Credence

Most of all, I just want to see him.

I chew my lip. “Can you come home?” I whisper.

Just come home.

Let’s start over and be friends. I’ll be nice, you’ll be nice, and you don’t have to talk. We’ll laugh and work and go for walks and you can show me how to use the bow and arrow, and…

He rushes me, wrapping his arms around me, and only a whimper escapes before his mouth is on mine.

The world spins, and euphoria washes over me. He kisses me deep, his tongue dipping in and making my body scream from my head down to my toes. I circle his neck and kiss him back, too fucking high to go slow, because I’m starving.

“I love you, Kaleb,” I cry quietly. “I love you.”

He drops his rifle and carries me into the house, kicking the door closed behind us. We bite and kiss, coming back for more and more, and I pull off his sweatshirt and he kicks off his boots. I throw off my sweater and peel off my socks as he unfastens my jeans, our lips never leaving each other.

Let’s not be friends. Let’s fight and laugh and make babies someday and go insane, because I’m fucking in love with you.

He pulls away and lifts up my arm, inspecting the small piece of raised skin barely noticeable. “It’s okay,” I assure him. “You stitched me up well.”

I was injured the last time he saw me. Just a faint scar remains now.

He breathes hard, but his shoulders relax in relief. Taking my head in his hands, he kisses me hard, no tongue, just fierce and strong and possessive. He missed me.

We fall on the bed, his hair longer and hanging in his eyes as we get rid of our clothes and he settles between my thighs,

already hot and hard. I hold his head in the crook of my neck, running my hands all over his body.

He slips inside me, and I wrap my arms tightly around him, afraid to let him go too far from me again. Forehead to forehead, he looks down into my eyes.

“There’s been no one since you,” I whisper.

Maybe he doesn’t need to hear it, but I want him to know.

He kisses my mouth, my nose, and my cheeks, thrusting his hips between my legs, and I can’t let him go.

I don’t want to ever let him go. Not in April when the snow stops. Not in August when school starts. Not ever.

He gazes down at me, and I look up into his eyes, smiling and vaguely hearing raps on the door.

“Hey!” Noah hollers. “Open up!”

I hug Kaleb as he keeps going, my eyes closing as he fills me and hits deep. The bed rocks against the wall, and I moan as Kaleb fists my hair.

“So you found Kaleb, I guess?” Noah barks. “Come on, it’s cold out here!”

But I’m coming, and I can’t stop. I grab Kaleb and kiss him hard, barely registering the sound of whatever Noah throws against the door.

Tiernan

I touch his face, tracing the ridge of his nose, down to the dip above his lip, and then over his mouth. His eyes are closed, but I know he’s not sleeping as he holds me to him in the bed.

Noah sleeps across the room, and I’m not sure what time it is, but I know it’s early morning. Rain still taps the roof and windows.

I love you.

He didn’t say it back, though.

He may never say it back.