with his mom instead and we would've crosses paths. Somehow, someway Elijah and I were meant to be in each other's lives.

For a long time, I was too depressed to let myself indulge in love. I didn't think I deserved it so I deprived myself of any kind of love. Platonic. Romantic. Self. I didn't want to burden anyone with the baggage that is me. I didn't think I had a loving bone in my body. But I do.

Because I love Elijah. I love him with everything in me.

For once I'm letting myself be selfish by choosing to love someone even though it could cost us everything because loving Elijah isn't a choice. It's my oxygen.

I finally pull away. His eyes. God, those fucking eyes.

I was screwed the second I saw those eyes.

He places a kiss on the tip of my nose before lacing our fingers together and walking us to our seats. He brings the food in front of us. We talk about anything and everything as we eat. Books, childhood, what we think the future will look like and so much more. Conversation flows and everything is just easy. I'm at peace.

Then we start painting and I'm no longer at peace. How the fuck is Elijah good at this stuff? I'm doing exactly what he did. Okay, maybe I skipped the drawing it out first part. But I wanted to get to the fun part. COLOUR.

He holds his up to look at it. I glare at him. He looks over at mine. "Baby, what happened?" He says in the middle of a laugh.

"You tell me. "I complain. "I almost did exactly what you did."

"Almost?" He asks.

"The colour was begging to be used. Begging. Who am I to refuse? I'm not an artist."

Elijah continues to laugh at me. "You aren't allowed to laugh at me on my birthday. That's mean."

"Alright. Alright. I'm sorry." He hands his one to me. "You can fill this in. "He says.

"Really?" I ask. He nods his head at the same time I take it out of his hand and start painting it. It's like a colouring book but better because Elijah did it. He takes my "painting". Apparently he's going to fix it. Good luck with that, Picasso.

"Charlie?" Elijah says.

"Yes?"

"Your sentence is almost done. What happens when you leave?"

My hand stops mid-air. It's something I've thought about a lot. I only have a month and a half left here and even though I'm happy that I can get away from this hell hole I want to stay with Elijah. There's nothing we can do once I leave. I can't send letters because those are checked by the guards. We aren't allowed visitors. There's nothing.

"I don't know. But I don't want to leave you Elijah." I take hold of his hand.

"I don't want you to be here anymore. But I don't want you to leave."

I can't imagine a world where I don't wake up next to Elijah every day. No more showers together. No more studying. No more cuddling. No more drawing together. No more library visits together. Nothing. Elijah would become a painful memory.

He wipes away a tear I didn't even know rolled down my cheek.

"We'll figure it out baby. We always do. It'll be okay. Today is about celebrating you. Come on."

I smile. He's right. We can focus on the bad things another day. Today is all about us. I place a kiss on his lips. We'll be alright.