Count The Stars

forty-one

        "Mate, all I'm saying is that ants are a lot cooler than spiders."

        "And all I'm saying is you're wrong."

        Cade and Blake were in a pointless debate and had been with each other for twenty minutes as the rest of us laid on the grass listening to whatever song was coming from Adam's speaker. Grace sat next to Adam as talked about their favourite music, which turned out to be very different. It was odd how opposite they were of each other. Everyone was in our group of six, really. We all had little things that made us stand out. I liked it. We'd only started hanging out at the end of February, but by the middle of March, we were inseparable.

        Adam absentmindedly doodled on my leg with his finger as he talked to Grace and I pretended like I didn't notice as I stared up at the bright blue sky. Brady, however, wasn't very good at pretending. He stared at his friend's finger, then at me, then at Adam, then chuckled to himself. I tried not to smile.

        "Piss off," I whispered to him.

        He grinned, putting his hands up in defense. "I don't have a problem with it, Eli. You make him happy."

        "I do?"

        "Mate, the first time he told us about you, he looked like he was high or something. He always seems pretty happy, but there's something different when he talks about you. Good different," he explained.

        I smiled. "Oh."

        "Seriously, Eli. It took me years to get him to open up to me and Cade about his family and being gay and all that, and even then we weren't very good at helping him through it. Thank you for making my friend happy."

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        A few hours later, our friends had gone home. Adam and I pretended to walk with them for a few blocks, but ran off to the pool as soon as they stopped paying attention to us.

        We were sitting at the bottom listening to some old Panic! at the Disco songs I would've never heard if it wasn't for him. It was turned so far down it felt like it was more background music than anything, but Adam still found time to yell his favourite lyrics in the middle of a conversation.

        "Can you shut up?" I hissed, covering his mouth with my hand after he'd screamed a bit so passionately loud, dogs started barking blocks away.

        He smiled from under my hand and leaned in closer. "Make me."

        "That is quite possibly the cheesiest thing you've ever said," I told him, biting my lip to keep from laughing.

        I pulled my hand back to find him frowning. "I was trying to be confident. Did it work?" he asked.

        I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him in so I could place a feathery kiss to his pink lips.

        "I'll take that as a yes."

        Soon, we were on the concrete holding onto each other in any way we could as we kissed. He had a fistful of my jumper clutched in his hands, pulling us closer and closer together. It was a little odd. I mean, if anyone were to walk by and see two teenage boys snogging in the bottom of an empty pool at half past one, they'd probably be a little freaked out. But I knew there would be nobody but us for hours, and the isolation only made me want to keep going until morning. It was just me and Adam doing whatever we wanted for as long as we wanted. No football team, no ex-girlfriend, no shitty parents or kid brothers, nothing but us.

        A thought popped into my head and I broke off a kiss. "You like me, yeah?" I asked, mostly because I thought it was too good to be true.

        Adam pulled away with his eyebrow raised, breathing hard. "...are you joking?"

        "Not really, no."

        He chuckled and kissed my cheek lightly. I wondered if he could feel the heat spreading across my face as I looked into his deep brown eyes. "Lij, I can't think of a single thing that could get in the way of me and you. Not our parents, not Grace, not Edinburgh, not even those stupid fucking problems we have messing with our heads, alright? Nothing."

        I stared at him with pure disbelief. "You make me so happy," I told him, not one part of me lying.

        He laughed and pressed his forehead up against mine. "We are so fucking adorable."

        "I know," I smiled and closed the gaps between our lips.

        But I quickly pulled away again a minute after. "You do like me though, right?"

        "Lij?"

        "Yeah?"

        "Stop talking."

        "Right. Sorry."

        And then I smiled into a kiss that I never wanted to pull away from.

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Hello pals!

This is part 1 to a double update today because

Drumroll please...

The next chapter is the last one! Woo! We did it boiz!!

So I don't have much to say right now but keep reading!!

~Teddy