Dark Hearts (Light in the Dark 3)

She sighs and slips her hand into mine, knowing I’m right.

I lead her out onto the dance floor and we bleed into the crowd, becoming one among many.

Her eyes dart around nervously, searching for our friends.

I take her face between my hands, forcing her to look at me. “Forget about them,” I plead. “All that exists right now is me and you. That’s all that matters.”

“Why aren’t you more nervous?” she asks. “You’re Mr. Non-Commitment.”

I shrug, moving my hands down to her waist and drawing her flush to me. “This is different.”

We move to the beat of the song, but I don’t think either of us is actually listening.

“How?” She blinks up at me, the lights flashing different colors over her face. First blue, then red, purple. “How is this different? What are we doing?”

I dip my head to her ear. “I don’t know,” I answered honestly. “I’ve never done this before, but if for one minute you think that you’re just another girl to me, you’re wrong. Erase that thought from your mind right now. This is more.” She squeaks as I pull her impossibly closer. “I don’t know what tomorrow will bring for me, for us, but I’m willing to try. Just give me time. I’m sure I’ll fuck this up, but don’t give up on me. Please.”

Her hands squeeze against my shoulders. “For this to work, we’re going to have to be honest about things, okay?”

“I can do that,” I tell her.

“That also means we have to tell them. Not tonight, but soon. We can’t hide this from our friends forever. But for now, while this is still so new, we’ll stay quiet.”

I bend my head and press my lips softly to hers. She’s stiff at first, but after a moment she relaxes beneath me.

I know Nova and I haven’t put a definition on our relationship, but I think, maybe, she’s my girlfriend.

That thought once would’ve sent me running in terror, but as I press my lips to hers, her body flush to mine, I feel no fear, instead I only feel content. But worry is still lodged in the back of my mind, because nothing good in my life has ever been easy, and I’m sure this will be no different. But I want to try, and that counts for something, right?

Nova

I pick up the camera lens and look at it before placing it back on the shelf in the classroom.

Joel spreads out copies of prints from photos we took when we went out to practice our macro-photography. Now, we’ve been tasked with making some sort of collage out of them. I don’t understand the purpose of it, but it’s for our grade, so we have to do it.

Our professor was kind enough to lend us her classroom for the afternoon. We’re not the only students who have utilized it to our advantage and there are several other groups working as well, including Rae and her partner.

Joel’s phone buzzes, and he glares at it before sighing and picking it up and reading the text. He types back an angry response.

“Girl trouble?” I ask.

“Something like that,” he grumbles, his hair falling forward into his eyes. He shoves it angrily away.

I take some of the prints and line them up so we can look at all of them.

There are ten photos total, five for each of us, and we have to find some way to blend them together.

Thankfully, we don’t have to use all the photos if we don’t want to, but it has to use at least three.

It’s easier said than done, seeing as each photo is so zoomed in—the point of macro-photography—and a collage is more than just cutting and pasting images together.

It’s supposed to be a collection or combination of things but it should make sense, and there lies the problem.

“I don’t know how we’re going to do this,” I mutter, starting at a photo of a flower petal and then one of tree bark.

“We’ll figure it out,” Joel replies, his phone buzzing again. He eyes the phone, and his lip curls with irritation.

“Someone’s really up your butt about something,” I tell him. “You must’ve done something bad.”