Make It Real

Make It Real - Chp 37 [Erin]

“Erin?” a voice called as the sound of my bedroom door squeaking open met my ears “Erin?” they called out again, nervousness and confusement coating his tone.

“In here!” I squeaked out sticking my hand through the sheets to wave.

“What…” Eli trailed off utterly stupefied.

My head popped out between the sheets with a huge child like grin “I built a fort!” I insisted eagerly, I felt more like a child than I had in years.

An utterly amused grin slithered along his lips “I can see that.”

“Come join me!” I insisted, leaving basically no room for decisions.

Not even minutes later was Eli joining me in my blanket fort that covered every inch of my bedroom floor and even my bed, he looked around in there at the torches and lamps I had on and how the bright lights would light up the space and the colors of the sheets. It was like being in a small, warm and intimate cave. I became breathless at how close we were to each other, our noses practically touching as he looked around in awe.

“You did all of this? In…” he looked at his watch “and hour?” he asked since under an hour we had only just gotten out of school for the day.

“Yeah,” I admitted happily with a weightless shrug to my shoulders “I was trying to do that Geography paper and I couldn’t concentrate. So I thought if I made my own little study cave I may be able to work better.” I explained as we continued to look around the space before I gestured to my scattered geography notes and pencil case.

Eli shook his head in wonder “I think it’s one of our best ones yet.”

“It’s pretty obvious I don’t want to do this paper, isn’t it?” I asked with wiry guilty smile.

Eli barked a chuckle “Hey you said it not me.” he said taking note of my blank pages and my laptop being opened to a movie rather than a Word document.

I watched as his eyes lit up in question “I’m watching Sweet Home Alabama.” I answered his silent question “Want to join?” I asked without even thinking, a couple hours alone with him in such proximity? Yeah, probably wasn’t my best thought out plans. Or was it…

Eli nodded without a pause “Sure, but if we’re going to do this right we’re going to need to order pizza and junk food.” He added as he reached over for his phone to call for pizza.

I held up my stash of junk food “Go it.”

Eli looked at me with awe and pride making me blush and giggle like a little school girl. Lying down together in the fort, shoulder to shoulder, feet to feet in this small area I clicked play on the movie. I was so close to him and aware of him and everything else, I was conscious of how heavy I breathed, how I smelt, what I did I was also aware of his body against mine and how divine he smelt. My heart that was thundering and I simply just couldn’t calm down, I was paying him more attention than the movie and it was because my mind raced with all these elaborate scenes in my head that I wished would actually happen.

Why couldn’t he just tell me he loved me? I wondered miserably. Why couldn’t I just give up already and move on? Why did I keep hanging on?

As if God was listening on to my prayers I got something. It wasn’t a kiss, or a confession of undying love or anything as such. But a tender, surreal, and simple moment where he leant closer to me and curled a lock of my hair behind my ear almost absentmindedly, as if he thought nothing of it. My breath caught and it was that one action alone that kept me hanging on, this just couldn’t be my imagination could it? The burning thrumming electricity shared between us, the chemistry and this feel of sureness. This wasn’t me being a dreamer or just wanting something so much. It was moments like this that I just simply knew.