Nightfall ✓

Chapter 25

• chapter twenty-five •

"Okay, I think we're done. Almost. Kind of," I said, pushing the last couch to the wall. Then I plopped down onto it, tucking a lock of my (brown again) hair behind my ear. Liam sat next to me. We both looked around at our now-perfect apartment. We had got the paint job done, had bought new furniture. We had even got a sofa-cum-bed and placed it in the former store-room where Ash and Zack were to live.

"We deserve good food," Liam said. I laughed, pushing him off the sofa. "Then go and get something." I spread out my legs on the couch so that he couldn't sit down again.

"Let's go and save water instead." He picked me up, with one arm around my shoulders and one arm under my knees, and carried me to the bathroom. I found it hilarious, this 'save water' thing. As if he cared about the water.

We filled the tub and sat opposite to each other, with my legs resting on top of his. I jiggled my hands really fast, trying to get the soap to form lather.

"You know," he said, "after losing seven months, I didn't attend NYU at all. So it's kinda like I took a gap year. So did you. But we can begin our courses in September. That's five days from today."

I picked up a bubble in my hand and blew it at him. I made a bubble painting once. I had added color to detergent, and then made bubbles by blowing into the mix with a straw, and blown those bubbles over the paper. They'd burst, leaving a beautiful pattern behind.

"Hazelnut! Are you listening?"

"Yep," I answered.

"By the way, this AOT Project Salon in front of our apartment— they have great workshops for writing and art, and they have music shows and photography exhibitions, and you can make hand-made greeting cards as fundraisers, you know — you get money if people buy them. I went to their website. You can become a member. Basically it's a great place. Ash won't be interested because it doesn't have fashion-related stuff. But you should check it out."

"Alright." I swam over to him, splattering water everywhere, nestled my head on his shoulder and stroked the burn on his neck. "I'm so tired. My back hurts."

"Yeah, you worked more than I did." I was so aware of his fingers on my inner thighs. He started massaging my body, breaking all those cramps and knots. It was so relaxing that I fell asleep and had to be woken up when the water turned cold. We got out. He kissed me and got dressed quickly. 

"Lemon, I think you should go alone," I suggested. He raised his eyebrows as he threw my shirt towards me. "Their room still needs to be cleaned up a little. Plus, I'm very tired."

He nodded. "Alright then. I need to hurry, or their plane will land and they'll start wandering around, looking for me, and then Ash will call me up and scream at me." He winced. "Listening to her scream is worse than eating paper."

I laughed. "What kind of an analogy is that? Have you ever tried eating paper?"

"Yeah. When I was a kid. A friend of mine gave me some paper and said that it had been made with the wood of a lemon tree, and so it would taste like lemon. So I ate it. It was horrible." 

"That totally justifies your nickname. All the more reason why I should call you Lemonade." I cackled.

He looked at me. "I hate seeing you put on clothes. You look better without them."

"Aww." I stood on my toes and tenderly kissed his lips. "I don't really have a witty reply for that, so I won't say anything. Go now. Shoo." I gave him a light push.