Fight for You

| Twenty One |

After spending the night talking with Edward and getting to know each other better, swapping stories and sharing what our lives had been like so far, I slept soundly and woke refreshed and at ease. Another night having Edward in my house, his presence making me feel safe and calm.

Although we'd spent plenty of time opening up to one another, I still had plenty of questions for Edward. His identity had surprised me and I'd not even considered that Muse-Less could be someone like him. Now knowing the person behind the artwork, I can understand why he wants to remain anonymous to the rest of the world. His artwork portrays emotions that could be picked apart so minutely and over analyzed. Keeping something for himself, the things and feelings he pours into his craft, his vulnerability, to himself is wise for a person with his media and world exposure.

Edward had asked me over breakfast if I could take him and show him around.

"Will you take me and show me around?" he'd asked.

"Around where?"

"I want to see where you live, you can show me around your world so then when I go home I can picture you here in my mind."

The fact that Edward would have to return home had not sunken in yet. I hadn't allowed myself to think about our time together coming to an end. Of course, he had to get back to his life and I would, in turn, have to get back to mine. As if he had sensed my apprehension, Edward put his hand on my arm and gave me a hopeful look.

"I'll be back Whitney," he said with a smile. "Just you try and keep me away."

He'd spent such a short time with me yet he seemed to understand me so well already.

"Don't go and close up on me now."

"Sorry, I just hadn't let myself think about you having to go back to your reality and me back to mine," I told him honestly.

"This is our reality, Whitney. This is who we are. Please don't let our physical distance and geography change the connection we have."

"I've never had a friendship with anyone over such distance though. I don't know how it will go. I don't know if I'll be able to keep it going."

"If you don't want to do it, then I understand."

"That is not what I said."

"Then what are you trying to say, Whitney?"

His insight into how I work was beginning to surprise me. Normally, most people would respond to me by changing the subject and feel awkward or not quite know what to say. Edward however, seemed to see right through me. Knew how to draw me out of myself and lure me to share what would usually go unsaid.

"I worry that you'll go back to your amazing life and a world that is so different to mine and realise how mundane I am. How extremely normal my life is and bore of me."

He chuckled quietly to himself, "You are not mundane Whitney and my life is only what you call amazing because you're comparing apples with oranges."

"You need to remember that my life is my normal, your life is your normal. If we were to swap then your normal would be different. I don't care about that, I care about you and who you are, not what you have."

"Thank you."

"For what?"

"Knowing exactly what to say."

"It doesn't always come out perfectly like that but you seem to be lucky," he smiled at me and the look on his face and his words helped to reassure me slightly. "Now will you take me and show me around your little slice of paradise, please?"