Little Bitch

Chapter 43

Chapter 43

It was clear from my girlfriend's face that she wasn't sure what her present was supposed to be, when I was bringing her to this random shack in the middle of my backyard.

In other circumstances, this might actually be the set up of a documentary on a murderer.

Maybe I could have set this up somewhere else. I'd been too focus on the painting itself that I hadn't been thinking about the actual giving of the gift.

I'd done a one eighty on the actual painting. It had started out as us as little children, but then I'd realized that this was something that was more for me. It was about me, and about what I wanted.

For my birthday, Lexi had given me glimpses of me in her drawings. I'd seen this. She'd given parts of her vision of me.

I'd realized that this was something I could give her too.

Lexi wasn't a child anymore. I wasn't a child anymore.

So, I'd decided to show her how I saw her right now. Not how the way it used to be, a version of ourselves we could never be, but the real her.

Lexi, like a ballerina under the moonlight smiling at me. Like an ethereal being shining brightly. I wanted to show her what I saw when I looked at her.

Unknowingly, through her love, she'd showed me a version of myself I didn't know existed anymore. A better version of me. A brighter version of me.

I wanted to give her something like that too. Lexi often seemed to erase herself at the expense of letting the people around her shine brighter.

I wanted her to know to me that she shone brightly too.

"You did this?" Lexi said, a little breathlessly, taking a step closer as she finally took in the painting.

"Yes. Happy birthday," I replied with a big smile, and wrapped my arms around her waist, leaning my chin against her shoulder so I could look at the painting with her, on her level.

It was a cozy position, so I stayed like this while Lexi just stared silently at my painting.

I wasn't sure if she was happy about the painting, or she just didn't really know what to say about it and didn't care.

Of course, that wasn't actually true. I did know that she had to care about this, because I knew my Pumpkin and I knew she liked art and things like this.

I just hoped she understood why I was giving her this.

After a few minutes, I realized Lexi was crying. I really hoped those were happy tears. I was making my girlfriend cry too much on her birthday. 

Eventually, I asked softly, "Should I assume you're happy with it?"

"I absolutely love it," she replied, her voice full of emotion, making my heart soar.

"I'm not sure where you can put it, but we'll find a place for it. Worse case scenario, we'll keep it here until we get a place together and it will be our first piece of decoration," I told her, trying to stay lighthearted, but already imagining a future where we would be living together.

It wasn't a future that would be that far away if we decided to go to college together.

I could almost already picture it in my head.

Lexi turned around in my arms and wrapped her own around my neck, before kissing me. "Thank you, thank, you, thank you," she repeated between each pecks.

I grinned way too happy for my own good. This was her birthday, not mine. She shouldn't be making me feel this happy. "You're welcome Pumpkin."

She pressed another kiss on my lips, this one lingering for a little longer, but then broke it and said, frowning, "It makes my drawing look like crap compare to this."