Page 35 of Hate You to Love You

‘I guess it was. It was hard, I won’t lie,’ he replies. ‘But yeah, you got me thinking. You always manage to see the good despite all the bad. It inspired me. So I thought to myself: where is the one place that I remember being the happiest with my family?’ He gestures around at the forum. ‘And you know what? Even if my relationship with my parents is rocky now, I’m going to walk away from here feeling grateful for the good times we had. So, thank you.’

I scoff. ‘I didn’t really do anything.’

‘You did,’ he said. ‘You did the impossible. You made me believe in magic.’

‘Is there something you want to tell me about you and Elliot?’ my dad asks one night at a family dinner.

‘We’re just friends,’ I insist.

‘Your dad may watch too many of those romantic movies,’ Mum interjects, ‘but I don’t think we’re imagining how close the two of you are getting. Plus, you won’t stop talking about him.’

Jones and Laney had been teasing me about Elliot too. It seemed like everyone knew exactly how I felt about him. But I couldn’t say the words out loud. What if I did, and it changed the dynamic of our relationship forever? I’d rather only have Elliot as a friend than risk losing him.

‘If you care about him, let him know,’ Dad insists. ‘Otherwise, you’ll let life pass you by without the people you love in it, and I think that’s the most heartbreaking thing of all.’

Dad’s words weigh heavily on my heart. But I’m gripped by the fear Elliot will reject me. That I could lose our friendship like I lost my high-school friends. Then again, I do care about him. And after everything he told me about his parents, doesn’t he deserve to know that someone cares?

The conversation with my parents helps me make up my mind, but it’s not until a few weeks later that I finally get up the guts to go through with it. It’s still early on our regular Wednesday night when Elliot and I wander down Norton Street in Leichhardt again. This time, it’s my turn to lead him towards the Italian Forum.

‘What are we doing back here?’ he asks, holding a copy of Giovanni’s Room. He thought we were spending the night in. Smiling, I take him through the arcade, and we make our way out into the square where the restaurants used to be.

‘I told you,’ I say coyly, ‘we’re going for dinner.’

‘You do know that all the restaurants in here have closed down, right? There’s nothing left.’

I skip ahead of him, then turn back with a spring in my step. ‘Who said anything about eating at a restaurant?’

Elliot halts, confused. I throw my hands to the side and gesture towards a small landing on the edge of the balcony that overlooks the forum. I have set up a picnic, complete with a blanket, a fresh batch of empanadas that Mum made for us and a bottle of white wine.

His face softens. ‘What’s this for?’

I shrug. ‘I just wanted you to have some more happy memories here.’

We sit, eat our food, drink the wine, look up to the night sky and talk. My gaze can’t help drifting his face, as I wonder how I got so lucky to have someone like Elliot by my side.

‘You know what I watched because of you?’ he says as we finish the last of our wine. ‘Dawson’s Creek!’

‘The perfect show for yearning. That and The O.C.’

‘So the big question is: The O.C. or Dawson’s Creek?’

‘That’s not a fair question,’ I reply playfully.

Elliot lies back on the picnic blanket and lifts his arm towards mine. He lets his fingers run down my shoulder as he tries to get an answer out of me. I breathe in and out, trying to slow my racing heart. ‘Come on. What would it be?’

‘Dawson’s Creek. Joey and Pacey have one of the best love stories in all of television history. Plus, Joshua Jackson and those forehead kisses? That’s what a love language should be.’

‘Forehead kisses?’

I get up to stretch my legs and walk a few steps away, kicking the air. ‘Forget about it. It’s silly.’

Elliot sits up and then gets to his feet to follow me. ‘It’s not silly if it means something to you. Tell me.’

A hot flush tingles across my entire face. My head drops forward, and I’m unable to look him directly in the eye. So I lean against the balcony and look out over the forum.

‘Pacey’s love language is forehead kisses. That’s what I love most about him. No matter how goofy or sarcastic he got with Joey, the intimacy of his forehead kisses said so much about the love he had for her without using any words.’

‘So it was literally just a kiss to the forehead?’ Elliot asks.