Epilogue
When morning breaks the next day, I find myself still pressed up against Leo's chest, his body rising and falling with every breath he takes. It's a beautiful feeling, being this close to someone. I allow my hand to trail across his stomach and chest, and I must wake him because he slowly begins to stretch in his position.
His eyes flicker open, and when he sees me he smiles instantly. "Morning."
"Hey," I giggle, and without warning he leans down and kisses me gently on the forehead.
"Happy birthday," he says, and I'm so touched that he remembered because even I forgot.
"Thank you," I say, hugging him around the waist.
It's these moments that count. No amount of roses or store bought chocolates or diamond rings could amount to the same value as this. Waking up beside someone in the morning after you've had a terrible day and knowing that they don't think any different of you. Knowing that they didn't just want you for the night, that they still want you the next day, and the day after that.
It really is beautiful.
And I realise that I've been overthinking and over planning my whole life. So I want to do English at college, and I want to travel and I want to live in a nice house, and I have so much sorted out for me that I forgot the fact that I might in fact just want to spend my nights like this. Maybe I just want to have someone there to hold me and care for me and love me, and as long as I have that, then the rest will figure itself out.
Because I want to have human experiences. I want to have my experiences.
I want to let go of a floating lantern and get a tattoo and write a book. I want to go on a road trip, take loads of pictures, go for early mornings strolls down empty brick streets, kiss in the rain, get the hell out of this town and travel the world. In fact, there's a long list of things I want to do. I don't want to spend my life working hard for people I don't like, doing a job I hate. Because what's the point in life if we're not doing the things we love to do? There's no point in surrounding yourself with people you dislike, either, because all they're going to do is bring you down.
That's why I want to have Leo around, because he makes me happy. He makes me think about things other than myself. He has so many stories to tell and so many things left to say that I know I never have the chance of getting bored with him. And if we do end up getting bored, if we do run out of things to talk about then I'll give us something to talk about. I'll show up at his house in the middle of the night and demand that we go out and do bad things together. We'd go fishing or paintballing or tree climbing. Or we'd just read the same book and then talk about it for hours, because there's nothing better than discussing a good book. There really isn't.
But even still, that wouldn't happen for years, and I find myself hoping that someday it does happen, because then we'll know each other completely. And then Leo will still be in my life and that can only be a good thing. But until then, we have right now. We have these moments of building up our relationship and getting to know each other. There's really nothing I love more than getting to know people.
Because you can learn so much from other people. Go talk to people who are older than you; make friends with them. Be friends with someone who speaks languages different to your own. Be friends with people of different social backgrounds to you, because it will help you grow, as a person and as a human being. Nobody can know everything, but you can try, and I hope to god I do.
Looking at Leo, I admire every detail of his face, from his bright eyes, to his sloping nose, to his soft cupid's bow, to his full rose lips which are turned up into a subtle smile. His shoulders to his chest to his torso to his hips. Every inch of him proves something new to learn.
And it only took a day. Just one simple day for me to realise that people aren't who they seem. They're not always who they say they are, and although in some forms it's awful, sometimes it can be beautiful too. This person beside me hid their life away so they could have a better one, for himself and his mother, and I truly don't think his sacrifices have been duly noted. Because he's a good person; a beautiful one.
It took a day for me to fall for the quiet boy in my English class. The boy with a hidden arrogance and a talent for acting. The boy who has black hair and blue eyes, which fall slightly darker as he gets more tired. Eyes which right now are trained on me.
"What are you thinking about?"
"You."
And his face perks up and his arm cradles me so lightly I feel like I am flying.
"You're beautiful," he tells me, and I feel a blush creep onto my face. With a tentative smile, he leans down and kisses me, gently at first, but growing increasingly more frantic. He lays a trail of delicate kisses across my cheek and then down the side of my neck. I gasp when he hits the crook of my neck, breath lingering across my collarbone. He returns to my lips and leaves me with a full kiss before pulling away and looking directly into my eyes.
"It took a day," he says, his breath slightly short. I furrow my eyebrows quizzically and bite my lip a little, tilting my head to the side. He smiles. "God, you're stunning." I press my nose and forehead against his and close my eyes, sighing.
"What do you mean, 'it took a day'?"
"It took me a day to fall for you," he says, and his confession makes my heart sing. He spoke the same thought I had just a little while ago.
"I know," I say, kissing his lips once.
"You deserve the world, Willow," he says, playing with my hair. And as he does so, I realise that at some point during the night, I must have taken off my knitted cardigan, because I realise how exposed my arms are. I never show my arms, not to anyone. "You can barely even notice." I realise that Leo must have seen me become self-conscious.
"I notice," I say quietly. Without a word, Leo lifts my hands in his and lays a splatter of kisses across my wrists and arms.
"You don't need to hide yourself from me, Willow," he says tenderly.
"I know," I nod, feeling the last ebb of my walls being slowly broken away.
"You know, I'm a big believer in telling people how you feel," he says, and my heart hammers so hard in my chest. "Forget about looking ridiculous and following the rules; I really do not care. What I care about, is you. And you knowing that I feel as though I'm maybe falling in love with you. And I don't feel stupid about saying that. What's stupid is not taking the opportunity to tell you that I'm going to be faithful, and invested, and protective, and maybe a little clingy. But I'll give you space, and I won't push you and I definitely won't treat you any less than you deserve to be treated. It took a day, Willow. It took a day for me to fall in love with you. And I want to go on falling in love with you until I can't possibly fall any further."
I smile so much I feel like I may even cry, because never have I ever wanted to hear something as much as I wanted to hear Leo say that. I've never experienced perfection like him.
"I think I love you too," I tell him.
Later on that day, the doors are opened. The rain is still battering down, but the electricity seems to have found one last burst, and so we're all released. And as we step outside into the rain, nobody cares about getting wet. Leo swings me around and kisses me and we're already soaked through to the skin, but I swear I've never felt more alive. And as he's kissing me, I know that what we said earlier was true.
It took a day. And I'm hoping that day is going to lead to hundreds more.
The end.
YOU ARE READING
A Day in May
Teen Fiction"And it only took a day. Just one simple day for me to realise that people aren't who they seem. They're not always who they say they are, and although in some forms it's awful, sometimes it can be beautiful too. This person beside me hid their life...
