The Weirdo and the Princess

t w e n t y - s i x

She shouldn't have been here. It was crazy. This whole relationship – if she could even call it that – was crazy. It was crazy messy and crazy complicated.

But no matter how much she tried, Adeline Lockhart could not help the way she felt about Connor Ball. She could not help the way her heart melted all the way down to her feet until she was looking down at it as a puddle when she thought about him. She could not help that her whole body buzzed when her phone buzzed with a new message from him. She could not help the feeling of vibrant happy colours coursing through all her veins and arteries whenever their eyes met in class. She could not help looking away anytime he caught her eye because she felt that a colour tornado might take her up into the sky until she lost herself among the clouds and couldn't find her way back. She couldn't help not wanting to come back anyway.

She couldn't help feeling scared. She couldn't help the clench of anxiety around her newly formed unpuddlefied heart whenever she thought about the moment when she'd told him she'd loved him... and the moment she had taken it back. She couldn't help feeling like a deflated balloon whenever her phone buzzed and it wasn't him. She couldn't help feeling her breath hitch and threaten to leave her breathless and flailing whenever her head swirled with too many 'what ifs' whenever their eyes met in class. She couldn't help fearing the long drop that her colour tornado might bring on her anytime she refused to meet his eyes in the halls.

So, it was crazy. Crazy messy and crazy complicated. And she probably shouldn't have been here.

But he had said he couldn't stop thinking about her. And despite her heart constantly converting from puddle to stone, she couldn't help but coming here. Because even though she was in the park at 3 o'clock in the morning like a crazy person, she couldn't stop thinking about him either.

And she needed to know what that meant.

***

He had never run this much or this far before.

Connor Ball could have taken the car, but the sparks he felt all over his body, all over his entire being, all over the entire world, weren't letting him. So, he ran. He ran like the wind, like there was nothing holding him back, like he was running into forever. And through it all, he couldn't stop thinking about Adeline Lockhart.

When he approached the park, he finally slowed down. He was panting, but he didn't take note of it.

His heart was pounding and he wasn't sure whether it was from all the running or from seeing her.

She was sitting on a bench, twirling a piece of hair in between her fingers, one of her legs shaking, looking down at her feet.

He stopped completely and just looked at her. At her light brown hair falling down her shoulders. At her white dress and the way she tugged it over her knees. At her jean jacket and the way she kept pulling it closer around her body and then unwinding her arms from around herself and then hugging the jean jacket closer again. He was surprised to see that she wasn't wearing one of her usual flower crowns.

She looked up. Their matching green eyes met.

All the colors in the world exploded all around them.

***

Connor sat next to Adeline on the bench. Neither of them said anything to the other. Adeline continued shaking her leg up and down up and down up and down and Connor continued looking at her as she refused to look at him.

It was strange seeing her like this without her usual wit and free-spirited nature. It was kind of endearing, if he was being honest. It was human, it was unguarded, and it was real. Finally, after all this time she was showing him herself. And despite her obvious anxiety, he felt like that meant something.

"It's a beautiful night." he said.

"Really? Small talk?" she asked, still looking anywhere but at him.

"It's kind of what I do when I'm nervous."

"You're nervous?" She turned toward him now, but she was looking at his shirt now.

"I thought you would know by now that I'm not the person everyone seems to think I am. That there's a lot more to me than that surface shallow half-image."

He sounded hurt.

"That's not what I meant. What I mean is," she paused for a moment and met his eyes, "it's comforting to know that I'm not the only one."

"Don't be." he said, taking one of her hands in his. "It's just me."

"You just said you were too! It's just me too."

"That's just it. It is just you. You. Wonderful and perfect you. How life brought us to this moment, I'm not sure I'll ever understand. And I'm not sure I want to. Because it's perfect. It's perfect to me, at least. It may not make sense. It may be a series of coincidences and a few second chances, but I really don't care. Because it brought me to you. And Adeline Lockhart, I have had a crush on you since before that camp experience. It may have been a silly crush before, but then I got to know you-"

"And it made you more human. And I realized how sweet and kind you actually were. And then suddenly I found myself thinking about you. Too much. Too often. Too recklessly. Until it was too late to stop myself from falling in love with you."

"What?"

"I'm sorry. I just had to say it."

Their eyes were locked now and the tornado was threatening to build up more and more and suddenly she could feel herself being lifted off the ground and the clouds were in sight and she was losing herself and she was caring less and less as she felt lighter and lighter...

"Well, I'm glad you did. Please don't take it back this time."

She laughed and shook her head. Her laugh made him smile. He liked making her laugh. He imagined making her laugh on days spent together, on days spent in each other's company, on days spent breathing in each other's worlds, on days spent like this, on nights like these when they couldn't sleep and instead counted the stars together, on nights when he thought that her eyes were brighter than the stars, on nights when he would remember this first night when it all felt new, on nights when he would realize how lived-in it felt like now, on nights he wouldn't mind, on days and nights spent with her.

"In your message you said you had been trying to figure out how to tell me something?" she said cautiously, her voice raising up in a question as if she was afraid of tipping over some grand scale that was balancing on an instability.

He had been waiting for her to ask.

"Yeah. I was. And I have."

And then he kissed her. And in that moment she could swear that she could taste all the colors in the world.

"I love you too, Adeline."

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

So, that is it, kiddos. That was quite a journey, huh? Look at where our beloved Connor and Adeline have ended up. They are both very stubborn, so it took a while, but apparently Connor is less stubborn than Adeline and took initiative.  

This is where I should say the end and thanks for reading and enjoying it and being the best and that your comments brighten my day and motivate me to write even more. Yeah, well, that too, but the thing is it's not really the end, is it? It's only the end of this fan fic, but the third installment of this series is going to be uploaded in a short time. See how excited I am about it? I bolded, italicized, and underlined it. Anyway, that one is Brad's texting story, so I hope that you enjoy that one as much as I hope you enjoyed the previous two novellas in the series.

I will see you soon, my darlings, and thank you for reading my work!