Guilty Love

29| Camera

┏━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━┓

Camera

┗━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━┛

Chapter 29: Camera (London's POV)

We made it to the beach and neither one of us was surprised to see it completely empty. There were rarely people here anyway and right now, there was only one girl who was just leaving with a dog on a leash and another couple walking around, heading to the exit. A soft breeze blew by, not enough to send sand flying our way but enough to have my hair flying. 

I let go of his hand and held his arm instead, getting closer to him. I felt his eyes on me throughout the walk, he paid more attention to me than he did to where he was walking. I glanced at him as we neared the cave. "Why do you keep looking at me?" I asked, tucking my hair behind my ear. 

"I don't know," he mumbled, "but I can't stop." 

A smile tugged at my lips as I stared at the ground, both of us stopping at our usual spot. The wind had calmed down a bit, the waves crashed loudly against the opening of the cave that was half underwater and half above sea level. There's only one way to go in that cave. To swim through it. And nobody's ever done that. People around here are strangely afraid of this cave as if something haunts it and I have no idea why that is. 

When we were younger, Ronan tried swimming into it once but I didn't let him since our parents were nearby and it genuinely freaked me out. The thought of him going in there and never coming out. It is a scary-looking cave, it's completely black from the inside and out. But it's oddly calming too. Maybe because we've played around it since we were younger. 

I rolled the blankets onto the floor and we took our shoes and socks off, sitting down and looking around silently for the first five minutes or so. We ate the snacks he bought, strawberries and sandwiches that I didn't realize he made. We talked some more and then decided to lay down. It wasn't that windy anymore but the clouds looked gloomy. It will rain tonight. Thunder rumbled in the sky, making both of us look up at it. Maybe in a short while, actually. 

He slid one arm under my neck, letting me use it as a pillow while my leg touched his. 

"What's on your mind?" I asked. 

"You." 

I blinked as thunder rumbled again, turning to look at him. 

"I'm in love with you, London," he said. He didn't say he loved me, he said he was in love with me. And I know he's said it before but last time we were at the beach, I told him I loved him too. But I also said I wouldn't fall in love with anybody again if it was up to me. 

That changed the night my Dad died because from that night up until this very moment, Ronan is the only one that's been by my side, refusing to leave even when I had breakdowns and tried pushing him out of the house. That happened within the first few days. I wanted to be alone, I began pushing him to the front door but he refused to leave. 

I remember the way he jerked me forward and into him, holding me tightly until I was calmer. Then he asked me again, "Do you still want to be alone? If you do, I'll give you that privacy." 

And I said, "No. Just stay with me." 

When he loves me like that, takes care of me like that, how... can I not fall in love with him?