His Paper Heart ✓

•28|His Muse

GRAY AND I ARE BACK IN THE DINER AND HE HASN'T SAID A WORD. He just looks out the window, gazing at the falling snow. I wonder what happened with his grandmother yet I can't pressure him into saying anything. If there is one thing I've learnt about Gray, it is that he shares his past on his own terms, nonetheless, I grab his hand on the table and he turns his head to look at me.

"Hi." I smile.

"Hey." his lips can't be bothered to share a smile back and even though there is so much sadness in his eyes, he still looks friendly. "Are you cold?" he asks.

"A little bit." I nod. He lets go of my hand and opens his arm wide. I draw near him as he wraps his arm around my shoulder.

After a moment of silence, he says, "you make me happy."

"Is that a bad thing?" I enquire.

"I don't—" he stops and sighs. The hesitation in his voice breaks my heart. I pull away from him and look him in his eyes.

"You don't know," I whisper.

"No, that wasn't what I was going to say." he shakes his head. "I don't want to be sad anymore. For the first time since I was four years old, I forgot the day my grandmother died. For the first time since then, I actually enjoyed the day my grandmother died and I want so badly, more than anything to strap you to my bed and make crazy love to you all day."

I gasp more louder than intended with widened eyes and warm cheeks and he just sits there and chuckles. I am at a lost for words, especially with all this heat radiating out of me like I'm standing next to the blazing sun.

"You can't go around saying that!" I whisper, my heart beating faster and faster that I think I am get an attack.

"Why not?" he asks.

"Because. . . it's — I don't. . . I'm a virgin, Mr. Easton." I place my head on my chest, pulling closer to him so Adeline doesn't hear. Gray also pulls closer. With our nose almost touching, he smiles and bites his lower lips then says:

"So am I."

"It's not going to happen between us until we're married," I say.

"Okay." he nods. "But as compensation for my sacrifice, you will kiss me?"

This boy is getting in my head. "Yes." I quickly nod.

"And be my girlfriend?"

"Yes."

"And you will marry me?" he asks.

"Of course."

"Good." he smiles.

With a slightly confused look, I straighten and shake my head to clear my thoughts. "I don't know what just happened here," I whisper. He laughs and kisses my temple. "What happened with your grandma?"

"Oh Genevieve, that story is a very sad, dark tale." he sighs.

"Do you wanna tell me?" I question.

"You have to know that the woman I'm talking about lost her husband to lung cancer and her only daughter to a drunk liar, my father," he starts and I nod.

"When I was four, my parents were only getting used to how my brain worked. I was always ahead on everything and I made sure they knew. I was sassy, I thought I was better than them," he pauses, "I was but they weren't having it so they took me to my grandmother, from Pennsylvania to Britain."

"You lived in Pennsylvania?" I enquire.

"Come on, Genevieve. Stop interrupting."

"I'm just asking." I smile.