Lingus

by Mariana Zapata

Tristan continued pulling at his hair, rocking back and forth on his heels like a nervous kid. "Back at the convention, I was just trying to tell you that I hope we could try to be friends?" I wanted to give him the finger. But I also wanted to hug him and tell him I'd take whatever he was willing to give me, like a fool. But fuck. Shit. "Yeah," I told him with as much enthusiasm as I could muster.

He let out another yawn. "You're my favorite person in the world. Goodnight."

Was he awake? I wanted to know, but I didn't move. Lips touched the crook of my neck and shoulder, but this time they were wet. Then, a second later the mouth disappeared. The hand stayed on my hip and only warm breathing washed over my neck. This was so inappropriate... I didn't move an inch.

I fucking miss you.

His words floated through the air, severing any and every thought from my brain. "I can’t stand this anymore. You’re all I think about."

Tristan turned to me and placed a warm, sweet kiss on the hollow behind my ear. "I'd do this all over again a hundred times as long as I met you in the end."

His free hand went to grab mine and placed it over the left side of his chest, right over his heart. "Goldie, I love you," he breathed, kissing my cheek softly.

it was too much. "Before you tell me I shouldn't have, I didn't buy it, okay? It was my grandma's, and it's really old. I saw it a while ago when I was helping my mom sort through her belongings and it reminded me of you, Goldie." His voice lowered before he kissed my collarbone. "You're like my moon. Pretty pointless according to other people, but without you, the world is pretty much over. I wouldn't have any stability, there wouldn't be any cool things like tides; if you broke into a million pieces, you'd kill everything on the planet," he tried to say it with a straight face but he couldn't.

"You'll always be my favorite person in the world. Always."