Buzzed Hearts

100: i like you too

"I LIKE YOU, MILA."

    "What?"

    Though Laurent had been evading her questions earlier and had piqued Camila's curiosity, there was no precursor to his sudden confession. She peers into his face and meets his eyes with hers—two pupils that remind her of longing and stained glass windows. He averts her imploring stare and sets down his spoon, but eventually searches her eyes for what she assumes, an answer. He clears his throat.

    "I like you, Camila."

    "I..."

    "You don't have to answer me right now," he says.

    "No, it's not that."

    For the longest time, these words were exactly what she was hoping to hear, all throughout the latter half of her senior year but now, in a cozy ramen shop in January, Camila feels uncertainty. It was a feeling that has often accompanied her thoughts of Laurent ever since they graduated and though his moving to New York certainly closes the physical distance between them, she struggles to find a return to their previous relationship unmarred by distrust and miscommunication.

    "It's...sudden," she finally says.

    Laurent runs his hand through his hair, first backward then foreword to fix what he messed up. "I didn't want to say it out of nowhere but it feels weird saying it now. But you were asking questions and I just want to be honest with you."

    "I know that," Camila says. "I'm actually really happy right now but-"

    "But?"

    "But what do we do?"

    "What do you mean?"

    "I mean like what if I like you too? What do we do then?"

    "What? Don't we just date?"

    Camila's cheeks flush, matching the red tinging Laurent's ears. They've often joked before but now that they're faced with a sudden prospect of a relationship, it was uncertain. "Do you want that?" she asks.

    "I've never...dated anyone. But I think I do."

    "You think?"

    He rolls his eyes. "If you don't want to date me then just say so."

    "I do!"

    Laurent's soup spoon clatters against the base of his ramen bowl. "Okay so...let's date. What's so hard about it?"

    "Oh so you're suddenly unafraid of commitment and acting as if you didn't pull a disappearing act on me just a couple months ago? How can I trust that you won't do it again two weeks later?"

    "First of all," he begins, "I know I want this because I just know and if I didn't know I wouldn't have done all this in the first place. And second, you don't have to trust me but trust me, that was a dumb mistake young me did when I didn't know how to handle my emotions and life in general."

    "Young you?"

    "There's a lot you can learn in a few weeks, Mila."

    "You're unbelievable."

    "Stop trying to fight with me. I'm trying to date you."

    "It's way too sudden. Way sudden."

    "This means nothing to you, Miss Bajillion-Relationships."

    "Those weren't serious. I can't believe you would even bring it up like I haven't been too busy rehearsing to even see boys."

    "You're here with me."

    "I am."

    "I'll ask you again after dessert so it won't be too sudden. Will that suit your tastes?"

    "Depends on what dessert is."

    "We'll see then."

    Laurent grins and asks for the bill while Camila excuses herself to go to the bathroom and sort herself out and to ready herself for dessert.