Truce

Sixteen // Surprise

I didn't want to start this conversation again so I just turned back to my closet and rifled through my dresses.

"You're tired," he observed and I could hear him making himself comfortable on my bed. He was observant like that, which I loved and hated. It meant he noticed when I wasn't okay and he would worry, but sometimes I didn't want him to worry.

"I didn't get to sleep last night." I'd told Hayden not to come over. He was tired too and needed his sleep when he wasn't getting enough of. But that meant I couldn't sleep.

"How is it that you manage to sleep when I'm here but when I'm not, you don't? Are you just missing me too much?"

I chuckles and pulled out a dress, holding it against myself and looking in the mirror. "Yes, Hayden. I can't go fourteen hours without you. It's just too painful," I said with heavy sarcasm, hanging my dress on the door handle and padding across to where he was lying. He looked like a Greek God; and he was all mine.

"Hey," he reprimanded, his lip jutting out into a pout. "Do not mock my feelings because you think they're stupid." Then he opened his arms and I crawled into them, praying to god no one from my family would decide it the perfect time to barge into my room. Especially Jay. That would not be fun to explain.

"You're such a girl," I teased and he pinched my waist. I squealed and wriggled out of his grip but he was already up and looking at me with those mischievous eyes that made me knew I was in trouble.

"Don't you dare," I warned from the other side of my bed. His mouth just quipped up into a smirk and he lunged for me.

"No!" I squealed as he chased me around my room, but really, what chance did I have? He was fast and in no time he grabbed me around the waist and slung me to the bed and started to tickle me.

"Stop!!" I tried to exclaim through the laughter, tears streaming down my face. I was trying to kick out of his grasp but he was sitting on my legs. Oh, also don't forget the fact that he was a seventeen year old tall muscly boy. I had no hope.

"Hmm..." He trailed, his hands drifting from my stomach to my hands, linking his fingers through mine. "What do I get in return?" He asked, laying me back on the bed. My cheeks flushed and I bit my lip, hating how he affected me. this shouldn't be possible, to like someone so much. My chest actually contracted when he inched his fact closer.

My mind flittered back to the fourteenth of February, to Valentine's Day. He had climbed up my window when I was reading late at night, coming back from a party he was attending with my brother. He had squeezed through my window and fell onto the floor, causing me to erupt into a fit of laughter, but I was immediately silenced when he blurted, "I don't care how you feel about me, I just need you to know that I love you." Ad then after I didn't say anything for a minute he said, "okay that first part was a lie, I really really do care how you feel about me."

I felt bad, but I didn't love him. I knew my feelings weren't that strong so I didn't say it back, but now the emotions hit me like a train and I just smiled up at the idiot. "I love you."

His mouth popped open and I let out a light laugh, lifting my hand to his face. "You're a moron, but I do."

"Say it again so I know it's real," he whispered, holding himself above me.

"I love you."

"Again?"

"Hayden Dean Porter," I said, lifting my head to press a kiss to his cheek, letting my lips linger there before moving them to his ear where I whispered, "I love you."

And then I looked at him and barely had time to smile before he kissed me, but it was different from before. Before he would have started off soft, slow, making sure I was ready and letting me be in control.