The Fate Of Broken Hearts

Chapter 30

Words left me quickly. My brain stuttered and I paused, waiting for my thoughts to catch up to me. I didn't fully process what he said, and for a short moment I thought I had made it up in my head until he repeated himself.

My gaze followed him as he laid back down on the blanket beside me, and I found myself thinking.

"Aiden,"

He turned his head in my direction.

"Why do you push people away?"

He looked at me concisely, bringing his line of sight downwards. On impulse, he placed the company of his hands on my hair as it was stretched out on the blanket. His slim fingers reached out and twirling a single strand between them, while his eyes became fixated. He appeared to be in the middle of a thought and hadn't noticed the act. When he did, he kept himself there, completely still.

"Everyone is better off without me." He chuckled, but it came out forced.

"That's not true."

"Things are easier the way they are, Emma." His eyes fell onto his hands. "Why change something that has no purpose in the first place?"

"Because no one deserves to be alone."

He raised a brow, "And who gets to decide that? Me?"

"Yes,"

"Don't make me laugh, Emma."

"I'm serious." I insisted.

Aiden propped himself up on one arm.

"Would you, then?"

"Would I what?"

"Would you, knowing what I'm like, willingly want to be around me?"

"Y-yes..."

He looked me up and down, leaned forward and shook his head. "You're lying."

"No-No I'm not..."

He played with his bottom lip. "Your cheeks are flushed red, Emma. Your skin is hot and you look away every time your beautiful eyes meet mine."

"W-what-"

"Not to mention you stutter every time you try and from a sentence..." He said, suddenly looking at me - really looking at me, and it wasn't like those other times where he prepared to make a remark - no, this time it was unguarded, vulnerable.

"Aiden...?" I called out to him when I saw his jaw muscles twitch.

"Pease, don't talk right now."

"Why?"

He took a sharp intake of breath and held it.

"Because I'm trying with everything I have, not kiss you right now, and you're making it incredibly hard."

He skimmed my face as if he was learning it. His long fingers coaxed my head up and I couldn't stop the heat that rose to my cheeks.

Then all the air that he had been holding in his lungs blew out.

"Fuck it," He said, and smashed his lips against mine.

Instantly, all my senses were consumed as he cupped my face with his callused hands, slowly allowing me to fall on the blanket, faces intertwined. The jacket that had previously been keeping me warm was pulled away and tossed next to us. Shivers flooded my skin and his firm grip on me heated it more and more, until we were in a fuelled tango of deceit.

We stayed like this, under the stars, stuck in a slow and eternal blaze. It was clear for the both of us that whatever we had been feeling in the past weeks, whatever built up anger and attraction we had for each other, gradually dissolved together in this moment, leaving ourselves standing before each other without excuses. It was just the two of us, in a field, burning before the world.