Death is Equivalent to Love

Chapter 2

           We found our way back to my apartment. I pulled into the parking lot, taking my normal spot, Markus parking right next to me. I got out and grabbed my bags then waited for him at the back of my car for him to grab his things. We started walking up the long set of stone stairs that went to the first floor then to the elevator, taking us to my room on the fourth floor – the top floor. Since no one was usually home the time I got off of work we could be as loud as we wanted to be and do whatever we wanted to do. (Blasting our metal music, scream and shout at each other from across the room, etc...) I found the key amongst my hundreds of other keys and slid it into the door handle then opened it to my messy apartment filled with unpacked boxes from moving.

          "Wow. What a clean apartment. It's spotless, like a magical kingdom of no dust," he sarcastically complimented. I rolled my eyes and punched his shoulder as I set my stuff down.

          "Do you want some hot chocolate?" I made my way to the kitchen not waiting for an answer and made some anyways. He nodded and sat down on my red love seat in front of the TV.

           "You always knew how to make the best hot chocolate. I'm still curious as to how you make it." I don't know why this sounded so dumb to me.

          "I just," I paused, "put the hot water in with the cocoa. Are you okay?" He looked at me with a weird look.

          "Me? Yeah. The cold gets to me. My brain goes all numb and stuff," He giggled a little and sipped his drink, "Ah! Hot!" He set it down and stuck his tongue out. I laughed. His tongue was red from the heat. I fell back against the couch more and laughed harder. He looked at me and mumbled something with his tongue out; it only made me laugh harder.

          Soon I couldn't feel my ribcage from laughing; I was almost out of breath. He still sat there, dumbfounded and cooling his tongue off. My laughter died down and I looked at him, smiling,

          "Oh God," I wiped a tear away, "I haven't laughed that hard in a while!" I picked up my hot chocolate and sipped it slowly, first blowing on it to cool it off, which was obviously what Markus had forgotten to do. Suddenly a silence fell upon us. I looked down at my cup and then at Markus, he looked serious, like he had something to say.

          "Abigaill," he started off. He wouldn't look at me, but he still took my hand in his. I watched his thumb as it stroked my hand. His hands were so rough, like they'd been through a war. I looked up at him,

           "What is it?" He let out a huge sigh and looked me straight in the eye.

           "Abigaill, I really have fallen in love with you." I didn't know how to respond. I sat there, looking into his, letting the silence fall between us. He searched my eyes for an answer and then stood up abruptly.

          "I'm sorry. I'm stupid. I shouldn't have told you that," he put his hands on his head in a frustrated manner and made his way over to the window that overlooked the city.

           "Markus, no! I didn't...I was just taking it all in." I stood up and approached him from behind and put a hand on his back. I tried to think of something better to say,

           "How did you figure this out?" I rubbed his back then dropped my hand when he didn't look at me.

          "I have been in love with you. At least I think I have been. I don't know. You're beautiful. You understand me, I understand you. You're like an angel, you never swear, you always have a somewhat positive attitude and well... I guess that's just what put my beating heart in motion on the love factor." He explained as he turned around. My face felt hot, I stared at his eyes and took his hand in mine,