Gravity

by Tal Bauer

I could faint. I could also puke, right onto the ice, right between his skates. “Hi,” I squeak. “I wear your number.” “Enchanté.” Bryce's grin grows. “I wear your number, too.”

My heart is banging, beating wild and out of control. I tip my face up to Hunter. His smile blinds me, my vision eclipsed by the brightness of him, of everything that he is. Hunter looks down and meets my gaze. The world falls away, swallowed by those black holes that have been opening around me. The only thing left is him. Oh, calisse.

Will lightning strike again? Can we hold on to this fire between us? Fuel it, hone it, make it ours?

I want to run. I want to turn around. I want to fall into these questions and see if maybe there are answers here, in the space between Hunter and me.

Am I drawn to this place because it has no end, like this wondering that’s seized me? Hunter watches the sunlight drift over the desert and the lights of Las Vegas shimmer like a firestorm. I watch him.

Still, we are together. It's like I can't escape him. Et non, I do not want to. He can trap me in his gravity pour toujours.

C'est pourquoi tu ne rêves pas.

Calisse, I fell in love with my hope, and I hoped for him.

This is the man I have been missing. Not my hero. Not the man from the posters on my teenage walls. The real Bryce, the man from midnights and empty drives and lonely rivers, and the man who looked me in the eyes and dared to risk everything because, somehow, I made his heart beat faster.

He looks too much like he does in my dreams when my imagination of him whispers, “Je te desire. Mon coeur bat la chamade pour toi.”

“Tu me fais tourner la tête,” I tell him. “Je brûle de désir pour toi,”

“Thank you,” I force out through my clenched throat. “Thank you for everything. All of it—” Valery waves me off. “Stop. Close your eyes. Lay down your head. We are here.”

Bryce: Mon amour, it's agonizing to be here while you are there. I want to be by your side every moment of our lives. I wish I could place my heart and soul in your hands and live forever as close to you as I can be.

Tu es la lumière de ma vie. Tu es l’homme de mes rêves, de ma vie. Tu es tout pour moi.

“Je t'aime aussi, mon amour.” My voice is more breath than sound, a whisper strained through silence. But these words have shape and weight, and they move from my lips to Hunter's ears. “Je t'aime de tout.” Then we're kissing again, and crying, and his tears slide down my face as he holds me tight and says to me, “Tu es le seul pour moi, mon amour.”

“Je veux passer ma vie avec toi.” His lips are parted, shock painted on his face. “Hunter…” I kiss his fingers and smile. “Veux-tu m'épouser?” “Mais oui.” Bryce beams. “Mon Dieu, oui, oui, mon amour.”