adored

15

Liyana Bluemell:

Liyana was wiping down the counters in an almost mechanic motion, yet her mind was occupied on something else entirely. Last night in an act of either bravery or slight stupidity, she had decided to text Leo and take him up on his offer. Running was the last thing she felt like doing, however she did want to see him and so she had sent off a text before she had any time to second guess her plan,

fancy going for a run tomorrow? 

Leo replied after 6 minutes.

Sounds great, what time works for you?

And suddenly the anxiousness that had been brewing at the pit of her stomach dissipated into thin air. They had agreed to meet at 6pm by the entrance to the park he'd found her in last week. Her shift finished at 5 giving her an hour to sprint home, change into something slightly presentable, and make her way there.

Not stressful at all.

Once she reached home, she quickly changed into a pair of white jogging bottoms that were slightly oversized but cuffed at the bottom and a zip up athletic top. It was by no means a cute outfit but she didnt have time to worry about that. Liyana brushed through her hair gently, tying it into a ponytail with the front strands left out. She tied a bow into her hair and added a smidge of concealer, blush and curled her lashes. Rationally it was silly, knowing that within about 3 minutes it'd be melted off her face, but she felt cute. 

Upon reaching the gates of the park, liyana noticed a familiar figure leant against the wall, his eyes instantly snapped to hers and a smile graced his face. 

"hey you"

"hello"

"you ready?" She asked him, wanting to calm the nerves that had began to bubble up once more.

"I must confess I'm not the greatest runner so if I suddenly dissapear I probably collapsed or fell into a ditch or something."

"Well you've already seen my athletic-ness when you guys thought i was dead so i guess its a perfect match"

The words left her tongue before her mind realised what shed just said. Perfect match? gosh she needed to reign it in, in fear of scaring the poor guy away.

However despite the blush creeping up Leo's neck he nodded, "i guess we are"

They began jogging at a relatively slow pace, conversation flitting between them from random subject to random subject before landing on batman.

Liyana had never seen him so animated, talking about the significance of the trilogy and how the second movie 'the dark knight' is the best thing to ever exist. Liyana couldnt stop the smile that overtook her, his excitement being contagious and passing on to her. 

"Honestly I'm not sure if we can continue this friendship when you haven't even watched the batman trilogy. Its a crime"

She laughed breathily, her tiredness now catching up to her,

"Well if its that important to you, then I'll check it out later"

He smiled approvingly at that, "so what about you? What films do you like?"

She paused for a second, "I don't watch many movies, I prefer to read books but there's this movie 20th century girl that I love"

He hummed, taking a swig of his water bottle, "so whats your favourite book then"

"That's like the most difficult question to answer"

"Take your time"

"Im absolutely obsessed with this one book called 'of jade and dragons'. I read it recently."

Liyana didn't mean to go on a 10 minute long ramble about every detail about the book, but it just naturally spilled out while Leo listened to every word intently, cataloguing the information away in his mind to remember what things she liked. 

She didn't tell him the ending, not wanting to spoil it on the very slim chance he was to ever pick it up. 

Liyana was panting slightly heavily now, to her own embarrassment, and Leo had noticed. Leo, who looked in perfect condition without a speckle of exhaustion tainting him. However, to his credit he rasped out, "do you mind if we take a break? Im knackered"

"Oh yeah ofcourse." 

Liyana sat on the grass, downing her water in an attempt to regain her breath. Leo sat beside her, offering his bottle when she finished hers which in her haze of exhaustion she took gratefully.

While she took a breather, Leo went online and ordered himself a copy of 'of jade and dragons'. 

"By the way, you never gave me a review of my cookies"

"Oh yeahhh"

"So? How were they? Didn't land you in hospital, did they?"

"They were actually lovely, im actually quite worried that you're going to take my job"

"You got me. That was the plan"

"Do you and Daniel bake a lot together?"

"Yeah he loves it, so when he's not with me I try out a bunch of recipes as practise so when we do them together they don't go wrong. Im still trying to get the hang of choux pastry"

Liyanas heart couldnt handle how sweet he was.

"I'd be happy to show you how I make choux buns"

"Yeah?"

"Yeah for sure"

"I might take you up on that then"

When they finally bid each other goodbye, both Liyana and Leo walked away feeling such a sweet happiness bubbling within them.

~

That evening as Liyana was flicking through netflix, she found herself searching for Batman begins, the first of the trilogy, and pressing play. And as the end credits started to roll about two hours later, she immediately started the second followed by the last. After that finished, she found herself FaceTiming Leo, disregarding the time of night and the fact that they dont call each other often, let alone FaceTime. Soon enough her phone screen was taken up by Leo's face, all angles and clear skin even with the groggy remnants of sleep.

Oh, sleep.

Well, this is awkward.

"You- Are you okay? whats happening?"

He rubbed his eyes with his sweatshirt sleeve covered palm before seemingly trying to blink away the sleepiness.

Liyana lowered her voice, "im so sorry. I just uhm nevermind. Ill tell you tomorow."

He yawned once, before adjusting his position.

"Well now you've woken me up from a great dream, you could atleast tell me what was so important it required a call at almost 3:37am."

"Well its silly but i watched the dark knight, well all three actually. I literally just finished them."

He blinked slowly at her response, before pinching his face as if to understand whether this was all part of his dream.

"Although im sure you were dreaming about me, i assure you, you are indeed awake." she joked, the embarrassment unfurling in her stomach slightly.

He blinked slowly, not responding before nodding upwards, "give me a second, let me relocate"

She watched as he got up and walked to a different room before getting comfortable. The embarrassment she felt of not only waking him up at such an absurd time but making him get up and move to another room for some reason was consuming her. 

"Daniels sleeping in my room, didn't want to disturb him" he said by way of explanation. 

"well go on, tell me what you thought of it."

The eagerness she felt surpassed her awkwardness as she gushed about every detail of the movie. She had her iPad out infront of me, on which she had notes on all of her favourite parts to ensure in the excitement she didn't blank on what she wanted to say.

When they finally both got off the call and drifted off to sleep, their dreams seemed to be entangled, each of them making an appearance in each other's thoughts.