She sat beside him, looking at her shoes. She wanted to say something, anything to fill the heavy silence that was creeping in between them. She wanted to reach across and grab him, hug him, make him hers. She wanted to say how much she loved him. Of course, she thought that he didn’t feel the same way, and confessing her love would widen the gap between them.
He looked across at her. She was looking at the ground, which meant that she couldn’t really see him. He was grateful for this. He wanted to hold her in his arms, and make her forget everything, all her troubles and worries. But of course, he couldn’t. There was no way to do what he wanted without putting himself at risk; displaying his emotions, making it easier for her to hurt him like so many girls had before.
She saw him looking at her out of the corner of her eye. It wasn’t like he had just kissed her and taken her in his arms, but it showed that he was trying to do something. She decided to follow his lead, but in a less subtle way. She slowly took her right arm from her lap, and placed it in the small gap between them. There was still a few centimetres of room on either side, but it made her feel closer to him. Physically she was, but in her mind she felt a tiny hint of regret; a feeling that made her want to take back her actions. Her arm moved slightly, as if she were trying to pull it away, but failing. She just left it, and went back to looking at her shoes, her eyes following the criss-crossing laces.
He saw her arm land in between his leg and hers. He wanted to reach out and grab it. It twitched, and he was worried that she was going to pull it away, and his chance would be lost. However she left it there, even though she looked like she was regretting putting it there in the first place. It’s now or never, he thought. There had never been an opportunity as good as this. He quickly shot out his arm, and wrapped his large hand around her small wrist.
She felt his hand around her wrist and turned to look at him. He pulled up her hand so that it was at head-height. They were face-to face now, as she had turned her body to look at him, and he had responded in the same way. He grabbed her other wrist, and pulled her hands together into her lap. She held her hands there, as he moved his hands from her wrists to her shoulders. She stretched out her arms, and placed them on his hips. He looked at her with adoration, and smiled a smile that she had never seen on him. A smile that said, “You are beautiful”. A smile she wanted just for herself. She leaned into him, wrapping her arms around his torso. He moved his arms so that he was hugging her too, pulling her into his body. He put his lips to her ear, and whispered.
“I love you.”