0-6-0-1. The door opened.
I jumped forward, and he caught me.
"Happy birthday!" I exclaimed, my limbs clinging onto him for dear life as I felt his leg move and the door shut closed.
He laughs, "not yet, Lynn."
"Well, it's tomorrow though. Spring is coming!" I cheer, and he chuckles softly as his strong arms hold me up while he walks towards his bed.
"This is kinda giving me acrophobia not gonna lie," I say, absorbing the surroundings through his viewpoint.
"What's that, fear of heights?" he questions, and I hum in confirmation before he plops me down on his bed, and I naturally curl into myself comfortably.
"Can't relate," he says, laughing.
"Y'know, what if someone who has acrophobia, experiences puberty and then gets really tall in a short amount of time? Do you think they'll be screaming every time they stand up? Or would they have to sit on a wheelchair at all times?" I stared at Calix who previously sat on the edge of the bed, now crawling towards me.
"I think they'll have to recover from the phobia and just live their lives." He utters out, his arm sneaking around my waist as he buries his head on my nape.
I laughed, "true."
Suddenly, a familiar ring emerged in the air, reverberating through our skin. Calix unknotted his loop around me as my back rose off the bed, and my feet hopped off, landing on the floor before directing me towards the source visible to my eyes, confirmed by my ears.
My hand reached out, yet stopped halfway as the ringing ended. I stared at the origin of the missed calls on my phone. My gaze lowered as a notification popped up, and my eyes were stuck to the message written.
'I need money.'
I suppressed the urge to bash my phone in a blender. My teeth grits against itselves, a scream striving to rise out of the tightly-closed tiny bottle it's in. My heartbeat paced, thumping loudly as emotions invades my rationality, watering the roots of intrusive and impulsive seeds that lay underneath the soil of my mind.
I breathed deeply, attempting to calm the fury and resentment rousing within myself.
Calix. It's his birthday tomorrow. I try to remind myself, and the emotions finally begin to decrease in intensity.
I spun around, returning to the bed as I tied my arms around him and snuggled into him. He holds me, tying a tighter knot around me, as if to assure me he's not leaving, that he's here for me. That—
He'll stay.
"You okay?" he asks, a lace of concern and care tied in his tone and gentle voice.
I shook my head, sniffling. My eyes begin to sting, yet I refuse to consent to the display of emotional whirlpool caused by the woman I desperately loathe. I refuse to acknowledge her influence on me.
"Wanna talk about it?"
I stayed silent, half of my strength spent in suppressing a cry.
I sniffled, breathing deeply to ease the throb in my heart. It hurts.
"I-" I tried to speak as I felt the cry drowning down—yet it immediately rose up through my throat again, begging to be released and the clarity of my vision vanished, my eyes filled with a translucent drop of a barrier I couldn't bear to slip out.
"Shh.." he soothes me as he runs his finger through my hair gently.
I felt soothed as I subtly nuzzled my head into his palm further. I sniffled, feeling my eyes drying as the emotional disaster's intensity deducted.
I inhaled deeply, "it was my mom. She's an alcoholic, and she hates me. Throughout my entire life, she never once cared for me. Th–"
I sniffled, feeling my eyes twinge as my lungs feel suffocated. "The only reason why she still contacts me is for money."
My lips trembled as a wail stuck in my throat, ready to liberate. "I'm just.. a sack of money to her." I whispered, and a tear slipped past, trickling down my skin.
"She was never going to see me as her child," a sob cracked out.
His hands continue to soothe me, "I'm so sorry," he whispers, placing a soft kiss on my temple.
"She doesn't deserve you," he whispers, continuing his efforts to pacify my instability.
"Calix," I croaked out.
"Am I unlovable?" I whispered, my voice perishing as the lump in my throat grew larger. I gasped for air as my lungs were filled with emotions I couldn't tolerate. My heart raced in palpitation, shaking my entire body with each of its rapid, inconsistent beats. I felt rain pouring down on my face, stormy, and endless—each of its droplets contained my emotions as I screeched and shrieked incessantly without a voice.
"Shh, Aslynne." He says, his hold on me tightening as he presses me closer to him.
He retracts slightly as my cries begin to defuse. He cups my cheeks with both of his palms, our eyes meeting as he captivates mine in his, providing sincerity and affection through his gaze alone. "You are lovable, okay? I'm here because I love you." He affirms, planting a gentle kiss on my head.
"Thank you," I whispered, a numb sensation enveloping my heart as I felt drained.
"I'm here for you. I love you," he whispers, tracing invisible hearts on my skin as his touch brings a surge of comfort within my heart, replacing the numbness with warmth that only belonged to him.
"I love you." I say, gazing up at him as I feel my eyes slightly swell and sore.
He leans down, and I lean up.
Our lips encountered, and a spark of affection was set free in my heart, spreading incessantly while I poured my overflowing love into him, and he poured his accumulated, boundless love into me.
We released each other as we heaved breathlessly, feeling each other's love healing our hearts and connecting us further. I pulled him down to me, my fingers tangled in his soft strands of hair. He smiles, inching closer as he pecks my lips, and I return the gesture as my lips curved widely.
A breeze of happiness washed through me as I embraced him close to me, "you're with me." I say gratefully, inhaling the air we shared together.
"I'm with you," he reaffirms, exhaling the breath we shared together.
My eyes reflected in his, an image of us.
His eyes reflected in mine, an image of me. Only me.
"Only you," he assures, a fond smile plastered on his face as his eyes never left mine. Never left me.
His hands reached up, fingers lightly brushing on my neck as I giggled, "that tickles!" I shouted, laughing as he repeated the movement.
"Wait, wait!" I yelled, pleading as laughter filled us, my body shaking endlessly while he continued his mischievous acts. "I can't—" I wheezed, another laughter slipping out as my stomach compressed tightly.
"Stop—please, oh God—" I laughed, and he finally halted his actions, lifting his arms and plopping beside me, watching as I gasped for air breathlessly while holding my cramped stomach.
I glared at him once I regained composure, "you are cruel." I deadpan, and he chuckles, shrugging his shoulders.
"If it means I'd see you laugh and smile, then sure." He responds, flashing a roguish smile as I felt my heart thumping erratically for him—because of him. My heart stammers and stumbles as he constantly breaks the rhythmic pattern of my calm, monochromatic heart, bursting bubbles of all sorts of colors and emotions that only he could cause in me.
The disaster he could cause in me.
I sighed, shaking my head as a smile stayed on my face. "You are bad for my heart," I tell him, chuckling lightly.
He raises an eyebrow, "and you aren't?"
There was a momentary pause, before our laughter filled the silence, playing a melody of happiness within the ambience.
Once the song ended, we laid in the embrace of each other's presence.
"Y'know, I told you I like spring 'cus it's convenient, right?" I begin to converse.
"Mhm."
"But why do you actually really like it? And how come you're so obsessed with flowers?" I asked curiously as I turned to him, seeing his static expression, as a soft dim of sorrow rests in his gaze.
He breathes deeply, "you know I had a sister, right?" he turns to me, smiling woefully.
I grasped his hands gently, slowly caressing his skin as I nodded.
"Yeah, back then.. um, our actual parents didn't want us, so we were given to the adoption center. It was a pretty peaceful environment actually, nothing bad or weird at all. I watched my sister grow there with me, and she was always really energetic and cheerful, so she likes to play, run around and she just never can sit still. That's why I'm used to treating wounds too, remember? She also really loves animals, and she likes to play with them. One day, though, she was chasing a butterfly, and she'd done that a lot actually, but.. she wasn't watching out for her surroundings at all. I was standing by, and I saw it coming, but before I could reach her, she had already fallen off the cliff."
His lips shut closed as his eyes mourned, replaying the scene that'd happened in the past while a crease formed on his forehead. I brought his hand to my lips, comforting him with unspoken words that he understood as his eyes headed to mine, a soft smile on his face.
"It was the peak of spring season, and her body lay on a field of blooming flowers." He pauses, inhaling deeply as his pupils reflect the fragments of light above us.
"At first, I was, well, I was really angry and I actually hated the spring, because it felt like she was taken away from me. But after I kept replaying the moments before her death with constant regret, I realized her expression as she fell. It was like she thought she was flying, and she had this huge smile on her face even though she was about to die, like she didn't think she was going to die. More like, she was getting freedom. So I decided to go out, and I went to the exact place where she died." He inhales, closing his eyes as he reminisces the memory.
He resumes, "I could feel her presence, then. I could almost hear her voice, like she was telling me not to be sad because she did it out of her own volition. She chose that. She wasn't taken away, she just decided to leave. And I kind of felt a sense of gratitude for spring then, for giving her a beautiful scenery of blossoming flowers for the last time." He exhales, a breath of relief as he grins at me.
"So yeah, that's the full story," he finishes.
I was slightly perplexed as I wasn't sure how to respond. "I'm sorry.. Are you okay?" I decided to offer my sympathy as I traced shapes and letters on his hand.
"Don't be," he pats my head gently. "I'm alright, it was a long time ago and I've moved past it already. Plus I know even if she's no longer alive now, she never left me. She's always by my side." He says, an endearing smile curved on his lips, popping his shallow dimples.
I smiled, "you're so handsome, y'know that?"
"Mhm, y'know how pretty you are?"
I giggled, "of course."
"Only for me, hm? You're mine." He mutters slowly, his thumb caressing my cheek as he gazes at my lips with a craving desire.
"You're mine," I retort, pulling him to me as our lips clash, and we surrender to our hankering desires.
He leans away, breaking the connection as he breathes against my lips, "I'm yours."
I smiled, leaning forward to capture his lips again as our hearts connect, forming deeper, thicker strings of love within our bond.
We both retract simultaneously as we breathe breathlessly, "I'm yours." I say, engulfing him with my limbs as I cling to him with my arms and legs wrapped around him firmly. He returned the gesture without hesitation, and we shared our warmth, cherishing in each other, and the moment of us together.
Our hearts collide, and melt in each other's symphony of love.
A melody only heard by us.