A Surplus of Light by Chase Connor

Author:Chase Connor [Connor, Chase]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-09-06T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

Ian

“Are you cold?” Mike asked as we sat there by the creek.

“A little,” I said as I pulled my t-shirt back on.

Mike wrapped his arms around me and pulled me into him. It wasn’t really cold. The breeze was warm early in summer and the water had still been fairly warm from having the sun beat down on it all day long. But it wasn’t my body that felt chilled. It was everything else. The last four years. Everything had brought this chill on—the loss of all of my warmth. And…I wanted Mike to hold me if I was being totally honest with myself.

My warmth would return.

In time.

I just had to be more patient than it.

“I love you,” Mike whispered against my ear.

His breath was soft and warm against my ear.

“I love you, too,” I said softly.

Mike pulled back and stared at me, his arms still draped around me.

“You heard me,” I stated evenly.

“How long have you loved me?” Mike asked, his voice low.

I turned my face to his.

“Since you were worried about the squirrel being dead,” I replied. “Since I saw your heart.”

Mike’s eyes closed, but the tears still seeped out and rolled down his cheeks as he held me.

“When you asked me to be your friend,” I said. “And you were such a geek in a God’s body…I knew I loved you. Then, when I asked if you were gay and let you stare at me as I laid in the grass, I knew I loved you. When you stood there and watched the bats with me and grabbed my hand, I knew I loved you. When you bandaged my cut. When you punched the tree. The wisteria. The real question is when didn’t I know I loved you?”

“When didn’t you know?” He asked.

“When I didn’t know you existed,” I said. “Once I knew you existed, well, there wasn’t a time I didn’t love you.”

Mike was fully crying now as he held me.

“Couldn’t you have just…once…forgotten about what being friends would have done to my reputation?” Mike breathed into my ear. “I’ve wanted you for so long.”

“I’m sorry,” I said.

It was all I could say.

Nothing would take it back.

Nothing changes the past.

I knew that my choice to distance myself from Mike at school had been wrong.

But how do you fix that?

“I forgive you.” Mike sighed, his tears coming to a stop.

“And when you are annoyingly able to see my heart, under all of this, I love you even more,” I said.

“Can I please…touch you?” Mike placed his hand against my cheek and turned my face to look me in the eyes.

I stared at him for several moments.

“Yes.” I breathed out.

Mike’s hands started to move.

“But, first, I want you to see something.” I stopped him. “Please? You can touch me all you want afterward.”

“Okay.”

Mike didn’t ask me if that was a promise. Because I hadn’t broken a promise to him yet. Now that I had given him a kiss, he knew that everything I had ever promised had been done.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.