Someone Like True

VI

It was as if the two were stuck on opposite ends of a teetering platform. Neither was sure whether they could move without sending both of them tumbling one way or the other. Neither was sure if they were ready to take that sort of risk. The past several weeks had been spent in silent question.

But for now, True was content. The beach was relatively quiet at 4 in the afternoon. Their towels laid out on the sand, the waves creating gentle white noise and the sun beginning to make its way down in front of them.

He could look at Marlowe- watch him bathe in the rays with his eyes closed. He could count the freckles that dotted across his skin, he could almost decipher each individual strand of hair and how it reflected or captured the light.

If given enough time, he would've.

"Do you feel better now that you've figured yourself out?" Lowe finally broke the evening quiet. True glanced out at the waves and thought for a moment.

He was happier, that couldn't be argued. He wasn't carrying around this uncertainty, this fear of accepting everything he'd denied about himself for so long.

"Yeah, I am. I feel like I can breathe now." Lowe hummed in response to that, eyes still closed, his eyelids glowing soft red in the sunlight.

"Why do you ask?" True finally continued, digging his toes into the white sand and relaxing at the warmth.

"Because sometimes I feel like I'm holding my breath, too." Lowe's voice was quiet, contemplative and he refused to open his eyes, to see True's reaction. He wasn't sure why he was so afraid. True would understand, out of anyone in this whole world, Marlowe could always rely on True to be on his side.

"Why don't you let it go, then? Just...exhale."

Marlowe stayed still for a few moments, thinking hard about what True just said. The sounds of the beach and the distant town behind them filled his mind. True made it sound so easy- so absolutely tempting that it was pulling at something in Marlowe's chest almost painfully. He couldn't just be himself. Consequences came hand in hand with giving into temptation. And damn if True wasn't the most tempting thing Marlowe had ever laid eyes on.

At this point, Lowe thought, what have I got to lose? Opening his eyes, he sat up, pushing his hair back and angling towards True.

It had been a solid month since True had broken up with Rio, and though she was avoiding the two of them to some extent, she was doing alright.

And True was doing better than that. Marlowe looked into his cool blue eyes, watched them sparkle in the angled beams of light. He reached out, slowly, afraid to shatter the tangible fragility of a moment like this.

This was them stepping toward the centre of that platform, hopefully in tandem, and praying that they don't fall through.

His hand met True's sunkissed skin, resting on the hollow of his collarbone and neck, pulling gently until they were closer than they'd been in years. The warmth of True's skin beneath his palm, the way he could feel the blood pumping underneath the pulse point his thumb rested on made the situation a million times more sensitive.

When his nose bumped True's, he could feel the platform shudder, feel his heart rate speed up infinitely until he was sure he would faint right there.

And when his lips drove home, so gently he could almost imagine it, he exhaled.