The Way He Does

Chapter 25

I close my eyes and listen to his steady heartbeat. I count every one and almost lose myself in the trance inducing rhythm. His chest slowly rises and falls, I almost think he fell asleep, but he traces circled on my bare skin. I raise my head a few inches to take a glimpse at his chiseled face.

"What are you thinking about?" He asks, noticing my glare.

"Not much."

"You don't wanna tell me." He states, more or less disappointed. I don't want to make the effort to tell him about everything that goes on inside my head, cause it's a lot.

"Fine," I sit up on my elbows with my stomach facing down. "Remember when you told me about the tree you were afraid of climbing? It made me think about your fears. Do you have any?" Adrien takes a second before he chuckles. "What?"

"I don't know, maybe taking the trash out?"

"Really Adrien?" I giggle and burry my head in my arms. "Be honest."

"Do you want me to say I'm scared of monsters under my bed or what?"

"No for example, I'm scared of drowning or trusting the wrong people." I say as I draw imaginary lines on my pillow.

"Trusting the wrong people?" His tone sounds rather skeptical, but his eyes look genuine and warm.

"Yes. I trusted the wrong people in my life before."

"What happened?" I shrug in response.

"Well back in middle school I had this incident with a couple of girls I thought I could trust. Basically I liked this guy and one of his ex girlfriends and her friends fake befriended me and later humiliated me in front of the entire school, so I had to change schools."

"What did they do?"

"They made me feel like I was part of their clique and catfished me as my crush and even lied to me about hooking me up with him, they set this fake date up on which I thought I was going to lose my virginity. Then I went to his house and surprise, his entire friends including my fake friends were there taking pictures of me in this ugly mini skirt and horrendous makeup." I tell and recall all the emotions I have felt at that day. To be honest, this still hurts even though it happened years ago.

"I'm sorry this happened to you, those were very miserable people. I mean look at you now." He lifts my chin.

"Yeah but I wasn't much better, I used to watch them bully other girls, because I was a coward."

"And you admit to your mistakes. You grew from it didn't you?"

"I did. I bet you were a good kid back then." A smile creeps on my face.

"I was homeschooled."

"Oh. Did you like it?" He stares at the ceiling as if he is trying to find his answers on there.

"I didn't like school in general and I was a pretty shy and scared kid. I never really had many childhood friends, so I guess it wasn't all too bad for me."

"First you were afraid of climbing the tree, now it turns out you were shy. This doesn't sound like you at all."

"I grew out of that phase."

"A lot."

I look at him skeptically and wonder if I'm putting him in an uncomfortable position. He reveals more than he usually does about himself, I should be happy about it, but part of me feels guilty for basically cornering him until he talks about himself.

"Do you wanna go climb a tree with me?" I suggest in a casual manner. Now that those words left my mouth I'm almost regretting asking it.