Blurred Lines | ✓ [1st Edition]

17 | Persuasion

"Tell me you love me,
Come back and haunt me."

"You are something more," Yuko said, his voice wavering slightly. Not because he was unsure, or hesitant. He was...I don't know what he was.

I gaped at him, in all my wide-eyed, messy hair glory. Slowly, I swallowed and shook my head.

"N-no," I managed to say, but even I had to strain my ears to hear my own voice.

"You are," he said slowly, blinking. "I know I'm being a fucking selfish prick because I still have feelings for Siobhan, but I can't help it. You're just so wonderful and I can't stop myself from falling for you."

"I'm far from wonderful," I replied breathlessly. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Wonderful? Me?

Yuko blinked, his smile fading. With furrowed eyebrows, he ran a hand through his hair.

"I don't understand how you don't believe that you're amazing," he muttered, staring at the ground.

"Because I'm not," I said. "I'm not perfect. I'm mean, I don't have a great family and everyone in school hates me. Even my best friends."

"But that's not you," Yuko said. "The real you."

"There's only so much I can fake," I muttered. "What makes you so sure that I'm not really just a horrible person?"

"If you were, you wouldn't even admit that you are a horrible person," Yuko reasoned, tightening his arms around me. I was so comfortable in his embrace that I completely forgot about the arms that kept me in place.

"You're such a smartass," I groaned, hiding my face in his chest. Yuko's body shivered with laughter, and one hand came up to stroke my hair.

"I've been told," he said. "So do you believe me now?"

"Believe what?"

"That you're an amazing person."

"Amazing, no. Not horrible, yes," I replied, earning another silvery laugh from him. My lips turned upwards into a small, reluctant smile. Yuko always had a way to calm you down and make you smile. It was both endearing and unbelievably frustrating at times.

Yuko pulled away, keeping me grounded in place with both hands on my shoulders as he peered at me through his dark eyelashes.

"I'm going to make you believe that you're amazing," he said softly. "Because that's what you are, and that's what you'll always be to me."

"That's going to be hard," I swallowed, warning flashing in my eyes. Yuko smiled and shook his head.

"But it will be worth it," he replied. My heart nearly beat out of my chest at his beautiful words, and my throat constricted uncomfortably.

"What if you fail?" I whispered, doubt lacing my words.

"I can't fail if I don't try. And if I try, there will always be a chance that I will succeed," he said, bending his neck towards me. "So I will try, and try, and try again."

"You'll regret it," I said, looking at my feet as if they were the most interesting thing in the world.

"I'll regret it ever more if I don't do anything," he retorted. I don't know what compelled me to do what I did next. Perhaps it was because the words he spoke were the nicest things anyone has ever said to me, or maybe it was because he was so damn irresistible.

I wrapped my arms around me, and yanked him towards me. I heard him grunt in surprise as I did so, but after the shock wore off, his arms wrapped around me gently.