I wake up to Flora and Miles talking quietly on the other side of her room. I get up slowly and realise that they are drawing stuff together on her carpet near the window.
"Morning," I say, voice slightly croaky and hair feeling matted and tangled as I try to fix it up quickly.
"Morning," Miles says back, his attention still on his paper.
"Good morning!" Flora replies cheerily as she sets her yellow pencil down on the ground and runs up to me. I am now sitting on the edge of her bed. My feet are flat on the ground and my back is slouched slightly. She grabs my hand and drags me towards where Miles is laying on his stomach, intently drawing a picture of a girl.
"What is that?" I ask him, making it evident that I am judging his drawing capabilities. He gives me a slight eye roll glare even though a small smile is playing on his lips.
"I asked him to draw me," Flora giggles.
"Ohhh. I mean at least he's trying," I laugh as I look from Flora to the girl on Miles' page.
"I thought it would be funny," Flora shrugs, still giggling to herself as she lays back down and continues to draw a picture of a big tree which has a boy sitting under it. The picture is unnerving to say the least but I don't mind because Flora likes to draw in that kind of style. She told me she showed one of her drawings to Kate once and that it scared the living shit out of her...although she didn't word it like that.
"Would you two stop teasing me, this masterpiece needs to be framed," He says, indignantly as he stares at his sketch proudly.
"I wouldn't call it a masterpiece Miles," I smirk. Flora giggles before taking the picture and telling us that she is going to ask Miss Grose to give her a picture frame, she also says she is going to go get some food because Miss Grose said she was making pancakes today.
"I was actually drawing you, I think it looked realistic don't you?" He whispers as he leans over to get another coloured pencil.
"Wow," I exclaim sarcastically, shoving him so that he rolls onto his side. He laughs to himself before rolling back around and flicking his pencil at me.
When Flora leaves the room, I stand up and sit on the edge of her bed, Miles quickly looks at me from where he is laying on the ground, a lovesick glint in his eyes.
"Can I kiss you?" He asks, secretively looking towards the door and then at me. It takes me by surprise that he just randomly asked me that so I hold my breath for a second and think of a good response.
"Depends," I say slowly, looking down at him.
"Depends on what?" He asks, raising an eyebrow in confusion as he notices the smile on my face.
"Depends on how well you're gonna kiss me," I tease.
"Was I not good at kissing you other times?" Miles asks, in mock defence.
"I mean...I don't really remember," I continue. He looks at me as if he has forgotten to speak, all he seems to be able to do is stare at me.
"Remind what your kisses are like again?" I say, making my tone sound like a question laced in a flirty remark. He walks over to me, hands in pockets and then slowly leans forward, now hovering over me.
"Firstly, I do this," He says, his hands now leaning on the bed, at either side of me. His face close to mine.
"Then what?" I ask, seemingly unfazed although I am very much so fazed.
"Then I do this," He lifts my chin up with his right hand and kisses my forehead softly. I close my eyes as I feel him move down to my neck and plant one gentle kiss on the part of it that makes me want to crumble. A low hum escaped my slightly unparted lips. I open my eyes again just in time to see him lean in to kiss my lips. He presses his lips to mine for a couple of seconds before they start to move along with mine. He is wearing jeans and a tight dark green jumper which complements his slim figure. I notice in between breaths that his sleeves are rolled up to his elbows and that he is profusely blushing a soft pink colour. I smile to myself before leaning back and pulling him on the bed next to me. My hands are around his waist and my head is tucked into his neck as I place small kisses on his collar bone. His skin is smooth and warm as my face snuggles into the crook of his neck and jaw. He giggles lowly to himself before gently pulling me closer to him and speaking softly to me.
"You know...I asked my parents what love felt like when I was in eighth grade," Miles says.
"Mm?" I hum, waiting for him to continue as my hands which are rested on his chest bunch up his cable knit sweater and clutch onto it tightly.
"I told my mom about this girl in my class but she said that it is impossible to fall in love at such a young age. I don't think I believed her because younger me knew that getting butterflies every time she looked at me was not a normal reaction. I mean I used to get all gangly and anxious when I heard her laugh or just answer a question in class. I never wanted to see her upset but I was stupid, every time I tried to speak to her it came out all wrong, like anything I said just became all twisted and mean. I swear I never meant to hurt you, your perfect to me and no matter what you say or do I swear to you I will never fall out of love with you because I don't think I could ever want anyone else Issy," Miles rambles adorably, playing with strands of my hair and stroking my cheek occasionally as he holds eye contact with me even when I look away out of the sheer panic and exhilaration that came with hearing his words. There are slight tears in my eyes much to my embarrassment. The grip I had on his jumper has loosened. How could I never see through his silly façade. All this time this beautiful boy was in love with me and I thought he hated my guts. It's almost laughable at how hopeless we were because even though we argued, nothing ever seemed to be able to stop us from letting go of eachother, emotionally speaking... and physically.
"I only want you too Miles," I manage to say although my voice did break a little bit from the amount of emotions welling up inside of me. I feel like it was such a simple response but I honestly still don't know what to say to him right now.
"You don't have to struggle with a perfect reply Is, I know you took in what I said," He says, kissing the top of my head lightly and smiling at me. I smile back at him and plant a long kiss on his lips. He has changed so much from that annoying, snappy, arrogant kid he used to be.
"Wanna go down stairs and eat pancakes?" Miles says, breaking the kiss.
"Of course," I say enthusiastically.
Flora is chilling on the couch and sipping a glass of warm milk whilst Miles and I are finishing up our mini stack of waffles which are covered in blackberries, raspberries, cream and maple syrup which is drizzled over the top.
"This is so good, thanks Miss Grose," I say, conscious of just swallowing a big mouthful that may have left a lot of syrup around my mouth.
"You're welcome dear," Miss Grose replies in her usual tone, although she did sound a fraction nicer. Ha she's warming up to me...finally. Miles looks at me and raises his eyebrows in mock shock, he must have noticed her subtle change in attitude towards me. He grabs a paper towel and wipes my mouth with it...oh he looked at me like that because I had whipped cream smeared on my face. For some reason, I don't even feel that embarrassed, I'm just glad to be in his company because as much as we tease eachother neither of us is cruel in a judgmental way anymore. Wait was miss Grose amused by the amount of cream on my face? Is that why her tone changed? Ok now I am slightly embarrassed. He smiles at me and shakes his head which is his way of calling me an idiot. I silently chuckle until my face goes red before resting my head on his shoulder. I kiss his cheek quickly as I get up and put my plate in the sink. I glance back at Miles whose gaze was following me the entire time, colour rising in his cheeks when I raise an eyebrow at him. I mess up his hair as I walk past him and towards Flora.
"Hey Flors," I say, sitting down next to her and resting my head on a pillow.
"Hi Issy," Flora beams, finishing the rest of her milk and grabbing the picture frame beside her which is filled with Miles' trash drawing.
"Isn't it majestic," She laughs.
"Extremely," I agree, chuckling as she moves the painting closer to my face.
"Miles! Why does she just not have eyebrows?" I shout to him from the over side of the room.
"Forgot to give her some I guess," He laughs as he leaves his plate on the bench and walks over to us, sitting down beside me and slinging his arm over my shoulders.
I look up at him and whisper "Idiot." He smirks at me before leaning forward and talking to Flora about something. I zone out of the conversation as I remember that I am supposed to be meeting Matteo in a couple of days for our catch up. Will Miles get Jealous? Do I just invite Miles along? No that would be awkward. The thought of being anywhere besides being with Miles seems delusional at this point.
"Don't you agree Is?" Miles says, turning to me with a smirk on his face.
"Sorry, I zoned out what are we talking about?" I ask, my mind returning back to the present.
"I know you zoned out, I just wanted to get your attention," he says, his hand making its way to my thigh where he decides to leave it for a while, occasionally stroking it with his thumb as the three of us proceed to talk about stupid things Miles used to do as a kid.
"I remember asking Quint for a helium balloon when I was younger. When he somehow got one for me, I breathed in the helium and used the squeaky voice it gave me to impersonate Mother. I called up my school and told them that I wouldn't be going back for a whole term," Mother and father were furious but Quint found it amusing. He thought I was extremely clever for pulling it off. I mean I was only around nine at the time," Miles tells us.
Flora's head is now resting on his lap and mine is leaning on his shoulder which is actually pretty uncomfortable even though his sweater is giving it a small amount of padding. We continue talking for a bit longer before Flora decides she wants to go talk to Miss Grose about lunch because she has decided that a new hobby of hers is going to be cooking. As Flora hops up from the couch and skips off to find Miss Grose, I feel Miles shift to face me, his fingers lacing with mine and his head lowered so that he can kiss me. He leans in quickly and starts kissing my neck, his kisses then travel up my throat, along my jawline and then to my lips. We kiss for a while before I feel him start to smile into the kiss before he slowly breaks away.
"You have syrup on your face, I can taste it," He chuckles as I quickly hop up to get a paper towel which I wipe my face vigorously with. I throw the paper towel in the bin and walk back to Miles. I casually start to mention the meet up with Matteo.
"So I'm catching up with Matteo in a couple of days," I start.
"Wednesday, Seven pm at the Icebox right?" Miles says. I am immediately freaked out but impressed that he remembered that since I barely did myself, in fact I had forgotten the time I was supposed to meet him and decided to randomly show up based off a lucky guess.
"Yeah..." I say, trailing off slightly.
"You don't want to go?" Miles asks, trying to read my strange vibe which I don't even understand myself.
"No I do but like...do you come with me or what?" I ask, knowing the answer.
"I mean I can drop you off but I doubt that it wouldn't be awkward if I just hovered and listened to you guys gossip about stuff," Miles laughs.
"Good point," I smile.
"Wait did you say drop me off?" I ask a bit delayed as I finally pick up his choice of words.
"Yeah, I have been meaning to tell you, I have been learning to drive. I started before we began dating because I wanted to be able to drive places. When we were together, I actually tried hard to get my license though. Our relationship was my main motivation," Miles says, cornily.
"Bullshit. Quint told you you should learn how to drive because chicks would dig it," I smirk.
"Damn, how did you actually know? I mean yeah that too but mostly my thing," Miles laughs as he pulls me onto his lap and hugs me from behind, his chin resting on my shoulder and my head resting on his flat chest.
"Oh no," Miles sighs, worriedly.
"What?" I question, since I thought that I was putting too much weight on his leg or something.
"I think I'm in love with you, like a lot," he says matter of factly.
"Like...a lot a lot?" I gasp dramatically.
"Yep," Miles replies, in mock sadness.
"We're going to have to take you to the doctor than, that's the only thing that can fix you now," I say solemnly. Miles moves a piece of hair out of my face and behind my ear which I hate but I don't go to fix it because I can already feel his face moving closer towards my ear and neck which is covered in goosebumps somehow.
"Or...you could kiss me again, I think that's the best cure," Miles says softly into my ear. I shift around on his lap until I am facing him. He is smiling at me. He has such a lovely smile. I lean in and kiss him, our lips perfectly press together. We both smile before immediately hearing footsteps which we both recognise to be Miss Grose. Her dainty little high heel boots giving her away instantly as she trots around on the polished wooden floorboards.
"Does she even know we're together?" I whisper to Miles as I quietly climb off of him and settle back down next to him on the couch.
"She probably does but I haven't told her," He whispers back with a smirk on his face.