Lovely

20. Hand in hand

"You hungry?"

"Are you hungry?"

Kahlo merely chuckled at my reply to his question, grabbing the book from my hands and closing it. Why must he always distract me from important tasks? Truth be told, I didn't mind.

I took this time to peak outside. It was getting dark which meant I had been reading for hours. Perhaps my eyes could use a rest.

"How about we go into town to grab something to eat?"

"Is Kahlo asking me out on a date?" I said dramatically, teasing him. "It's not serious, I just want to have a meal away from everyone," he laughed, and rolled his eyes. It wasn't serious, we both knew it, and I didn't mind. It didn't have to be serious. We didn't have to be serious. We just had to do what felt right and not think about it too much. I didn't know what we were but I didn't really care. I had Kahlo, in any way I wanted, and that was enough. We didn't need a status or a label.

"Let's go," I gently ordered as I grabbed his hand. I pulled him along with me and we slipped our feet into our shoes before making our way down the driveway. On the way we passed my mother, who was adventuring around the area to pick an array of flowers. We let her know we wouldn't be back for dinner, she waved us off.

We walked, and we smiled, and we walked, and we laughed. We talked and we sang and we ran. Just to wander from my house to town was a wonderful journey with him.

He led me into a small restaurant on a corner of a road. It was starting to grow more dark and so the shop had its lights on. There were round tables set outside and in with pretty red table cloths. Inside we both spotted a few people chatting and eating. The sight was beautiful, and the golden light pouring onto the sidewalk, glowing more and more as the sun continued to set, made it seem romantic and magical and everything in between. Kahlo ordered pizza, and for me, a bowl of pasta. He leaned over to shove a string of pasta in his mouth, and I leaned over to take a big bite of his pizza mostly as a form of payback. Both of our dinners were delicious. But I should have expected that.

Looking over at the boy in front of me, the night air cooling us down and the darkness drowning everything beyond the lights, I realised how in love I was. With small things. The curls falling into his eye, his hand resting on the table, the smear of tomato sauce on his cheek that I proceeded to wipe off with a napkin. His little frown when he chewed, the smile he'd send me when he saw me staring, the foot that would brush my foot every now and then. Every single one of these things I was convinced I would fight for, hurt for, die for. They are what made my life at that moment so complete and full of pure bliss. He created more than just a warm feeling in my chest. He lit the fire of my being.

I wanted him. I needed him. I needed to physicalise my feelings for him, in Callista's words. So many emotions coiled up inside of me that I needed to untangle them. I needed to do something to relieve the pressure. And I was both glad and uncomfortable when he deciphered the look in my eyes with complete accuracy. No questions asked. It made me uncomfortable because that was something special that Celia could do to me. She could read me so easily, and I didn't want Kahlo to read me. I wanted him to ask me permission. The smile that came upon the realisation that he wasn't able to pick that up, that I was currently uneasy and restless, was hard to fight. But I needed to run away from that restaurant, from that table, from that space that I had shared Celia and I's special ability with someone that wasn't her. And we did.

Off down the shadowy road, leaping over the trees on the ground that the moon put there. Hand in hand. No talking, just panting. Until we reached the lake. We trekked through forest and bush until we came to the water's edge.

And against the very tree that we had rested our bikes when we brought his siblings here, Kahlo and I made love. He had moonlight on his back, I had hard bark digging into mine. Our clothes were strewn over the grass like we were going swimming. Our voices and groans echoed across the water like siren song