Stay with me

“Know what?” I blurted as I hung on to his every beautiful word.

Ollie gri

We spent the rest of the morning talking and playing in the library, stuck in the fever of us. We ran through the history section, each stride crossing decades of battles, wars, and freedom fought for. Ollie tackled me in the children’s section and carried me over his shoulder through crime and thriller. I escaped his grasp in mystery, but he caught up in romance as our smiles gradually faded. The mood between us changed along with the genre, as he took a step closer—our feet walking through traitorous waters, and our hearts playing with fire. I pushed off him and ran, and when I looked behind me, Ollie smiled before chasing after me once again.

And up until the lunch, I had forgotten we were here at all.

“Will you come by tonight?” Ollie asked before we reached the mess hall.

I lifted my cast in the air. “Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t make it up the vent with a broken hand.”

“That’s right. And tell me … why did you punch the wall?”

“Because you kissed me,” I said with a single shrug.

He reached for the bridge of his nose as a cackle escaped from his throat. “Sorry, you”—he paused both his stride and sentence to double over and let out another laugh, and when he pulled himself back up, he inhaled deeply and straightened his face—”you punched a wall because I kissed you?”

“It’s not fu

Ollie threw his head back as he clapped his hands together. “I’m not laughing because you got hurt, but the way you said it so nonchalantly … damn …” He let out an exhale, and his smile faded as he draped his arm around me, pulling me close to his side. His green eyes transformed as if a lightbulb had gone off in his head, and he slowed his pace. “You know what this means, don’t you?”

“What?”

Ollie’s lip turned up in the corner. “You’ll see.”