Page 105 of All About You
Marlon shoots me a look, his expression playful, and unlike what I’d seen moments before we were about to kiss.
“You’ve read my mind, Garcia.”
The drive home is quiet, yet comfortable. Leaning against the window pane, I close my eyes, replaying the slow dance today with Marlon over and over, like the best part of a movie stuck on repeat.
Had I imagined the part where we almost kissed? Was that real?
I must have drifted in and out of consciousness, because we reach my house much quicker than I realise, and my stomach deflates. I’m not ready for this day to end.
I don’t want to leave this car. I don’t want to leave Marlon.
“Get some rest, Garcia, you knocked out there,” Marlon says.
A beat or two passes, both of us not wanting to move on.
“I know I’ve said this like a million times today, but thank you, Marlon. Really. I - you - I needed this,” I profess.
“Of course,” he says, “Anytime.Always.”
I step out of the car, turning toward the house, my heart aching already at leaving him.
“And Jas?”
He closes the car door behind him, and takes a few quick strides to catch up to me.
Gently, he lifts his hand, and his thumb brushes the curve of my cheek, toward the corner of my lips. My mouth betrays me, parting slightly, the smallest exhale leaving my lips in an attempt to relieve the pounding of my heart.
“Don’t ever waste your tears on anyone who doesn’t deserve you ever again. Even if they seem perfect. You’re too good for them.”
I chuckle.
“And who exactly are‘they’?”
The corner of his lips twitch into that smirk that’s snuck its way into the core of my affection.
“All of them. You’re too good forallof them”
Then, it breaks.
Shatters.
I hear it all around me. It fills the air.
I’m sure you could hear it from kilometres away. The sound of glass breaking, the one holding up the fort around my heart, all across my body. It shatters too, all around Marlon, falling at my feet, and then my vision clears.
Marlon is still there, but it’s not quite Marlon.
Instead, it’s Marlon with these chocolate brown eyes that I wish nothing more than to warm me.
It’s Marlon with a twist in his lips that threatens to ruin me over and over. It’s Marlon with his lame jokes, with his warm voice and a glint of trouble in his eyes that I now feel honoured to fall misfortune to. Marlon, who seems to know me like no other, what makes me tick, what makes me laugh.
A Marlon that could fill my pages.
It’s all too much and too little at once. I’m not strong enough to push it away anymore. The glass has broken and now there’s too many pieces to try and rebuild the shield around my heart again.
Do I even want to?
I step closer. Marlon’s fingers fall from my cheek, to his side, his eyes following me.
