Airel - Aaron Patterson [92]
“Airel, I want you to know I’m falling in love with you. And it’s not a crush—we all know what that is. But this…” He put a hand to his heart and closed his eyes, taking a moment.
I cannot express in words how I felt, the way all of me was bound up right inside that moment.
“…This is the real thing. This kind of thing is like winning the lottery. You can go a lifetime without ever finding anything real. I love you, Airel, and all I need from you is to know that one simple thing.”
My heart hurt as it swelled with emotion. I took his face in my hands and made him look at me. This time his eyes were clear and brilliant. “Michael, I love you more than life itself. No matter what happens to me, or… or how I change… I always will.”
I could almost feel his soft lips about to gently brush my own, in the prelude to a kiss—but I wouldn’t, I couldn’t. The anticipation of it was killing me. But I knew if I kissed him it was all over. I would be positively head-over-heels and I needed to hold back a small part of my heart until I figured all this out. And I may have been only seventeen, but I knew well enough that the first kiss with that special someone always started a fire that couldn’t be put out.
Michael pulled me closer, enveloping me with his strong arms. I laid my head on his chest in surrender. That’s where I belonged, where I wanted to be. If I could have stopped time, I would have frozen it right then.
As Michael held me, I could feel his heart beating against my cheek. I searched the spaces in my mind and tried to read his thoughts again, but all I heard was crying. Was he crying? I pulled away and looked up at his face. It was dripping with pain and sadness. There in the deep pools of his eyes was a force that I didn’t understand.
Something was tearing him apart from the inside out. No tears were in his eyes, but I could hear it in his head. I could picture a little boy crying in a dusty corner. I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled myself closer to him.
“It’ll be okay, Michael. I will always love you. Everything’s going to work itself out, you’ll see.” I buried myself in his scent. It was him, Michael, my Michael. I could feel that little part of my heart I was trying to hold back slipping. Michael, with all his charm and mystery, was the only man I wanted to be with.
We sat like that for quite a while, the storm gathering closer to us. When the wind began to whip and gust, we both realized we were cold and underdressed for the weather. We felt a little too far from the house and broke apart, standing. My feet had fallen asleep. I put my hands in my back pockets and stepped back from him a little. He seemed like, whatever he had been dealing with, he was mostly over it now.
He looked at me mischievously and smiled, putting his arm around me. “So. Can I see one of these superpowers?” His eyes sparkled and a small grin spread across his face.
“Boys!” I laughed, rolling my eyes. “You’re all the same.” I walked in a circle, looking on the ground for something sharp. “Okay, the one I know the best involves healing. It hurts—but it’s really cool.” I found a jagged looking branch on the ground and began to try to dislodge it from its entanglements.
Michael stood up with a look of concern on his face. “Are you sure?”
“Yeah, it’ll be fine. Watch.” I finally broke off a chunk and examined it. “Yep, that’ll do.” It looked like a giant shark’s tooth. I held it in my right hand and lifted it high over my head. Before I could change my mind or hesitate, and in the midst of Michael’s protests, I stabbed it down into my other hand as hard as I could.
“Airel! Are you okay?”
I growled in pain. I held my hand up, the chunk of branch buried and standing up in my palm. I wanted to do that little hopping dance that people do when they stub their toe or whatever. But I kept my courage by looking in Michael’s eyes. I could feel my hand begin to itch. I yanked