Crossed Paths // Ross Lynch

twelve

Chloe was woken up abruptly, pulled out of her dreams by two firm hands grabbing hold of her thin arms and shaking her awake with force.

It wasn't like she was gently patted, taken out of her thoughts lightly so that she could still remember.

No, she was dragged out, forced out of them whether she liked it or not so that she woke up with a frown on her face and the sleepiest force making her eyelids droops. She wanted to roll over, mumble a small moan in protest at whoever was wakening her up, and close her eyes and fall back into her dreams. Instead, she was pulled abruptly out of them, her eyes shooting open at the sudden shock of cold skin touching hers. 

She looked up to see Ross standing over her, his blonde hair tousled and long. He was in desperate need of a haircut, she thought to herself with a smile as she looked at him, but they couldn't afford that.

She could maybe find herself a pair of scissors at the market and try and give him a new hairstyle but then she almost laughed aloud at the thought because she knew that she would most likely mess it up and he'd end up with a really awful cut.

Chuckling a little at thought of it, she looked back up at him, noticing that he too was smiling. It made her feel warm inside to know that he was happy to see her because she knew how unhappy he must have been living such a simplistic life that he was forced into - truth be told, he had no other option but to live on the bare necessities of life, and sometimes even less than that. 

"R-Ross, what're you doing?" Chloe asked as she looked up at Ross, a smile crossing her lips.

She couldn't help but grin whenever she was near him, whenever they locked eyes from different corners of the room, whenever their hands brushed against each other or they mumbled secret words to each other, sharing little inside jokes and those little smiles that only they knew about when everyone else was deep in conversation and they were just pretending to listen while they showed their love through nothing more than what looked like friendship.

That was what she loved about their new found relationship. Despite it only being three days into their slowly blossoming love, she had already found herself liking Ross more than she had before. It was like they were still friends but it had gone up a level into something a lot more special and interesting to both of them. 

"Waking you up, silly!" Ross said, uttering a chuckle.

He brushed a hand through his tousled hair, wincing a little as his fingers tried to pass through a small knot of blonde locks. Chloe couldn't help but smirk at him, trying her best not to laugh as he pulled his fingers out of his hair, curling them in and out so that the little bones cracked the way they always did after a long few hours of guitar playing and singing, their usual routine.

She realized that it must have been sleeping into the early hours of the afternoon, if Ross and Rydel had already gone out to busk together. 

Chloe shuffled herself across the squeaky mattress, the springs groaning under her as she moved across it. She lay by the edge of it and patted her left hand on it, motioning for Ross to lie next to her. He took the offer almost immediately and lay next to her, placing his hand next to her.

Shivers shot up and down her spine, creating goosebumps on her pale skin, as Ross let his palm rub against hers before grabbing her hand and entwining their fingers together.

After a couple of seconds of them just lying there on the bed with their fingers clasped together, he let go of her and let his fingers tickle up her arm before grabbing at her t-shirt and putting the hem of it upwards so that he could see her small stomach.

His fingers danced across her skin, making her feel absolutely amazing. She loved the feeling of his touch against her skin, loved the shivers that rocketed up and down her entire body, the smile that crossed her lips, the feeling of wanting to kiss him over and over even though she knew that she had to let their relationship go slowly and smoothly instead of rushing into their first ever proper kiss, their first heart to heart, their first time they really said 'I love you' and meant it.