blood like gasoline | 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐨 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐭

𝟎𝟕𝟒 | I Love You

Her heart clenched. Love. The word hung there, heavy and fragile, suspended between them. She had never expected it, never dared to hope for it. But now, it was a truth she couldn't deny.

Theo stepped closer, and suddenly, the room was too small, too confining. She could smell the soft scent of the bubbles on his skin, feel the heat radiating from his body. His thumb traced the curve of her lower lip, and she shivered.

Time chose that moment to freeze, leaving Ophelia trapped between the wall of the pool, and her boyfriend, whose eyes stared into hers with endless love. She had seen Theo stare at her like that before, many times, but she never knew what that raw tenderness was.

Now she knew.

It was love.

He was in love. 

"Wh-what?" Ophelia whispered hoarsely, eyes widening, afraid to believe he had said those three little words.

Take them back. Please don't let anything change today.

You didn't mean to say—

"I love you," Theo repeated earnestly, caging her in his arms protectively. "I know we've only been dating a short while, but Lia, I.... My love for you is as boundless as the sky, as deep as the ocean, and as enduring as the stars that embroider the velvet tapestry of the universe. You make me a better person, you make me want to live." 

There were sudden tears spilling down her cheeks, on hearing his words, on feeling the unrestrained emotion he spoke with.

On hearing the poetic divulgence from his lips, and the way he looked at her like she was the only girl on earth. 

And the way she looked at him with tear-filled eyes, lower lip jutted out into a pout, silently begging him to take it back.

Silently pleading that he was joking.

Because she felt pressured to say it back.

The tears came unbidden, a silent testament to the raw ache that had cracked open inside her. They traced hot paths down her cheeks, each one a wordless echo of the pain and passion that Theo's confession had stirred within her. The dam had broken, and with it, the floodgates of her heart had flung wide open, releasing a torrent of emotions she could no longer contain.

Her breath hitched, a fragile sound lost amidst the symphony of the storm outside. The room was a blur, a watercolor painting washed in sorrow and the soft glow of the lamp that flickered like a beacon in the tempest of her soul.

Theo's face, etched with concern, hovered before her—a lighthouse in the dark sea of her despair. His hands, tentative and unsure, reached out to cup her face, thumbs wiping away the trails of her grief. But the touch only served to release more tears, as if his kindness were a key unlocking chambers of her heart she had long since sealed shut.

"I didn't mean to hurt you," he whispered, his voice a low rumble against the thunder that rumbled outside. "I never wanted to be the reason for your tears."

But his words, though meant to comfort, only served to remind her of the chasm that had opened up between them—a gap that seemed as vast and insurmountable as the night sky. How could she bridge the distance when every step felt like walking on shards of glass?

She looked up at him, eyes glistening with the remnants of her storm. "Then why?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper. "Why stir the waters if you knew the tide was too strong?"