Chapter Thirty-Four

They were kissing.

Of all the 17 years of his life, Elliot never understood the importance or reason of the big fuss over the idea of connecting lips.

He had seen his mother and father do it when he was younger and had always seen acts of PDA in the hallways of school.

It used to disgust him in his youth and now he took no interest at all of the concept.

Yet something ignited inside of him when he saw Grace at her most vulnerable state.

She was too dear, too precious to ever lose, she was too valuable for him to let go of and he didn't ever want to lose her.

So at the spur of the moment and his boost of adrenaline-driven confidence, he captured her in his embrace and kissed her with everything he had in him.

And to his relief, she moved her lips back.

There were no fireworks or explosions or any of the cliché nonsense that was found in fiction.

Anyhow, Elliot knew well enough that anything and everything in real life was merely sugarcoated or exaggerated for the benefit of the fanatical beliefs of society.

This wasn't fiction.

This was reality.

But never had reality ever seem so pleasant...

This was Grace and Elliot.

He could taste the saltiness of her tears that had managed to reach down her cheeks.

A fire grew in the pit of his stomach and he pulled Grace closer to him to deepen the kiss.

She reached her arms to wrap around his neck and sighed in his mouth.

When they finally pulled away with labored breaths, Grace still had her eyes closed.

Elliot pulled her into his arms, her head rested below his chin and placed a soft peck on her forehead.

"God, I'm never letting you go now," he whispered.

"I'm not going anywhere," she whispered back shakily before crying in his arms.

~

They lay together on the mattress, Elliot's arms huddled around her and her head against his shirt cladded chest, their hands joined in between.

Nothing much had changed after their confessions, there was nothing awkward and honestly it seemed to bring them even closer then they already were if it was even possible.

There were however several stolen kisses and many more embraces as per normal during their usual routine for their preparation of sleep.

Not that either of them were complaining.

Both of them seemed to be the most calmest they had been for a long time. Happier too.

So there they lay in peace as the rhythm of their breathing.

An hour passed and neither of them were asleep yet in the silence of the house.

Elliot knew this because they had silently created a system of hand squeezes to signal whether the other person was awake or not. They were taking turns to initiate the signal every 5 minutes, seeing if the other person would  respond.

After almost 24 squeezes, Elliot detached his arms from Grace's huddled position and reached for the table lamp, sitting his body up.

The light illuminated the bed area, allowing Grace's features to become more visible in the dim light.

She gave him a confused look and sat up slowly to lean on the bedhead.

"Read to me?"

"Hm?

"Will you read to me? Neither of us are asleep and I don't think we're anywhere close to achieving any sleeptime, so why not pass the time? And I love the sound of your beautiful voice."

"I'm not gonna be the only person reading out loud." She said blushing slightly, "Only if you read too, I will. Your voice is even more lovely..."

"Oh really?" He said with an evident smirk on his face.

"Don't kid yourself. But really... when I hear you, I guess it wakes me up and ignites a singular matchstick inside of me that emits this sort of hopeful light." She continued moving her hands to almost gesture her words. "It's kind of hard to explain but you really do bring out a better side of me and a better perspective of what the world should be and-"

Her blabbering was cut off when Elliot enveloped his mouth to hers and she contently gave in.

"You're perfect." He said once they pulled apart.

Grace looked down at her hands.

"No I'm not... gee I'm far from perfect. I have scars and imperfections on every inch of me." She whispered.

"But you're perfect to me." He replied, reaching up to move a strand of her golden hair behind her ear. "Now will you read?" he said after a while with a hopeful look.

"Fine." She gave in, "But I'm choosing the book."

"Alright, sounds good to me."

Grace laughed and reached over him to grab a book from the bedside table.

"Constellational Thoughts of a Wanderer?" he questioned, peering at the paperback with a grey cover.

"Yeah... its one of my favorites," she said defensively.

"Yeah I know, I know. You may start," he chuckled.

He shifted over next to her and balanced the book on both their knees.

Turning to the first page, Grace opened her mouth to read the first sentence.

"Glistening stars shone in the turquoise ocean in her eyes..."

He held her close as she read, her gentle voice soothing away all the worries in the world and making him realize all he wanted or needed was right in front of him, for him to hold.