Thoughts of an Observant Introvert

A stroll through the woods.

Strolling through the woods at night, you were terrified of going any further in fear of encountering something dangerous. The only sound that surrounded us was the chirps of the crickets that were all around the forest. The wind was silent, not causing any trees to sway, which added to the frightfulness that you were so embraced in. If anything or anyone were to stumble upon the forest, we would be able to hear them from a mile away. Our arms were hooked, and we sauntered through the forest in the comfort of the silence. The scent of freshly mowed grass wafted through the air, and I inhaled deeply because of how refreshing it smelt, especially after being surrounded by synthetic fragrances all day. You, however, could not smell anything because of how sick you were, your nose being congested. Yet here we were, walking in the cold. Our arms still interlocked, I asked if you wanted to turn around; you seemed hesitant to continue with our trek and responded with a 'yes'. As we made our way back to the car, we stumbled upon a bridge and just stopped in our path and stared at the sight in front of us. The water looked so magical and magnificent at night; reflecting the stars that were in the sky and the trees that surrounded the bank of the river. The water which was closer to the bank being lighter in colour than the rest because of the muddy water plants. You and I leaned on the light brown timber railings; I was still mesmerised by the raw beauty in front of me, but at the corner of my eyes, I saw you staring at me. I turned to face you and made a face of confusion, and asked you why the hell it was that you were staring at me. You answered with something similar to 'You look so pretty tonight'. My cheeks reddened and I quickly turned away to avoid you noticing that they had gone a few shades darker. You have a weird obsession with my cheeks, and I think obsession is quite the understatement. You tend to attack them whenever you see me and it annoyed me at first, but I have gotten used to it because of how frequently you do it. We ambled through the forest and onto the path that led to the car, still in a trance by what I had just witnessed. My phone was out, acting as a flashlight because you were still fearful of what was present in the unknown. As we passed a few trees, one stood out in particular to me. As the flashlight passed over it, it created a shadow on the other trees that resembled a large flying star that followed us whenever we moved forward. I pointed this out to you and it took a while for you to see it, and you just sighed in relief, still not seeing the significance of this moment, that to me, it is the little things that impact me the most and make the biggest difference . You just brushed it off and we hurried to the car because the cold was becoming to much to bear. Upon entering the car, the immediate warmth cocooned us both, heating our frozen limbs and enabling us to move them. You ask if we can stay in the car for a bit before driving off to our next planned destination, and I willingly agree. We climb into the backseat and just cuddle. It feels so good just to be enveloped by your warm embrace, your heat penetrating my clothing, warming up my non-existent heart, making me consider that there may be something there. It was then that I really knew what love was; love was not just a feeling or saying the short phrase. It is not wanting to leave the person, not wanting to see them upset, wanting only to see a smile on their face and genuinely only feeling happy when you are with them, or elated when you are about to see them; regardless of how many times you have seen them before. We ended up driving to a local restaurant that we had visited before, and went inside to have dinner. The food was very pleasant, but the company made it even more enjoyable. I could not stop smiling the entire time that I was eating because your gaze was fixated on me; with the goofiest, most adorable smile on your face. After thoroughly enjoying dinner (literal dinner), and arguing with you for paying for our meal (WHY? I AM AN INDEPENDENT WOMAN WHO CAN AFFORD TO PAY FOR THINGS. DO NOT MAKE MY INNER FEMINIST CRAWL OUT), we made our way to the car and chilled there for a while. You played your EDM music and told me that you were going to create a playlist of songs that we both liked, and while you were sorting through your current playlist on your phone, you started nodding your head to the beat of the music, quietly humming the lyrics to yourself and looking up every now and then to give me a smile that made knots form in my stomach. It was the little things about you that I loved; the way in which your brows furrowed when you were concentrating on something, the foolish grin that you give me when we make eye-contact, which bears all of your teeth that you are so very proud of because of your braces. I love it when you stare into my eyes, because it makes me feel so special, as if I am the only person or thing that is worthy of your attention. Or the way that you pretend that you are not exhausted because of a hard day's work during our phone calls, even if a few minutes of silence go past and I know that you have dozed off. I call out your name a few times, and you come up with the most obvious excuses like 'Oh, I was just surfing Instagram'. How adorable is it that you fight sleep in order to continue our phone call? I do not want you to be tired during work tomorrow, so if you do not say that you want to go to sleep, I insist that we end the phone call. But it does not end up happening immediately because you deny the fact that you are tired. I can instantly tell that you are bluffing, and I catch you on it, but you claim that you wish to continue speaking to me. To me, that is special. You do not find everyone doing that for you, willing to sacrifice sleep for you. That is what love is. It not just the phrase 'I love you', but an amalgamation of actions and feelings that make the person you love appear to be so flawless and perfect, even if it just an illusion; because no-one is perfect. But in my eyes, you are the epitome of the perfect human. Screw flaws because guess what? They make you so bloody perfect to me. I wish you could see what I see, because you would be mesmerised by your awesome ass. You make me happy, and that is all I can ask for.