Page 21 of The Story Of Us

I’m deliberately ten minutes late to meet Isaac, hoping that maybe he’ll get the same sinking feeling in his stomach that I had last year when he didn’t show up. It’s petty, I know, but I feel like I need to show I have some kind of control over this situation because I don’t know how I let myself be convinced that being here with him again is anything but a bad idea.

The door is closed as I approach the room like it always is, so I hold back a bit and tilt my head to peek through the small window. He’s sitting at the same desk we always sat at, his hands clasped together as he leans forward, and one of his legs bounces up and down quickly.

This is the place where everything changed for us. We became friends there and then eventually became something more.

ONE YEAR AGO

I’d never been more excited to come back to school. After Isaac confessed that he liked me just before our sixteenth birthday, I told him that I felt the same way. But I also knew that it felt like a risky move to make just before summer break because we wouldn’t see each other for a few months. I asked him if he could wait until September before we made anything official, and he told me he would wait for me forever. That was enough to get me through what felt like the longest summer of my life.

We spoke every single day, whether it was just for a few minutes or a few hours, but I couldn’t wait to actually see him again. We agreed to meet at our usual spot on the Sunday before classes started, a rarely used classroom hidden in the back corner of the science block that Isaac had discovered a few years ago.

As soon as I get his text telling me that he’s on his way there, I make up an excuse and tell Avery that I have to go and do something before hurrying out of her room. I have to stop myself from bursting into a run just to get there quicker.

When I round the corner of the narrow corridor, Isaac is already standing at the door of the classroom, holding it open with his foot. I stop dead in my tracks, completely overwhelmed at the sight of him.

“Come here, Violet,” he says with a smile, holding his arms out, and then I do run, practically jumping on him as I wrap my arms around his neck.

I feel his arms come around my waist, and he tightens his hold on me, dropping his head into the crook of my neck. I rest my head on his chest, listening to the sound of his quickening heartbeat. We’ve never hugged like this before, always just ones that never lasted for more than a few seconds, but this one is so new and different.

I don’t know how I went so long without holding him like this before.

“I missed you so much.” He whispers, and I close my eyes, wanting to live in this moment forever.

“I missed you, too.” It’s barely audible from where my face is pressed into him, but I know he hears it by the way I feel his shoulders relax like a weight’s been lifted off him just from hearing those words. I brush my nails over the short hair at the back of his head, wanting to feel all the parts of him I’ve never been able to before, and he shivers.

He shuffles backward into the room, not loosening his hold on me even when I stumble over his feet and almost make us fall over. He lets out a small laugh as he closes the door behind us with a kick that has us losing balance again. I bring my hands down from his neck, thinking that we’ll separate now we’re in here, but he doesn’t let go of me.

“Isaac,” I move my head away from his chest, wanting to see his face, but instead, one of his hands comes to the back of my hair and holds me to him again.

“Just let me hold you for a bit. I’ve dreamed about this for so long.”

My heart skips a beat, and I want to ask for how long exactly, to know if it’s as long as I’ve dreamed about a moment like this, too. I don’t say anything, though, not wanting to ruin this moment by saying something silly. It doesn’t matter how long we’ve both waited for this because now feels like the exact right time for it. His hand strokes across my hair, calming my racing heart as I bring my hands around his waist, wanting to hold on to him like he’s doing to me.

He fiddles with one of the butterfly clips on the top of my hair.

“Did you wear these for me?” he asks, and I feel my cheeks going red with embarrassment about being caught. He mentioned a while ago that he thought they were cute, so I’ve been wearing them more, but I didn’t think he would notice.

“No, I just like them.”

I feel his laugh, the shake of his body as he tries to hold it back because he knows I’m lying.

“Well, I like them too.”

He gives it one last tap before letting go of me and allowing me to pull back slightly. His hands move down slightly to rest on my hips, his thumb still moving in soothing circles. There’s a different look in his eyes now when he looks at me like he’s finally showing his true emotions after hiding them for so long.

“I missed you,” he says, gazing deep into my eyes as he says it, and it feels like he’s saying so much more.

“You said that already.”

“I really did, though.”

“I really missed you, too.”

I move my hands from around his waist and bring them up to his face, cradling them as I stroke my thumbs across his cheeks. He closes his eyes for a few seconds and lets out a shaky exhale before smiling. I poke the dimple that appears on his left cheek, not wanting to look away from him. He has the prettiest smile in the world, one that lights up his whole face, and I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of seeing it.

Everything about him is just so pretty.

He drops his forehead to mine, his thumbs mirroring mine as they graze across my hips. We’ve never been this close before. There’s always been an intimacy in our relationship, something that’s developed over years of being friends in secret, but it feels like it’s shifted to something else now. I’ve never been touched like this, never touched someone else like this, but it feels right with him.

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