Falling Upwards

/Uncharted Territory\

The same persistent patch of sunlight that wakes me up every morning, wakes me up today as well. The only difference between today and every other day is that I feel a pressure on my rib cage. I don't know why, and my eyes aren't working right yet so I'm completely clueless as to what it is. Finally, my eyes decide to work and I look down to see an arm placed over me.

"What the...?" Oh! It's Noah. Despite the pillow wall, his arm is lazily draped over my waist. I gently turn to face him, with his arm still draped over me, trying not to wake him up. He's so beautiful. Even asleep his features take your breath away.

"Quit staring at me, weirdo." He says out of nowhere, scaring the fuck out of me.

"Jesus! Oh, you scared me. I didn't know you were awake." I say. He still hasn't moved his arm from me, tethering me to him. It's a nice feeling to be touching someone. Nothing sexual or inappropriate. Just, human contact. It's a wonderful thing.

"I get that you didn't know I was awake by the intense look on your face. By the way, you have beautiful green eyes. Did you know that, Max? They're absolutely stunning." He says sweetly. Wait. What? What is happening.

"Really? Oh, I mean thanks. Haha." I say lamely. Idiot, Max. Think of something witty! Way to fail me, brain.

Still wrapped up in his arm, he tells me to turn and face the outer edge of the bed again, my back to his chest. He then pulls me in, extremely close, and just holds me. At first I'm uncomfortable because of the pillow wall still between us, among other reasons, and VERY confused on what the hell is happening, but then I give in. He moves the pillows and I lean back against him. I can feel his heartbeat against my shoulder blades. It feels steady. It feels good.

After a few minutes like this, he then shifts onto his back, and holds his arms open. For some reason that's unknown to me, I lean into his arms and rest my head on him, my ear to his chest. I can hear his heartbeat again. I place my hand just over his heart, and it quickens in pace, rapidly. I smile to myself. I smile at the fact that I make his heartbeat quicken.

Anyways, it's not like we had sex, or anything remotely like that. It's just nice to be held by someone. And it's probably just nice to hold someone. It's really calming, and quite serene. Plus the combination of his cologne, laundry detergent, and whatever he washes his body with smell amazing together. It's quite a lovely scent.

After what seems like hours of just laying there in each other's arms he says, "I know that I just met you, but I feel like I could stay this way forever, and be happy. If that makes any sense. No, that was lame. Uhh. Sorry." He stumbles over his words, which surprises me. Was he nervous?

"I completely understand what you're trying to say. And for some reason, I feel the same way. Oh, and by the way, did you kiss my head last night, right before I fell asleep? Or was I dreaming?" I ask, remembering the odd occurrence.

"I most definitely did. I don't know. Err. S-should I have not done that? I feel like I should kiss you again. Or not. Whatever." Noah says, turning bright red. He...kissed me. And he wants to again. My heart starts racing, and I feel like I'm going keel over from hyperventilating.

"It's okay if you did. And it's okay if you do again, I think so. Probably just once more. Just to see if it feels right. You know. A little test." I say with a shy smile. I don't really know what's come over me; I feel very comfortable talking about kissing a boy while being in his arms in my bed. This all is moving quite quickly and is difficult to process.

This makes him smile like crazy and he pulls me into a joking-but-bone-crushing hug.

"I-I can't...breathe!" I squeak.

He pulls back quickly, laughing. Noah positions himself to where he is using my boobs as pillows. The struggles of being a girl are real.

"You're boobs are nice. I like your boobs. Hahaha!" He says in a funny voice, then bursts out laughing. I can't help but laugh along with him at his obscene gesture of lying on my breasts.

"Thanks, Noah. Means a lot." I say, laughing too.

I suddenly remember that I'm starving. I pick up his head and shove him off of me. Although he objects, I get up and pluck some clothes out of my dresser and go into the bathroom to change. I lock the door behind me.

"Come baackk!!" He wails, and reached for me (even though I'm literally 15 ft away), nearly falling off the bed. I laugh and begin to strip.

I leave the bathroom, expecting to see him on the bed, but he's actually in the corner of the room. Changing. I blush crimson at seeing his perfectly tanned skin stretched tight over the hard muscles in his back and shoulders. He turns around and I see his stomach and chest. His gorgeous abs aren't too defined, but are extremely noticeable and perfect. I look away and bite my lip to keep from smiling.

"Enjoying the view?" He asks with a smirk. I'm just lucky he has the sweats on still or I would have literally died by now.

"Would it be totally disgusting and inappropriate and weird if I said yes?" I say, looking at the ground. I look up to see that what I had said caught him totally off guard. His cheeks flush red and he slowly makes his way over to me.

"No, it wouldn't be any of those things." He is just a few steps away from me now. "It would just make me feel better about doing this," and out of nowhere it happens.

He snakes his arm around my waist to the small of my back and pulls me to him. He's much taller than me so I have to look up at him. With his other hand he cups my cheek and traces small circles on my face, never looking away from my eyes. He finally looks at something other than my eyes- my lips. Then back to my eyes. Noah bites his lip, and leans in slowly.

Our lips brush ever so lightly at first, then with a needier, more passionate hunger, he deepens the kiss moving both of his hands to my back, and I place mine at the nape of his neck.

His full lips expertly move in time with mine. Still very light in pressure. It's a gentle kiss, yet it still gives me butterflies in my stomach. Noah is actually the first guy to kiss me... Well, not really. The only other time I've kissed someone was this boy I was dared to kiss in freshman year. It was awful and I don't count that as my first kiss. This is much, much nicer. Our lips mingle with each other for what feels like hours.

I pull back slowly, trying to catch my breath. I feel the blood in my cheeks and feel so embarrassed. I look up at him and he's smiling ear-to-ear. Though I don't know a
the reason as to why he's grinning..

"Wow," he says. The look on his face is somewhat shocked. I feel like I did something wrong.

"Wow in a good way, or wow in a bad way?" I ask cautiously.

"Wow in a 'I can't believe I just kissed an incredibly beautiful and perfect girl, and she actually kissed me back' way. So yeah. In a good way." he says, panting. He called me beautiful. And perfect. That's never happened before. I'm currently in uncharted territory. I'm lost. What is this?

"You were my first," I say, and silently pray that he doesn't think I'm weird. I'm 16, and just had my first kiss. That's not weird...right?

"Really? That's... amazing. I'm really glad it was me, Max. I wouldn't feel comfortable with any other guy kissing you." He smiles sweetly at me.

"I had to kiss this one kid as a dare but that really wasn't a kiss," I say.

"Yeah, that kiss doesn't count. But this one did," he smirks down at me, and his arms slightly tighten around me.

I'm pressed snugly to him still. Once again, I can feel his rapid heartbeat.

"I'm gonna ruin the moment here and say something. We just met. And I know that you stayed the night and all but, I don't know you all that well. I want to get to know you before we take things any farther." I say, seriously killing the mood.

He stays quiet for a moment, contemplating his answer, then says "I'm perfectly okay with that. I can wait. I don't need to know anything else about you. I know enough about you to know that you're perfect for me. For every guy. I know enough to know that I want you." he says.

Holy shit. That just fucking happened.

•••

~Amanda