The Differents | ✓

T W E N T Y - E I G H T

It took me a good five seconds to realize my mouth was open and I was staring at Sniper in a sort of state of awe. I had no idea what he had just done but I had never heard it before and I found it beautiful even though I didn't understand it. "I don't know what to say, but whatever you just did then was amazing."

"You understood it?"

"No, not really, but it was beautiful."

"Maybe you can understand it just a little bit," he suggested.

"Maybe."

"I like to think that everyone who is Different all share some traits but we are just unsure how to use them. Maybe we can all understand music just the slightest bit but since we've never heard it, we don't know about it. It's not like the Core ever plays music, so how would we know if we understand it or not?"

"Can you do it again?"

"What?"

"That thing you did. Where you spoke music."

"You mean when I sang? It's called singing, not talking music," he laughed. "Yeah, I can do it again if you like. I don't know many songs, though. Only the few I found when I tried looking up music on the computers in the library."

"I don't care what you sing. I don't understand it, remember?"

"Right." He grinned before taking a breath and producing more sounds I couldn't understand but somehow found mesmerizing. About halfway through, he started tapping the cave wall in time to the sound and made another layer of music to the song. They bounced off the walls and merged and overlapped, creating new melodies as the music went on.

I felt my muscles relax and almost slipped underwater from the calm state I had shifted into. After he had finished the song, we didn't say anything and let the last notes of the music reverberating around in the cave echo away. It was the most peaceful I had felt in a long time and I didn't want the moment to end.

Sadly, it did, when the peace was broken by him speaking. "Before, when you were telling me about your Differences, you were talking about that girl. I remember her, but not much. When I was about fifteen, she started screaming one day while in class and nobody understood what was going on. I guess they must've deemed her unfixable because that was the last time any of us saw her."

A small part of me hurt at that, but she and my feelings for her were long gone and I couldn't do anything about it.

Sniper scratched the back of his neck again and stared at the far side of the cave. "And... could you explain what you meant when you were telling me about her? About, well... you didn't think of her as just a friend, did you?"

"No, I didn't." Even I surprised myself with how direct the sentence came out. After accepting that my attraction to the girl wasn't just a friend thing, I struggled with it for a long time. After denying it to myself, I hated myself for it, and then often cried over it, and then, several years later, I finally admitted to myself I wouldn't be able to change it and decided to hide it from the Masks. Now that I was free of them, I could be myself.

Sniper still looked very confused. "I like girls and guys," I said, as clarification as much for him as for myself. "Although to be fair, I've only ever liked one girl."

He exhaled shakily. "Okay. I was starting to get very confused about all the things I had done that I thought you picked up on."

He was still avoiding my gaze. I tilted my head to the side and smiled a little, eyeing him. "What are you trying to say?"

"Um, well..." he started, fidgeting in his spot. "Okay, I can't delay this anymore so I'm just going to say it: I think you're really interesting and like, a really great person, and for a while now I think that I've started to think of you as more than just a friend, and if you don't think of me the same way that's totally okay and I hope it doesn't affect anything between us especially since we have to learn what to do now that we're free, but I just had to get that off my chest so I'm good now." He took a heaving breath and his eyes flicked up nervously to mine before flitting away.

I found myself smiling. "I was hoping you'd say something like that."

"Wait, so you're not mad or, I don't know, awkward? Like you're okay with this?"

"Yeah, I am. I don't often allow myself to feel things for others but it seemed as if you just wouldn't go away so..." I laughed a little. "...I guess that's how I got here, with you."

Sniper didn't say anything. He just smiled to himself and mumbled something I didn't hear. My brain was still half processing the events of the past minute when I found myself with my hand resting on the side of his face, and before I could stop myself, I leaned toward him and kissed him as gently as I could. He made a surprised noise but didn't object, and when I pulled away he opened his eyes and looked at me with a huge smile on his face.

"I damn well hope I'm not dreaming," he laughed, before gently circling his arms around my waist and kissing me again. I wrapped one arm around his neck and the other drifted into his hair, and let everything that wasn't this one moment with him slip away, if only for a moment.

*****

A/N
It took me so long to write this scene lmao. I was so scared of writing romance because I've never done it before, but I actually think it turned out not horrible and I'm proud of myself for doing it after all. Anyways, I was really excited to share this chapter with y'all so there it was yayy :) Also sorry it was so short lol. It's hard to split up my longer chapters so that the Wattpad version flows smoothly but I'm trying :)