Accidental Love? - Perri Kiely

Day 10

I wake up and stretch across the bed, quickly realising that Perri isn't there. Everyone else is sleeping. I look around trying to find him but failing. I get up going to the only other place I can think of where he will be. I quietly walk up the stairs of the tree platform to see Perri with his head in his hands. 

"Hey," I say, making him aware I am there. His head whips around to see who it is then relaxes as soon as he realises it's me. "Are you okay?" I ask, sitting down next to him and placing my hand on his shoulder.

"Yeah," he replies, taking in a deep breath and wiping away the stray tear that escaped.

"It's okay to be like this you know," I reassure.

"I know, I've just had enough of being sad," he states. I shoot him a confused look. I think it's most probably from missing people but he seemed good before we went to sleep. "Last night, I made sure that you fell asleep okay and waited for everyone else too as well. Then I came up here just to think everything through. I guess I got lost in my thoughts," he explains, looking at me in my eyes. 

"If you don't want to talk about it, you don't have to say everything," I mutter, still holding eye contact. 

"Thanks," he smiles, "Now move to the end of the bench so I can lay down!" 

I giggle and do what he said. He rests his head on my lap, with his legs dangling over the end of the seat and still looking at me. "Did you not sleep at all then?" I question, running my fingers through his hair.

"Nah, I'm not tired though," he replies.

"Well your eyes are saying something else," I joke, making him laugh a little and rub his eyes under his glasses. "You know what?" I start.

"What?" he asks.

"I'm surprised you're letting me touch your hair for so long," I finish, smiling.

"I don't mind, it's relaxing actually," he answers, he briefly looks up to my hair then back to my eyes. "My side is better than Eliza's," he smiles.

I touch the top of my head, moving my hand down to the back. Eliza's side was looser and has a few strands coming out whereas Pel's side was almost the same as when he first did it. "Is there anything you can't do?" I giggle, shaking my head.

"Ventriloquism!" he laughs, making me as well. Our laughs die down and we are just left looking directly into each other's eyes. Maybe he does feel the same. I don't want to believe it but he could. "I wonder how much of this they would actually put on TV?" he randomly asks.

At first it made me a little uncomfortable but I would never take this back at all, "I guess we'll see when we get out," I reply. I look over and it looks like breakfast is nearly ready. "Right, come on," I try to get up but Perri makes sure I do not move at all. "Seriously?" I state.

"I don't want to move," he pouts which makes me giggle.

"Me neither but I bet we'll get called in a minute anyway," I say, patting his chest.

"Fine," he reluctantly gets up, helping me up too and walks me to camp, holding my hand but lets go as we go to walk in. We both get a portion of food then he goes over to where Ryan and Lance are and starts talking to them.

"I saw that," Leah mutters, sitting down next to me.

"It was nothing," I reply, feeling the blush creep to my face.

"Right, my own personal goal for this whole thing is to get you two together," she states. I look at her as if to say seriously. 

"Well even if anything does happen, I don't want it starting on TV for everyone to watch," I bring up.