DENIAL

21

March 15th, 2019

3 years ago...

_____

"Why can you never let me in?" 16-year-old Emmalyn Amelia asked her then-boyfriend, Leighton Valak.

He lowers his head further into his pillow. Promptly ignoring her.

"You've been distant. More than usual. Even now you can't even look at me or say anything." Emmalyn's tone is desperate and pitiful.

Tears stream down her rosy cheeks endlessly, she tries to muffle the sound of her cries with her hands, but it's useless. Leighton can hear the sound of her crying.

A sound he never wanted to hear in his life.

"L-Leigh... I thought... I thought that you—"

"I didn't expect this to last this long." Leighton finally admits, cutting her off. His head lifted a bit from the soft cushion.

God, she's even beautiful when she cries.

He thinks.

She sniffles before questioning what exactly he means. Leighton sighs, "I didn't expect to fall for you."

Emmalyn's watery blue eyes widen.

"And now that I have, I feel like it'll destroy me," Leighton says simply but genuinely.

He meant it. Every word. No matter what she could do to him, he'll probably always be in some way in love with her.

She was his first love. There's no undoing that.

She'll always be a part of him whether he likes it or not. Whether she's a wound cut so deep in his skin that it'll take years to heal or a parasite stuck into his body, she remains.

Leighton sits upright, finally facing the blonde-haired beauty.

"I've never known true love. True happiness. So I'm scared now, that this might be it. I'm distant because I'm scared of being happy. So don't cry, I do love you." He smiles softly, something that's rare for the tragic 16-year-old boy.

"I'll love you forever." His gentle hands came up to her face, wiping all the tears away from her pretty face.

"I love you too." Breathlessly, she kisses him. She throws herself into his arms as her soft pink lips meet his. He can feel a smile on her lips as they roam each other's mouths.

Emmalyn then caresses the side of his face, his nerves elevating while she does so.

Her once teary eyes were now completely dry with a hint of deceit that he never quite realized existed until years later.

"I'll love you forever too." She sounds true, so true it makes it hard for him to disbelieve, and back then, he wanted so desperately for it to be.

So desperately he wanted to be loved.

His eyes sparkled with happiness as he looked at her.