Midnight Memories

Chapter 16: Breathe With Me

I knock at Kai's door the next morning, a plate full of muffins in my hand. Yes, I woke up early and baked them and yes, they taste good, I mean I THINK they do, and yes, I baked them for myself... Also for Kai.

Okay, MOSTLY for Kai... as a kind of apology for running away last night.

I did bake muffins before, but Dad or our housekeeper Alexandra always helped me out. It was weird to be cooking in the kitchen all on my own, and I called Alexandra for some little tips. I baked different kinds of muffins- chocolate, vanilla, cinnamon, and, of course, my favorite strawberry. Where'd I go without strawberry muffins? That's right, nowhere.

I have designed them with fruits and sparkles and tinny cinnamon rolls. I should admit, they look amazing.

After I'm done counting to 30 in my head and Kai still hasn't opened up, I turn and am about to walk away, when I hear him unlock the door.  I turn around, nervously rocking back and forth on my feet, one hand playing the imaginary piano under the plate. These days I seem to get nervous around him a lot more than I did at the beginning of our... situation. I think me liking him so much doesn't make me brighter.

Kai throws the door open, only wearing a pair of black sweatpants and a tired smile. His bare chest gets my attention first and I stare at it dumbfounded as if I've never seen a bare chest before.

Oh, wow... does he work out THAT much, or was he born with a perfectly shaped six pack? I mean, I could tell he had a great body under his clothes, but I was certainly underestimating him.

My eyes traveler a little down, to the small boomerang tattoo on his abdomen. Then at the one on his left rib, "I know we tried to fly away, but we were just a paper plane". This is beautiful. I wonder if the writing means something particular to him or maybe he just liked it. I love it on his skin.

Then because I've been dying to read the one on the side of his neck, since the day I saw the small part of it at the club, my eyes travel up.

"Breathe with me..."

It's written there with ellipses and it's perfect. This one intrigues me the most because somehow, I just know that it has to mean something more than I can read into it.

After a minute, though, when my eyes travel up to his face, Kai's bloodshot eyes with dark circles underneath, get my attention and I narrow my eyes at him, trying to brush off all thoughts about his half-naked state.

"You are back, Moonlight!" He says chuckling, running one hand through his dark hair, making it messier. "And you brought muffins... strawberry muffins! Yay!" He says cheerfully, but I ignore his fake excitement. "Also sorry about my nudity," he says dramatically, smirking at me, "Just came back from the morning run."

I don't mind the nudity at all, boi.

"Did you even sleep last night? What were you doing!? And please don't answer "your mom", because that's just old and I will throw up in my mouth a little."

Kai chuckles, leaving the door wide open as an invitation, before getting inside. As I stare at his back, with a beautiful black raven tattoo on his shoulder blade, I have a silent battle with myself over whether I should go in or not. The thing is, I'm scared I won't be able to control my horny thoughts and end up throwing myself at him.

In the end, though, I think "The heck with it. Besides, he invites himself into my apartment whenever he feels like it, and yet I've never really seen his, of course except for that one drunken accident. And we also almost kissed yesterday, so... and he's shirtless."

Screw it, stop thinking.

I listen to myself and follow him inside, closing the door behind me.