"Emily?" he asks.
"Yes?"
"I think I'm falling in love with you."
And my heart stops.
*****
We stop swaying and I pull my head away from his chest to look him in the eyes.
Those big brown eyes I have been looking into for over 10 years. His brown hair that is almost always spiked up with gel. His chiseled jaw and broad shoulders.
We say nothing but keep eye contact. I can hear my heart begin to pump blood again. I break from his arms and walk over to the edge of the rock, looking out on the island with folded arms. Seb comes to stand beside me cautiously.
"Emily? Are you.... ok?"
I keep my eyes on the view as a slight breeze hits my face.
"Did I do something wrong?" He adds.
I turn to him. "No Seb, you didn't."
"Then what's wrong?" he puts his hands on my bare shoulders, searching my eyes.
"I just... don't know what to say."
"You don't have to say anything." he pulls me in and hugs me tightly.
I breathe him in. His smell. His touch. His warmth.
I get a feeling in my stomach I have never gotten around Sebastian before.
Butterflies?
We sit down alongside each other, our eyes forward.
"I can't believe it's been four months." I finally say.
"I know. We've been through so much."
"I don't want to say goodbye." A tear rolls down my cheek and I rest my head on Seb's shoulder.
"Me neither." He agrees.
It is silent for a little while except for the faint sound of music from the portable speakers.
"What do we do now?" I lift my head.
"Well.... Do you like me, in that way?" he scratches his neck awkwardly, referring to what he told me five minutes ago. The news that stopped my heart.
I think hard. What I say now could change everything. Our whole entire life of being stuck and pushed together by our families only made us hate each other more. The fighting, the embarrassment, the revenge. And all this time.......I've been falling in love with Sebastian Cooper, the devil neighbor I thought I could never fall for.
I open my mouth to speak and he watches me carefully. "I think......Ive been falling for you for a long time." He hangs off each word.
"Me too." he whispers, staring straight back at me with a slight smile on his face. I smile back.
He begins to lean in towards me.
Oh god...
His hand cups my cheek while the other pulls me closer.
Oh heck...
Our eyes lock as his face is just centimeters from mine.
Oh fuck...
Then time stops as our eyes close and our foreheads rest against each other.
Then the weirdest thing happens.
My brain plays me a video of all my most memorable memories of Seb and I.
Right from when we were little playing in the backyard, him getting glue in my hair, me pushing him off the trampoline and fracturing his arm. To now. Us wrestling in his room, me seeing him playing dolls with Molly, the time not so long ago when we cooked cupcakes and slipped over in apple juice and flour. Even all the bad memories were there, like all the times we had real fights about things that seem stupid now.
YOU ARE READING
The Devil Next Door
Teen Fiction"Go away you stupid asshole!" I said in a firm whisper as I remembered my mum and dad were just in the next room. If they caught me, I was dead. I leant out my window across the high two story gap. Seb smirked cheekily and threw another bit of penci...
