Paper Hearts

13 | athenian

[ dedicated to irishspine because she's a fellow UofM lover and she was so sweet as she read this story - her comments really made my heart swell <3 ]

PAPER HEARTS | 13

"How about a wedding in California? We could do one of those beach ones. Good weather is a guarantee.

She shook her head. Too local.

"Fine, then what about a wedding on a cruise? We could go to the bahamas or something. It would be an all-you-can-eat buffet and enough water slides to last you a lifetime."

She made a face. Too many strangers, and she'd likely eat her way to three sizes above her wedding dress.

"Athens - I promise you Percy Jackson will be there."

She giggled, nudging Isaac's shoulder. "Why do I need Percy when I have you?"

"You're a flirt, I see," he responded, nudging her back.

They'd met for the first time on Halloween day a year ago. It was an October night blessed with a sky full of constellations for the children to marvel over and a full moon, allowing for the werewolves to transform. It was a night laced with frost; the cold seeping in through my pores and chilling me to the bone. It was a night embroidered by a breeze; the gust sending strong shivers rumbling through my spine. As premature as Ellie liked to think Isaac was for thinking about a marriage, she was glad she'd found someone who wanted just as grand of a wedding as her.

They were lying in his backyard, under a starless sky. Ellie lifted a trembling finger into the air, tracing the patterns the stars created while Isaac memorized her face for the millionth time that night. He ran a hand down the sharp lines of her cheeks, over the smooth skin that was her pink lips and through her hair, which was embroidered with stray leaves and dirt. Even though he'd laid out a blanket, Ellie had somehow rolled off.

Learning how to live among nature was what she called it. Isaac didn't want to burst her bubble by saying she was barely ten feet away from his back door - in other words, a refrigerator filled with food, a room with an air mattress and television and most important of all, a toilet. He briefly recalled the last time I took her camping. Ellie had refused to pee in the bushes so she'd held it in for a day in a half before she'd finally peed in her shorts. She'd run out of clean shorts to wear two days into the seven day trip and when it came to the other business, she gave him no choice but to drive her to the nearest gas station.

It was as she rolled onto her side that she realized they were, potentially, stupidly, madly, hilariously in love with each other. Isaac could never seem to get enough of her voice, calling her in the middle of the night and then in the middle of her classes. He always found a way to sneak into her dormitory and steal a kiss from her in between classes - something about her lips and her breasts had him coming back for more. According to his friends, he talked about her enough for them to start avoiding his company. He was obsessed, and she loved the attention wholly.

He wasn't a half bad boyfriend, or specimen, himself. He always greeted her in his dorm with a warm cup of hot chocolate and a single pink marshmallow. Ellie liked to joke that if it weren't for his barista-like skills and his dazzling smile, she wouldn't be with him - Isaac complained that the comment made him awfully insecure. She didn't believe him. For someone who could dance on a restaurant table without being drunk, she doubted a teasing comment would make him question the entirety of his existence.

"There must be more than this provincial life," she sighed.

"There is. Just watch. I'm going to make you my wife."