Vault

Twenty-Nine

"Will you help me with something?" I asked.

"Anything," Karl smiled.

I stood up from where we were tangled together on the couch and grabbed Karl hand. I led him up the stairs and into the hallway in front of my bedroom.

"What's up?" Karl asked.

"I haven't added to the frame yet this year," I explained as I flipped the light switch to illuminate the hallway.

"The frame?" Karl questioned.

I pointed to the doorframe of my bedroom that was covered in marks.

"You mark your height every year?" Karl asked.

"When I was a kid, my mom and dad would measure my height every year on my birthday. So when I stopped living in their house and it sold, Jimmy and Chris removed this for me so I could keep it. It was originally just trim in a doorway, but I connected it to my bedroom doorframe and I've been adding to it every year since," I explained.

"Do you still see your parents often?" Karl asked.

"My parents both died when I was fourteen," I explained, "Jimmy's mom kept me out of the system once I was technically an orphan, but I stayed in their house until I was close to graduating. When the house sold, I moved in here."

"Ava, I'm so sorry," Karl sighed, "when you said your parents weren't around anymore when you were fifteen, I didn't think they had passed."

"It's okay, that was a long time ago," I shrugged.

"What happened to your parents?" Karl asked, "if you're comfortable telling me."

"My mom died of brain cancer. After she got diagnosed, she was given a year, but fought for four. And after she passed, my dad just died one night. It was only about three months after we lost my mom, he had a pulmonary embolism, likely from lung cancer that we didn't know he had. We were always taking care of my mom, my dad never thought he'd get sick too," I explained.

"What's a pulmonary embolism?" Karl asked.

"It's a blockage in the lung, causing difficulty breathing."

"Ava I'm so sorry, that's horrible," Karl sighed.

"Its okay," I shrugged, "but it's a lot easier to mark my height when I have someone to help me."

"Well I will help you with this every year," Karl smiled.

I grabbed a sharpie from my desk, handing them to Karl. I took my hair down from the ponytail it was in and stood against the wall. Karl stepped up close to me as he carefully drew the straightest line he could. There was a very cute wrinkle in his forehead that formed as he concentrated on marking my height on the wall where the other notches sat.

"You're so serious," I smirked.

"This is important," Karl smiled as a blush crept across his cheeks, "okay, I'm done."

I stepped away from the wall and Karl handed the sharpie to me. I carefully wrote my age and the year on top of the line before I turned to Karl.

"Your turn," I smiled.

"What?" Karl asked.

"Come on," I smiled, "I'll mark yours too."

Karl bit his bottom lip as he stood against the wall in the place I had been standing before. I reached up on my tip toes and still couldn't reach over Karl's head. He was easily a foot taller than me if I had to guess. I quickly went into my room and grabbed my desk chair, placing it in front of him so I could climb up and finally reach over his head.

"You're adorable," Karl smiled.

"Don't make fun of my height deficiency," I smirked as I carefully drew a straight line to mark Karl's height.

"I'm not, I'm telling you how cute you are with your height deficiency," Karl smirked as he looked straight into my eyes.

"Don't distract me," I teased, "you can move now."

Karl stepped out of the way and I wrote his name and age on top of the line.

"Perfect," I smiled.

Karl laughed as he wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me off of the chair I was standing on. He held me until we got back downstairs, where he playfully dropped me onto the couch.

"You're so much shorter than I am," Karl laughed, "I didn't notice it until I saw both lines on the wall."

"Don't make fun of me," I laughed.

"I'm not," Karl insisted, "I'm admiring you."

"Mhmm," I teased, "I think you're admiring nothing but my height."

"Because your height makes you even cuter than you already are," Karl smiled as he grabbed onto my hand and pressed his palm against mine.

Karl's hands were so much bigger than mine, his fingers can bend to wrap around the tips of my fingers without the base of his palm moving away from mine. Despite how much bigger his hands were compared to mine, they felt like they fit perfectly with my own. I think I love him and I don't know how to deal with that. How does one just so openly completely surrender themself to make them an open book to someone else? How does someone just deliver themself on a silver platter saying 'go ahead and hurt me'?

"What are you thinking about?" Karl asked as he leaned his head on the back of my couch while he watched me carefully.

"I don't understand relationships." I admit.

"What don't you understand about them?"

"How do so many people just so openly give another person an open invitation to hurt them? Why isn't everyone afraid of getting hurt?" I asked.

"I think everyone is afraid of getting hurt, but when you take the chance on the right person, they won't hurt you. Or at least they shouldn't," Karl tried to explain, "it's just finding the right person."

"How are you supposed to know it's the right person?"

"I don't know," Karl admit.

"Have you ever thought you'd met someone that could be the right person?" I asked.

"I have," Karl smiled.

"Was she the right person?"

"I'm still trying to figure that out," Karl smiled, "Ava, I will never do something to intentionally hurt you."

"All I want is for you to be happy," I admit.

"Someone told me once that no one believes in love at first sight until the one special person comes along and steals your heart," Karl smiled, "and I didn't believe them at first, but that makes sense to me now."

"Who told you that?" I asked.

"Chris," Karl smiled, "he was telling about when he met Katie."

"I love their story," I sighed happily, "it makes me feel like I'm a little kid listening to a fairytale when I hear it."

"Did you like fairytales when you were younger?" Karl asked.

"Yeah, I used to love fairytales. They gave me this reminder that not everyone has a childhood like I did and even if you do, good things can still happen to you," I smiled, "which is also why I love Harry Potter. It's a different kind of universe where other things are possible."

"Did you used to think good things couldn't happen to you?"

"I still think that," I admit honestly, "not many good things have ever happened to me."

"I hope we can change that," Karl smiled before he leaned forward and pressed his lips to mine.

His arms wrapped around my waist as we kissed, his fingers pressing gently into the skin on my hips. When we broke apart, Karl pulled me onto his lap and wrapped his arms around me, holding me close to him. Safety.