Thousand Paper Cuts

Eleven : ostello

Mark :

The only time he wished to stop was the night, being with her. Maybe she was so radiant, that his nights were oblivious to darkness.

While he was looking down at the hardwood floor, she asked,
"Why don't you tell me about yourself? Why are you locked up here?"
He shrugged. He didn't want to tell her anything about his past, and how scared he was. He had a fear she would run away.
"The only thing you need to understand", he said, "is that I'm a deeply unhappy person."
She nodded, and he continued,
"But....ever since I've met you.....I feel different."
When she didn't say anything, he took the courage to ask her,
"Have you ever been In love?"
The atmosphere felt thick, and amid the darkness, her hair promised light.
Slowly, she said,
"No", and added, "It's getting late. I better go."
He didn't want her to leave, rather he wanted to lie down with her and stare at her forever. But she was magic, and he was no one but Mark.
Yet, when she was about to leave the room, he quickly said,
"Can you.......", he thought of something to make her stay, "sing me to sleep?"
"Huh?"
Dumb. He was such an idiot.
"Like.." ,he said, "the way you did yesterday. I mean, you have to know that it was the first time I slept peacefully in a long time."
She still looked confused, but anyway, she nodded and they went downstairs.
While Mark was about to sit on the couch, Skye looked at his book shelf and almost shouted,
"Christ!!! Is this the original edition of 'This Side Of Paradise'? Oh God, I badly want to read this."
He smiled, as if he wasn't a wretched soul few days back, and stood up. He took the book, wrote something on the front page and said,
"Here. It's yours now.",
She shook her head, but he pleaded,
"I have read it enough not to forget it, because that's the point, isn't it? So you can have it now."
She broke into an intimidating smile, and held the book in her soft hands. He was nervous because he didn't want her to read what he'd written on the first page. Not until they weren't together. Fortunately, she didn't, and he breathed once more.

Soon he was lying on the couch, listening to her song. He badly wanted to wrap his arms around her, but he couldn't think it out loud. While she was seated on the chair nearby, he slowly fell asleep, and thought whether everything would always be this way.

Skye :

Her heart drowned, as she realised at last how much she needed to be his. No matter what his past was. It didn't matter, because he always made her feel alive more than anyone else.

The song she sang to him was Daydream, that her father used to listen on his stereo.

" Your eyes always blind Sun's beams
  Don't tell me it's a daydream
  My winters don't breathe without you
  Summers don't last unless with you"

After infinite forever, while he was asleep, she walked back to her home and laid on her cold bed, beside Snow. Of course, she badly wanted to sleep with him, and stare at his soft mouth, but everytime her heart beated his name, she felt a betrayal towards Adam.
She thought about the time when he'd asked her about love. After meeting him, her definition of love somehow changed, and it took her just a moment to realize she wasn't in love with Adam, but only Mark. (Stupid, beautiful neighbour)
Before sleeping, she thought that "in love" is a weird phrase in English. As if it's a sea you drown in, or a city you live in.

When the morning sun came out, she opened her eyes only to find Adam sitting at the edge of her bed.
"And they say sun is the brightest thing in the universe / I doubt that, because they haven't seen your hair", Adam said, as he stood up, blocking the sunlight.
She smiled and Adam kissed her on the cheek, saying,
"Damn, this can be a great song."
"How did you get inside?"
Adam played with her red curls and replied,
"I think you forgot that you always leave your door open."
She smiled once more, got dressed in her everyday-oversized-sweaters, and Adam said,
"Won't you ask me why I'm here?"
She looked out from the window at Mark's dark house, where all the curtains were open, and said,
"Um, because you're my boyfriend and you can visit me anytime even If it's 2:00 am and I'm dreaming about monsters?"
Adam wrapped his arms around her and said,
"Did you SERIOUSLY forget?"
"Forget what?"
He moved over towards the calender and said,
"Tomorrow is my Love's Birthday!"
Well, she hadn't forgotten about it. At all. But the truth was brutal : she was already running out of money to waste them on cakes, and also didn't want to waste her beloved ones money just for a little moment. She knew it was lame, but she was thinking about real shit.
"We don't have much money, Adam", she finally said.
Adam chuckled adorably and replied,
"Skye McLaren ! Birthday means happiness, and happiness can't be bought by money....and about the party? Don't worry. We'll manage."
She nodded, because Adam was a great person and she was just a jerk betraying him.
She was even betraying herself by not choosing among the truths.