𝗕𝗨𝗥𝗡𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗟𝗢𝗩𝗘

𝟯𝟳. 𝗦𝗲𝗰𝗿𝗲𝘁𝘀

A/N: don't hate me too much..

I can't move.

I'm almost paralysed. It feels as if my feet have been stuck to the ground and no matter how I hard I try, I'm physically unable to move.

The frame shakes in my hands, and I'm afraid I might drop it any moment now. I prepare myself for the glass to shatter into bits and pieces, but it doesn't happen.

Maybe it's not who I think it is, maybe I've forgotten what my brother sounds like in person, maybe I'm making excuses.

"Turn around, Hampton." Shivers, waves, an electric fucking current. They all run through me.

I carefully return the photo frame back to its original spot on the mantle, a finger brushes over my mothers face on the way and I wonder whether she's looking down on me right now. I wonder what advice she'd give me in this moment.

I lift up my feet, surprised to find that I'm still able to do such a thing; and then I turn and everything hits me at once.

The greyest of grey eyes penetrate straight through my armour. Stance, muscles, ink, hands, face, jaw. I helplessly take every last detail in. Like a thief, I steal a glance too many and soak in the glory that's being presented before my eyes.

One hand remains stuck on the shelf behind me, offering the only means of support, because the strength I once had has suddenly disappeared. I don't know what I'm meant to do, nobody prepared me for this moment; not even myself.

He's staring at me like I'm a relic, a wondrous creature dropped down by God himself. He looks shocked, almost if he wasn't expecting me to be here; at all. His metal eyes too, trace out my body from top to bottom, and I'm glad I'm not the only one enraptured in this moment.

Ever since the first day I layed eyes on Grayson, it feels like nothing has been the same for me; he consumed my mind almost instantly. When he missed a day at school, I always wanted to know where he was, what he was doing, who he was with. His name released butterflies, and at first I hated the way they fluttered against my organs, but then I grew to love it.

I grew to love his love.

Because even though I've not heard the words fall directly out of his mouth, for a while I had an inkling he was beginning to develop stronger feelings for me.

I first noticed it when he scooped me out of his pool back at the halloween party, soaking his clothes but he didn't seem to give a fuck. Only to meticulously dry me off until not a single water droplet was left on my skin. 'You'll get ill, Hampton' is what he said to me on the countertop, before offering a spare change of clothes.

And then it was just the little things. Standing on the side of the crosswalk where the cars are, glancing over at me before accepting plans being organised at lunch; just to make sure it was alright with me.