‘I was terrified too,’ he says, and my gut twists from the shame that I scared him so. ‘But it also woke me up. I’d suppressed my feelings for so long.’
‘We were silly,’ I say.
‘We were afraid,’ he corrects, ‘and alone. It’s still a little scary. I mean, I’m glad we’re here and I don’t have to face the consequences of my actions for another eight hours.’
‘Hmm. I can steal us more time.’
‘Oh?’
‘If you want more alone time with me, far away from the consequences you speak of, I can make that happen.’
He leans in and begins to kiss me, only to stop again. ‘I want you to make it happen.’ Then his lips are back on mine. Between the flowers tickling my neck, the sky above, and Simo on my tongue, I forget everything else. I only come back to my senses when he props himself up. His head blocks out the sun, but as long as I get to look at himevery day, I have no need for it any more.
‘This, though, is the main reason why I put the message on the noticeboard,’ he says, a little breathless.
‘What is?’
‘You. I wanted to tell you that I love you.’
As the words fall from his lips, my world tips. My brain gives out for a second, and all the blood rushes from my head.
‘Oh my god,’ I groan, and press my fingertips against my eyelids, trying to keep everything from spinning.
‘What?’ Simo asks, suddenly panicked.
‘I . . . nothing.’
‘No, tell me! You can’t act like you’re having a stroke when I tell you I love you for the first time!
‘I just – I just got an instant boner.’
Simo is silent for several beats, and I open one eye to check on him. He is grinning. ‘You did?’
‘Stop laughing, Simo, it’s not funny!’ It’s not that I’m not used to this happening, it’s kind of an unavoidable side-effect of kissing Simo. But this is different. It’s so much more intense.
‘I gave you a love boner.’
I open the other eye too. ‘Don’t call it that. Don’t call it anything. We’re just going to ignore it until it goes away.’
‘But it’s the most romantic thing I’ve ever heard.’
‘Leave me alone.’
‘As you wish,’ he says, and sits up.
‘No, don’t go!’ I say, and pull him on to me. His silent laugh reverberates in my chest. We lie like this for so long I can’t tell if he’s nodded off again.
‘Simo?’
‘Hmm?’
‘Before all this, before my grandparents and the noticeboard, I had dreams about this.’
‘’Bout what?’
‘About being in love with you. I mean, that part was real, but I was so afraid of the truth I didn’t allow it when I was awake. But asleep, I was defenceless.’
He winds his arms tighter around my waist. ‘And now? Are you still afraid?’
