Page 95 of The Story Of Us

She moves her hand to the back of my neck and pulls me down to her, but I don’t let her get too close and put my hand between our mouths.

“As much as I would love to kiss you right now, truly do not want anything more than to do that. It would be the highlight of my entire life, the best way to start this day, the-”

“Okay, so stop talking and do it,” she says, trying to push my hand away.

“I cannot kiss you until I’ve brushed my teeth,” I say, fighting every urge in my body that is yelling at me to just close the distance between us.

Violet huffs out a breath as she lets go of me. She then opens the little drawer under her sink, fumbling around it until she pulls out a pack of toothbrushes. She opens it, handing one to me and passing the toothpaste over, too.

Violet stays right next to me as I brush my teeth, and as I look at the image of the two of us side by side in the mirror, I let my thoughts get carried away. I start imagining our future, where this is a daily occurrence, where I can fall asleep and wake up with her, every day starting and ending with my greatest love. The simple domesticity of it is enough to have me lifting a palm to rub at my chest because it feels like my heart is going to beat out of it.

I finish up and then wash my face, too. Violet watching my every move in the mirror, and I hope she’s thinking the same thing as I am. I hope she wants it as desperately as I do.

“Okay, now I can kiss you.” I turn to face her.

“Hmm…” She taps a finger to her chin. “I don’t want to anymore.”

She crosses her arm and slides past me to leave the small bathroom. I follow after her instantly, like that invisible string between us is making me chase after her.

I hold on to her wrist to pull her towards me, and she lets out a small oomph when she collides with my chest. Violet looks up at me, gorgeous brown eyes piercing mine as a small smile tugs at the corners of her lips.

“Just kidding.”

I dip my head to hers and catch her mouth with mine, our teeth knocking against each other for a second because we’re both smiling too wide. When we separate, she steps into my arms again and lets out a sigh, her demeanour completely changing.

“What are we going to do about the project?”

I wanted to avoid discussing it with her for as long as possible until I could figure out a solution, but I know she’ll want to help, too.

“I have a few things we can use, maybe. But a lot of them need tidying up and finishing.”

“You’ve already done so much. Won’t that be a lot of work for you?” She looks up at me, a crease between her brows as she frowns. “I feel like I barely contributed anything, and I know you’ve got a lot going on right now, and I don’t want you to get sick again, and it’s my fault-”

“Stopping you right there.” I bring my arms from around her waist to hold her face instead, wanting her to look me directly in the eyes as I say the next words because I need her to really hear them.

“It was not your fault. You couldn’t have known that would happen, so please stop blaming yourself. I told you from the start that I was happy to do most of the work, and that hasn’t changed. We can go through my other stuff and find something that’ll work. It’s all going to be fine.”

I kiss her forehead, and she tightens her grip on me, hands moving to clutch at the back of my shirt. When she looks at me again, she just nods her head, and I don’t need words to know that she’s putting her full trust in me. One more kiss to her lips, and then I tell her that I’m going to text Luke and ask him to bring my stuff over. She steps away from me, grabbing some clothes as she tells me that she’s going to finish getting ready in the bathroom.

Once she’s in there, I grab my phone from the desk, where she has it charged. I can’t remember what I did with it once I saw her last night, but again, she’s taken care of it, just like with my glasses.

Isaac

I’m going to ask you for a favour and you aren’t going to say a single thing about it.

Luke

That’s so ominous

I’m in

What do you need?

Isaac

Can you go to my room and get my laptop and two hoodies

And also get some snacks from my drawer and bring them to the girls’ dorm

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