An Eye For An Eye

Soixante

“And… that’s all I have written so far,” I said. I closed the notebook and leaned forward to set it on the table before sitting back on the sofa. While I was a little anxious to hear his thoughts on the new idea, I knew Deuc wouldn’t think it was horrendous and if he did, he would be polite about it.

He wrapped his arm around me and I rested my head on his shoulder.
“What do you think then?” I asked. It had been the idea I had thought of a few days ago that I had remembered on the night of my birthday. I still never managed to tell him that night, I had told him the following morning instead.

He hummed. “It’s not really like your last story.”
“No,” I said, laughing a little. “It really isn't.” That was an adventure story, this was a horror story.
“It is interesting though. What are the shadows?” he asked.
I grinned. “That would be spoiling the next part,” I said. I hadn’t completely figured it out and I hadn’t written the next part yet but I was sure it was going to be fun to write.

“But... do you think they’re good or bad?” I asked, wondering what he thought of the dark shapes that followed the character.
“No one’s truly good or bad,” he said and I just stared at him. He had a point but this was fiction.
“Okay, okay,” I said. “You have a point.” As he always tended to. “But which do you think they’re closer to? Or, like, are they on the main character’s side or not?”
He hummed again and I bit my lip, eagerly waiting for his response. “I think they’re on neither side but they’re more good than bad.” He wasn’t far from what I had planned and it was irritating.

“Did you give the main character a name?” he asked and I frowned. I wasn’t actually sure if I had named him. Furrowing my brow, I grabbed the notebook and flicked through the writing, my eyes scanning the pages for any mention of a name.
“No... I did not.” I said as I sheepishly set the book back down on the table. He laughed and shook his head. “You can name him if you want.”
“Are you sure?”
I nodded. “Yeah.”

He was silent for a moment, his head tilted to the side. And then finally he spoke.
“Orrin.”
“Oh wow,” I muttered. “That’s a really nice name. Orrin it is then, thank you.” I kissed his cheek and grabbed the notebook to write it in the back of it. It felt natural to write all of the notes and the first version of the story in the notebooks. I seemed to write more by hand, even if writing by hand took longer. I seemed to be more enthusiastic about it.

“What about your other story?” he asked.
“I’m still editing it,” I said. Editing was going… sort of well. It wasn’t horrendous, it was just very different editing a novel when I was used to editing articles. “When I’ve edited it as much as I can then I can send it to an agent and they’ll send it to publishers and then, hopefully, it’ll get published.”

“And are you still going to dedicate it to me?” he asked, a smirk on his lips.
“Of course I am,” I said, smiling. I hadn’t even thought about it but I had agreed to dedicate the first book to him.
“Good,” he said before kissing my neck. I squirmed but his arm was wrapped around me.
“That’s… I’m ticklish,” I exclaimed, trying to get away from him kissing my neck.
“You’re not usually,” he said, laughing.
“Apparently I am now,” I said, shaking my head slightly.

I hadn’t been tickled since my last girlfriend had found it amusing how sometimes I laughed and tried to get away while sometimes it didn’t bother me at all. I frowned a little at the memory of it. But it reminded me of my apartment and that in turn reminded me of something important.

“Um, Deuc, I was thinking about my apartment,” I stared. I only had the money for another month’s rent and I didn’t want to ask him for money since I’d feel bad about it. “I was thinking that I might hand in the 30 day notice to say I’m moving out but I figured I should ask you if you don’t mind me moving in here.”
“Of course I don’t,” he said. “If you want to live here, I’d actually be quite happy with that.”
I smiled. “So when I go to pay my rent for the month, it’s alright if I hand in the notice then move in here?”
“It is more than alright.”

I kissed his cheek. “Thank you.” It felt wrong to not tell him why I had suddenly decided to. Well, it wasn’t exactly sudden, I had been thinking about it a little but after yesterday, I had finally decided. “See, when I went to my apartment yesterday, it turned out I had a little less money than I thought I did and it’s not enough for my rent after I pay for next month.”
“I could give you the money.”
“No,” I said quickly. I shook my head. “No, you already pay for so much I just… I can’t take that too. I’d like to put money towards the food and things though.”

Deuc nodded. “That’s alright then.”
“Really?” I asked. Usually arrangements like this came with something else and it really did feel like I wasn’t contributing enough.
“Yes,” he said, turning to look at me. I smiled and kissed his lips.
“Thank you,” I whispered. “I mean it, mon chéri, thank you.”
“It’s alright, my love,” he replied and my smile widened.

Closing my eyes, I rested my head on his shoulder. I could finally just relax after trying to edit and write for most of the day.

“Do you have the 30-day notice written out?” he asked.
I opened my eyes. “Um… no?”
“Do you need to go and write it or can it wait until tomorrow?” he asked. I grinned, he wasn’t going to be any help if I was stuck procrastinating but he was wonderful.
“It can wait until tomorrow.”