short stories ❣️

it's you

the sound of rain lightly tapping on the roof of the more than familiar treehouse lingered in the air. the sound was comforting though, i've always loved the rain. addison was looking more beautiful than ever, with parts of her hair hanging out of her loose bun and a touch of red on her cheeks and nose from the chilly weather. her face was bare of makeup, which was personally my favorite look.

we both had piles of blankets that we kept in our tree house wrapped around us, and candles were lit on surfaces all around along with the white christmas lights we kept hanging in here year round. the record player she insisted on taking care of because of its "sentimental value" was lightly playing chill melodies that she always listened to, and tried to get me into.

i always listen with a smile, never really being able to pay attention to the music, instead admiring how beautiful she is when her eyes light up as she listens to her favorite music. i never even realize i'm doing it at first, love is a crazy thing.

it's even crazier when she doesn't know about it.

we had been talking for hours about everything under the moon, about our futures after we graduate this year, about where i want to go with my music and if i'm ready to tell my parents about it (they're not very easy to please), about religion and aliens, and just about everything there is to talk about in the universe. i always felt comfortable enough to be completely myself with no mask on around her. i could say what i wanted to with no filter and not worry if i would receive judgement in return. that's not the kind of person addi is.

it's taken 15 years of her being my best friend and partner in crime for me to realize my feelings for her go even farther than that. i genuinely don't know what i'd do without her support in my life, she's been my rock and been there for me when nobody else has been since we were 4 years old. our families always made jokes about us ending up married throughout our lives, and we always just laughed it off. but sometimes i'd find myself thinking about what could be with us. i eventually found myself thinking about that more often than i was used to.

and to sum it all up, tonight's the night i want to tell her this.

as we finally began to exit our thoughts, as we apparently had both zoned out, my palms got sweaty as i had realized what i was preparing for tonight.

i've been writing music for years on the low, and addison was the only person who knew about it for the longest time. she supported me through it all and let me have the time to choose when i wanted it to go public myself. eventually, my best friends found my song book and interrogated me until i performed something for them. they immediately said i needed to try and go somewhere with my music because i had the potential, and that's when i started taking gigs at some lowkey restaurants with their help. and that's the way i like it, lowkey. if i ever want to go bigger, that's for future me to decide.

but i have a song i wrote about her a while ago, after my breakup with my ex Brooklyn. that's the night i realized who the one true person who had my back more than anyone else was. i wrote it that same night, right after addison left my house after stopping by to check on me with my favorites movies and snacks. we spent hours laughing together, the breakup practically forgotten. i know that i'll get my point across if i sing this for her, and i'm really hoping that she'll like it.

i need to push any thoughts of being rejected away. i need to take my chances and see if something could work out, because i know if it does work out it could turn into something beautiful. i sound so girly talking about all of this, but i can't help it. honest. it's what she does to me. it's always what she's done to me.

"... Elias? Eli?" i heard her soft voice call out, my attention tuning back into reality as she lightly tapped my shoulder. "it took you a minute there," she said with a teasing smile.