Hickies. Nick Robinson

6

Arika POV

It's thundering so loud outside my window that my room shakes. It's 4 am and I wonder if it's woken him up too and I wonder if it made him think of me like I thought of him.

It's 4am and I'm thinking about love.
I'm thinking about the possibility that someone could make this world seem a little less dark to me.

It's 4am and I'm thinking about love.
I'm thinking about things like the way I shiver when I get nervous and whether or not he'll find that attractive.

It's 4am and I'm thinking about love.
I'm thinking about the possibility of him being awake at a time like this and thinking about the same things I am, thinking about how nice it would be to have someone who makes all of the storms in life seem less terrifying.

A sudden succession of shrill rings cut the silence. I roll over to my bedside table and hesitantly pick it up, unaware of the caller ID.

"You're awake?"
My eyes widen and my mouth falls agape. His voice sounds too real, wake up Arika.

"I'm scared of storms." I whisper into the phone. It all runs so smoothly, my body feels so heavy, if I was lucid dreaming I'd make him tell me that he loves me, but I'm not.

"I know." He whispers back into the phone. "That's why I called you." I bolt upright, my fingers are gliding so seamlessly on the bed sheet it's hard to believe that this isn't real. I close my eyes and the pressure between my lips begins to fade as I whimper at the sound of the thunder.

"So did the thunder wake you up, just like how it woke me?" I question, my voice raspier as the level of sound increased. There's no point being so quiet, this isn't real.

"I woke up because I was afraid." Nick sighs into the phone, light sounds of the his blanket moving around echo into my phone.

"Same."

"Afraid of losing you. Afraid to replay the memories of the time we spent together like a highlight reel, and even closing my eyes at random times has become a habit because the only place I can see you now is behind my eyelids."

"So tell me that you love me."

--

"Maybe you fell asleep?? Without realising and woke up too, without realising." Kenneth said, tilting his head and looking at me with big eyes.

"Do you still carry one of those NC20 sticks that match your skin tone and cover stuff?" Kenneth asks, referring to my dark under eye circles.

"Yeah of course, always. I just wasn't in the mood to wear anything today." I nod, opening my school bag and digging for my concealer. "Can you put it on for me, please?"

"Uh, yeah? I guess. Just saying you're always beautiful, I just don't think anyone would like those Gucci bags underneath your eyes."

Kenneth's soft fingers press against my skin and dabs the concealer under my eyes. "Great, now I've got all this sticky stuff on my fingers." He laughs, then dabbing under my eye once more.

"You could of used a beauty blender." I retort. He startles a little confusedly. "A what?"

"It's like, you put a concealer into this blender and you pour it all over your face to beautify yourself. Everyone uses it, don't be so shocked."

Not on cue, the bell decides to interrupt us and cut both of us off to class. "I'll see you at lunch?" Kenneth winks, tapping on my head and moving through the hallway without giving me a chance to say anything back.

I'm so tired, hell, I'm pretty sure I didn't sleep since that dream. At least, I still believe it's one. Who calls at 4am to tell someone they're afraid of love? But it could have been real, why didn't I fall asleep again? I know I stayed up.

But if it was real, why didn't he say that he loved me back?

An; hi guys I am a sucker 4 writing. UGh sorry. I wanna delete everything