BREATHING. BREATHING IS an action you need to stay alive. Inspiration. Expiration. Drawing in air, letting it fill your lungs, before letting it out. Simple. Easy. Something most people know how to do. People do it mindlessly. They do it in their sleep. They do it when they're walking. They do it when they're watching a movie. They do it everywhere, at everytime they can. Sometimes, however, everything gets unbearable and you seem to forget how.
It all started to crumble when Arthur and Evelyn walked into their hotel room. Due to George's sly, but not so sly, plan, the two were paired up together. How convenient. Arthur and Evelyn. The brunet and the blonde. The youtuber and the baker. The meant to be, or not meant to be. Evelyn still didn't know.
It was silent as they unpacked. The woman was tired, yawning every second step she took, while the man was lost in thought. The blonde clearly remembered turning around, brows furrowed with confusion, as her eyes latched onto his frozen figure. His body was hovering over his suitcase, one hand holding a shirt - entirely unmoving.
"Arthur?" She asked. As if a switch had flicked inside him, he abruptly stood up. His back was straight, too straight, and his shoulders were pushed back instead of loosening into his typically-relaxed state. His eyes were sharp and his jaw was tight. Everything was tight, just like the air. Evelyn could feel the tension from across the room.
He parted his lips, finally looking at her. Not her skin, not the exterior of the woman, at her. He was looking directly into her heart.
"Do you ever think about it?" He asked. His words split the air, sending a jagged line through the miniscule atoms until it ended at the tip of her nose. She froze. Suddenly, their roles had reversed.
Did she ever think about it? Did she? Within her brain, she laughed. Of course, just after she'd decided to push it all behind them, he dug it back up again. Months ago, he'd planted a dead tree and left it there for her to deal with. She was too scared to do anything, too scared to make a move. Finally, months later, she found the courage to dig it up and toss it away, only to come back an hour later and find it planted, again, with Arthur holding the shovel.
That one text had plagued her every thought ever since it was sent through. Ever since it buzzed on the nightstand that one, fateful night and she'd refused to pick it up. Ever since she'd left the party with her jacket wrapped closely around her. Ever since she'd watched him walk through the door without a second glance back. Ever since the kiss. The kiss.
"What do you think?" She asked in a sigh. She turned her back to him, feeling his sight never leave her body. She continued unpacking.
"I don't know," he said as he crossed his arms, a slight shrug the woman never saw taking advantage of his shoulders.
"What a surprise," she scoffed beneath her breath as she shoved another jacket into the cupboard across the room from his own. From behind her, due to the silence weighing down the space, Arthur had heard her. He looked taken aback with surprise. He tightened his grip on the shirt he'd forgotten was even in his hand.
"What do you mean what a surprise?" He asked, highly offended. He took a step closer around the bed while Evelyn dropped the clothes in her hand back into her suitcase with an annoyed groan. Maybe it was the lack of sleep. Maybe it was the lack of knowing. Maybe it was the lack of tranquility, because Evelyn's insides were on fire.
"Well, you never ask me anything! I mean, you never even asked if I was okay! Do you know me? Do you know anything about me?" She asked loudly, arms splayed wide by her sides as she awaited his quick response. He scoffed, jaw tensing.
"You're kidding. I know everything about you, Lynn-"
"Don't call me that." She said swiftly, a spike in her tone that no one was used to hearing.
"Well, go on then, Evelyn. Quiz me. Ask me anything." She hated the way her name sounded in his mouth. Lynn was so soft, so gentle, so meaningful. Evelyn, on the other hand, wasn't so much. There was a reason she liked the man calling her Lynn, and how it was only him that called her that name. It was special, something she wished she could be in his eyes. Something she thought she knew would never come true.
She stopped for a second, shaking her head as her lips twitched with rage. She wanted to argue, to yell, to say something, but she was useless. When she got emotional, her vocabulary grew wings and flew out the nearest window. She could basically see it crossing the Atlantic ocean as she thought.
"You just don't get it, alright? If you knew me like you're saying you know me, you wouldn't even need to ask me whether I thought about it or not. Why do you think I stopped trying to talk to you for a while? Why do you think I stayed in my apartment without leaving for a week? Why do you think the only thing possibly stopping me from going on this holiday . . . was you?"
Arthur didn't know how to respond - he couldn't. His mind was processing the information. He'd known she wanted to travel to cities like Milan and Oslo. He knew how much and all that she'd give just to visit said places even once. To find out she thought about missing that opportunity because of his presence made him realise just how big of a mistake he'd made.
"I do get it, okay, I promise I do." He stepped closer, hands reaching out with a shirt still dangling from his left hand, but she replaced it with a step back. He stopped once more. "I know you. I know how you have this crazy-"
"It's not crazy," she interrupted sharply.
He held his hands up in surrender while correcting himself. "This passion for romance and shit but . . . I don't do this, okay! I don't know how to do this. I'm scared too, Evelyn. I was scared. I didn't want to ruin anything."
"What, so you just ran away and hoped that sending me a text saying a kiss was a mistake would fix it? That everything would just go straight back to normal?"
"Maybe?" He shrugged, his voice quiet in a murmur, because he knew he was wrong. His mind was whirring. How can I win this, his brain was asking, but his heart was saying, you won't. He'd been instantly sent into lawyer mode, thinking of every interaction they'd ever had, but really, he didn't need to. It was a now fight. He didn't have to win, he had to hope.
"This is what I mean. You can't just -" Evelyn stopped, sucking in a breath. She could feel a stinging sensation rising to her eyes. "-You can't just do that, Arthur. Everyone knows that. You say you know me and then . . . and then go do that . . . to me! You should know how that would make me feel!"
"Why, Evelyn? Why?" He yelled back, letting the shirt fall to the floor. He accidently stood on it as he leant forward, face a blazing mess. A single tear trickled down the side of the blonde's right cheek as she sucked in a gasp for air, thoughts and emotions restricting her method to breathe. Then was the time she forgot how to breathe.
Arthur continued on with emotions matching her own. "You- You- I'm an awkward mess, all the time! I can't talk to people! I'm a fucking youtuber and you're a model and an influencer and a baker with a shop! You're everything, Evelyn, but look at me! What even am I? I didn't think you'd be upset over it because it's me! You're asking if I know you but do you know me? Really? Do you really?"
"Are you serious? Are you blind? Arthur . . . oh my God. Oh my God!" She ran her hands through her hair as she span on her spot, head tilting to face the roof. She squeezed her eyes shut, a few more rogue tears slipping through. She clenched her jaw, inhaling, then exhaling. Think. Inhale, exhale, think. Then, she turned to him with tight features. Her cheeks grew defined, her eyes thinner than usual, as water blurred her vision. Her skin paled. "It's because I loved you, Arthur! I loved you. I love you."
Three words was all it took for the world to stop. Arthur felt sick. He felt like turning around and banging his head into the cupboard until he fell to the floor - unconscious. He felt like running into the bathroom and leaning over the toilet bowl to puke out all his troubles, if he even made it there in time. But most of all, he felt like crumbling to the floor and ripping out his hair, because all he'd thought had been wrong. He'd thought a woman like Evelyn, as beautiful as Evelyn, as brilliant as Evelyn, could never fall in love with a man like himself.
However, he didn't do anything of the sort. Instead, he did the opposite.
He pushed himself forward, heels digging into the carpet. Evelyn didn't even have the chance to widen her eyes before they'd made contact. Her back was pushed against the wall as his lips pressed into her own. Her hands gripped his collar tight as she tilted her head, kissing him over and over again. For the second time that night, she forgot how to breathe as she was emersed into the world of Arthur Frederick, the same occurring for the man her body was currently pressed up against.
After a few moments, longing kisses and delayed passion being shared in-between them, they pulled apart. A mere centimeter of thin air stood between them as they looked deeply into one another's eyes, growing breathless. Arthur was the first to break the wall.
"I'm sorry," he whispered sincerely.
Evelyn tightened her grip on his collar. "I know."
"I love you."
"I know."
Arthur looked at her pointedly. "Lynn."
She smiled, the edges of her plump lips resting against her bright cheeks. "I love you, Arthur. More than you'll ever know," she whispered.
"Technically, I-"
"Shut up and kiss me."
Arthur obeyed immediately.