The Book Of Anna & English

28- Roslyn

Hi little ducks... I've been excited for this chapter since the planning!!

Here it is... Ermm.. Sorry!

Triggers:

- Slight panic?

***

I never thought there were so many ways to say I love you.

***

Harry

Up with your turret, aren't we just terrified?

The waves crash by my feet, the horizon stretches in front of me where I sit, wet from my ankles to my ass, in the shallow water. My back is stiff, everything is full of sand, and my head is pounding, but it only takes one look over my shoulder to forget about all of that.

Anna lays next to me, a towel I found an hour ago over her head, sleeping peacefully. She makes it worth it to fall asleep in the rough sand and wake up with the sun beating on your face. She makes everything worthwhile. I answer without her calling, her soft soul pulling me in the direction of her heart, where the winter fires burn and the nights lay and wait for summer.

Then on nights like the one after the carnival, after having an anxiety attack, where she's a little more fragile and bruised. Those are the times she casts her tears in the ocean and sends her words with the winds towards the beaches of long-forgotten sorrow.

The ring around her eye is a beacon of pain for the both of us that stare back at me, and if I close my eyes, the images still flicker through my head. I put my hand on her shoulder, shaking lightly, and she groans, yanking the towel off her head.

The baby hair around her forehead stands on end, charged by static electricity as she blinks rapidly and yawns. Oh, the four seasons inside of her, flickering through her eyes. She holds love in the palm of her hand, and today her oceans are calm.

She shifts closer to me, sitting up and resting her cheek on my back, her arm wrapping around my waist. "Why did we fall asleep on the beach?" She asks, breathing slowly in and out, making me think she's about to fall asleep again. A thought squeezes in between the rest; Anna Rose slept longer than the sun.

In a swoop of emotion, I grab her arm and pull her onto my lap, suddenly giddy by the newfound revelation. "You slept past sunrise," I tell her, her eyes stretch, tears forming in her eyes, something to get used to now that she broke down another wall. She's nodding against my skin vigorously, her forehead against my chest. "I did." And for a long time, we sit in silence, me folded over her to protect her from the sun and perhaps her thoughts.

***

It's late in the day, much too late to be standing outside Anna's house with a bag full of plans. The ladder grasped in my one hand and my foot already on the first step. Walking home from the beach this morning, the dreams still shallow in my head put me in a playful mood. I chased her all the way home, her body folding around trees to hide and little corners to peek from, but I got her every time I found her.

The ladder squeaks underneath my weight, making me groan softly, holding my breath as I wait for a light to go on and tell me I've been caught, but when it's silent for a couple of seconds, I climb another step. To my surprise, I find Anna on the roof, waiting for me with a cigarette dangling from her mouth. "You're louder than an elephant English." She teases me in greeting, killing the cigarette against the sole of her shoe and throwing it in a bucket.

I huff at her, climbing the last two steps and pull myself up the roof, taking her in my arms the second I sit down, tired of being away from her, even if it's only been hours. She sits on my thigh, her side to my chest. "What are you doing here?" She asks, scrunching her nose as I lean down to kiss it.