Atlas

Ten

Grace

"Why did I decide to do this?"

"Cuz I was bored?"

"You're stupid."

I looked up at him and pressed my lips together. He frowned. "I didn't think you would take it seriously, sorry."

I couldn't blame Atlas. It was 12 am, and I had knocked on his door and asked him if he wanted to come for a walk with me, because I was bored and my apartment was starting to get claustrophobic.

"I was just thinking about something." I chuckled. "Once, in 10th grade, I had just failed a test, and people thought I was dumb. Reece called me stupid the same day for some other reason, and I straight up punched him."

"Remind me to never talk to you when you're angry." Atlas said. We crossed the street onto a path with trees on either side. "So is there a reason you dragged me out?"

"Yeah, I wanted to declare my undying love for you." I said dryly. Swallowing, I looked up at him. In the past few days, I had managed to admit to myself that I actually had a little crush on him, although I would never admit that.

Crushes go away. It's okay.

"You're so annoying."

"I know. You chose to be friends with me, so this is what you get."

When I looked at him, he was looking straight on. "How's Adrian?" I asked.

"Honestly," Atlas smirked a little. "Struggling. Changing diapers 24/7 isn't easy when you work full time."

I nodded. "You two..."

"What about us?" He glanced at me. "By the way, do you ever wear a proper jacket? It's freezing!"

"It's not that cold." I remarked. It actually was, I just didn't wanna look stupid. I pulled down the sleeves of my sweater over my fingers.  "Were you and Adrian always this close?"

"Growing up, all we had was each other."

"What about your parents?"

He shoved his hands into his pockets. "They died when Adrian was four."

"Shit, sorry I didn't know." I said. "So where did you grow up?"

He looked at me, and just for a second I thought his eyes darkened.

"Where did you grow up?" he mirrored.

"Seattle." I dead-panned. "My mom's from Yorkshire, she met my dad when she came to New York for work. The fell in love, blah blah, she stayed in America."

"Doesn't she miss home?"

"She loves her family more I guess." We had arrived at a clearing covered with grass and pebbles. Atlas took a seat on the bench.

"I'll never understand that." He shook his head. "Family, sacrifice bullshit. It sounds worlds away."

"Yet, Adrian's doing just that. He comes visits you whenever he can, and I bet he's making so many sacrifices for his daughter too. That's what you do when..."

"When you have family, someone you love." He said. "To be honest, 21st century relationships are stupid."

"Why's that?"

"Cuz there's more cohabitation then marriage. When you marry someone, it's like you're bound to them by a contract. Literally."

"Love is love." I said.

"Love can also end." He looked at me, raising his eyebrows. "Brutally."

But it could also continue, that too beautifully. He knew that's what I was thinking. "Agree to disagree?" I asked.

"Yes."

He looked up at the sky and all its stars.

"I know something about you, Atlas." I said.

"Yeah?" he said. He moved a little closer, and almost instinctively, I resisted the urge to rest my head on his shoulder. "Tell me."

"You know there's magic all around you. The stories you tell, the stars you seek. You know it's there, but you don't believe in it. Not completely."

"You need sleep."

"You know I'm right."

His eyes turned to me. It was very quiet, not a sound. In the darkness, all I saw was the contours and shadows of his face. "Is this the part where I offer you my jacket?" His eyes stared straight into mine. I let out a soft breath. He really was beautiful.

"It's pretty cold." I chuckled. "But I'm okay."

He shrugged off his jacket anyways and put it around my shoulders. I flipped my hair out. "Thank you." I said.

His eyes dropped to my smiling lips, and I felt him tense up. My own heart was pounding in my chest.

He didn't move, neither did he say anything.

I realized that whatever he had gone through, either in his childhood or recently, was far worse than anything I had ever experienced. That's why he couldn't sleep at night, why he hardly spoke to anyone.

Nobody should be made to go through life like that. Nobody deserved it.

I reached for his hand and squeezed it.

"You shouldn't." he whispered.

But his fingers clasped around mine.

I looked up at the stars. "You always have these wonderful stories to tell. I wish you believed in them."

"They're myths. They're about Gods and Goddesses, and stuff that doesn't exist."

In the darkness, I outlined the contour of his jaw in my vision. "Tell me you never believed in them."

"I did." He confessed. "As a child. But children believe in monsters and witches and fucking Harry Potter." He looked at me, and his eyes blazed. "You Grace," he said with a sense of urgency, almost like he wanted to yell out of frustration but couldn't. "You're the one that believes in magic and the moon and all of that. Your belief is enough for the both of us."

"What happened to you, Atlas?" I whispered.

"If you knew, you wouldn't be sitting here."

"Maybe you're wrong."

"I'm not." He said. He pulled his hand away and got up. "Come on, we need to get home."