Chapter 8 - After the first night

p, li { white-space: pre-wrap; }I woke up in the late morning, feeling my hand still squeezed between hers. Every kind of thought ran through my head, from the "pin her down and kiss her'' kind, to the "run away before she calls you a rapist'' kind, but in the end, I couldn't do anything. So I waited, trying to breath quietly and not to wake her up, while looking at her sleeping face.
Some time later, I heard her moan lightly. As soon as I felt her move around, probably in her sleep, I slid my hand out of hers.
She turned around twice, before resting her head right in front of me, opening her eyes slowly, smiling. I looked at her, without words.
«Good morning.» she said.
«Good morning.» I managed to tear out of my clogged throat.
She softly put her hand on my cheek, caressing it for a while, then she gave me an innocent kiss on the forehead, just before rolling out of the sheets.
«Do you want to use the shower first, or would you rather stay in bed a little longer?»
I could feel my brain running out of control, so I said: «I'd rather jump in the shower right now, if it's not a problem.»
«Of course not!» she said. «You know where's the bathroom, go ahead.»
I threw myself under in the cold water, trying to shake off my dirty thoughts before having to face her again, but as soon as I got under the stream I heard her knocking on the door.
«Actually,» she said, «do you mind if I jump in with you? That way we wouldn't have to worry about running out of hot water.»
«No!» I panicked. «I mean -» I had to think of something, and I had to do it fast. «I'm very, very shy. I'm really scared of being seen without clothes. I'm sorry, I'll try to be very quick.»
She didn't answer right away. «I'm sorry for asking you something like that. I didn't think it through. Please take your time.»
I wasn't sure about it, but it felt like she was suddenly sad. I thought she took offence at me treating her like a stranger, but I knew I would have gone crazy if I had seen her naked in front of me. So I quickly brushed my hair between my hands and got out as fast as I could,
wrapping a big towel around me.
She was in her room, looking through her clothes. When I got in, she picked a shirt and a pair of jeans, and passed them to me saying: «You can wear these. They should fit.»
Then she hurriedly choose some clothes for herself and ran to the bathroom. «I'm sorry.» she said, just before closing the door.
I changed while she showered, and found out she was even taller than I thought: I had to turn up her pants quite a few times to avoid stepping on them.
When she got out of the bathroom, she could barely look at me, and I felt more embarrassed than ever, so I made up some excuse and I went home.
The next week was very awkward. We sat next to each other at school, but we almost never spoke to each other, and we seemed to be extremely busy, and never stayed to study after school as we used to.
That Friday, as soon as the first lesson was over, a couple minutes before eleven, she asked me: «Want to get a coffee?»
Her eyes told me her suggestion was not about the coffee at all.
«Okay.» I said.
We got to the café just outside the building, and sat down at a table.
She took a deep breath. «I'm sorry. I should apologize for what I did last week. I thought... I don't know. I really like you, I love being with you because you're funny, and sweet, and I think you're really gorgeous. And I thought you liked me, I thought you liked liked me after saturday night, and I thought maybe it would've... Sorry, I'm talking nonsense. Anyway, I made a pass at you, and I know I confused you and scared you, but I don't want you to run away just because of that. I promise it won't happen again, so can we please pretend it never happened?»
I was in shock. I kept thinking of ways I could've misheard what she said, because I couldn't believe my ears.
She sighed and looked down at the empty cup in front of her. «If you don't want to see me anymore, it's okay. I understand it. But I hope you'll forgive me, sooner or later.»
She stood up, and my mind got from frozen to frantic in a split second. I saw her turning away in slow motion, and I finally managed to react, grabbing her arm. She turned back to face me, with a confused look on her face, but I still couldn't manage to speak clearly; I just held her wrist.
After a few seconds, she sat down again, but I didn't let her arm go, afraid she'd try to run away again.
«I do like you.» I finally managed to say.
«I like like you, I'm in love with you since the first time I saw you. This whole week I was afraid to look straight into your eyes because I would have remembered the kiss you gave me, and I knew you would have known about it, and then you would have run away from me, disgusted. I couldn't speak to you because I thought my perverted thoughts would have scared you away from me. I couldn't bear the thought of losing you forever, so I tried to keep myself away from you, to ignore it all.»
Her bright smile slowly came back to her lips as my words got through to her. «How about we cut school?» she asked.
I just smiled and nodded. She got up and paid, and as soon as we got outside, she grabbed my hand and pulled me with her. She led me through the center again, and after a while we got to a great park on one side of a river. We didn't speak at all, we just kept on smiling at each other.
We hid in a small grove, and suddenly she had me pinned down against a tree. Her smile was downright devious as she slid her hands in my hair and pulled me into a kiss. I felt her scorching hot lips caress mine as I held her close.
I lost any sense of time as we kissed, I just stood there, stunned by my happiness. When our lips parted again, we couldn't help but giggle.
«I couldn't resist anymore.» she said.
«I'm so glad you didn't.»
We spent the next two hours hanging around the park, chatting and holding hands.
It was about one o'clock when she suddenly sighed and looked at me. «I've got to go. My brother's coming to visit today. He's trying to pick a degree, and he asked me to have him for lunch while he's going around visiting schools. I'm really sorry, I wish I could stay.»
«Don't worry, we'll meet another time.»
«Yeah, but I don't want to wait too long. Hey, how about tonight? Do you have any plans?»
«No, not really.»
«Then it's settled. I'm taking you out for dinner. Meet me in front of the uni tonight at... Well, I don't know when, but I'll text you later. Please?»
I laughed seeing her pleading face asking me if I would like to live my greatest dream.
«Ok, I'll be there. Whenever you tell me to.»
She smiled and gave me a light peck on my lips. «Gotta go now. See you tonight.»
And just like that, she disappeared like mist in the wind.