Disguise♔ z.m

Forty eight

“This is wonderful.” she pleasantly remarks, opening the door windows to our hotel room (we had to share one room since her sister thinks we are actually dating when we’re not) and letting the soft breeze howl in, blowing her hair to her shoulders, showing off her perfect behind. I never knew the significance of curves until now. I never knew the curve of the hips, calves, lips, nose, shoulders, arms, smile, could ever make importance, but here I am, light headedly falling in love with curves that make Nora. She wasn’t exactly curvy, but she did have that something about her that would make anyone wonder why she isn’t happy, when she deserves everything this world could offer. She didn’t exactly have the bum or breasts that could hypnotize you, neither did she have the toned body, but she was perfect in every imperfect way that you simply couldn’t draw an invisible line between two extreme contradictions.

     “This is wonderful.” she repeats, looking back. “Isn’t it?”

I smile. “Yes.” I didn’t know whether my yes referred to the view, hotel room or her smile or her as a whole.

     My hands are in a knot between my legs as I sit at the foot of the bed, thinking about how these weeks would go by.

                    Would I be able to control myself?

                    Would I be able to make her love me instead?

Instead of filling my head with questions, I choose to join her at the balcony and stand by her side.

        She looks so impeccable, standing here, smiling at everything and nothing. I don’t know how she does it, though.

“Venice is beautiful.”

I should have said, “You are,” but I stuck to saying, “So is Rome.”

     “Have you been there?” She looks at me. I look back, studying how beautiful her light complexion is, and how funny the freckles splashed on her nose look.

     “Yes.”

“Is it any different?”

     “Not really. They both hold much history, but Rome has the people that never sleep.”

“Oh,” she nods, finger on her lips. “I would like to go there someday; to that mysterious place where no one sleeps.”

    “Ha, as in, they do, like, you know, sleep, but... Uh, it’s just—“

“I get it,” she giggles, and I swear I could have recorded this sound. “They are just people who are alive.”

      She rests forwards, irises lighting up to the sunlight rays that shine above our dangerously close bodies. When in school, I was shit at science and I never really paid attention to the moments when they talked about the speed of light, though I wish I did because I certainly know it took me faster to fall in love with her than the light rays to hit the surface of the earth.

      “Anything new with Liam?”

She glowers. I knew I shouldn’t have brought it up, but I had to. I really had to.

“He’s fine. Just been distant lately, but he’s fine.” She gives me an authentic smile. It doesn’t get to her eyes as it always does. I don’t see the great amount of crinkles appear by the edges of her eyes, I don’t see her lips purse up, because if it did, I would know she was not hurting, but the truth was that none of those features occurred and I know she misses him; veronica knows that and not you.

     “Are you sure?”                                       

“I—“the knock on the door intrudes our conversation and a little groan escapes my lips, though Nora doesn’t seem to hear it because she is already taking hasty strides to the door and pulling back to display Alexandra standing in one of her marine blue jumpsuits, telling Nora something I can’t make out since the door windows are slightly closed and my head is always so loud.