Page 84 of All That We Are Together

“Wait.” I grabbed it.

“What is it?” she asked.

Leah leaned in as I tried to wipe the dust from the canvas and placed it on one of the easels still standing. I took a deep breath.

“I need to take this one with me.”

“What’s so special about it?”

“It’s the first time I ever painted. I don’t know why your dad kept it. It never would have even passed through my mind.” I brought my hand to my mouth while Leah shined her flashlight on it. “You were three years old, and you were dancing around here while he painted. He gave me a brush, and I did this. A clear sky…” I ran my fingers over it.

“You and your clear skies…” she said.

I looked at her and saw her smile in the shadows. We gazed at each other in silence, connected in a way I couldn’t even understand.

“Thanks for coming with me…”

I nodded, and we went on looking through the studio. Maybe it was stealing, but whatever, I was planning on taking several of those pictures. They didn’t have any value. Not for the current owners of the house. They did for us, though. For us, they were priceless.

For some things, it’s worth it to close your eyes and take a risk.

As we walked out, I promised her we’d return another daywith a car to bring back some memories with us. I lifted her again so she could get over the wall. How I wanted to pull her into my body. We kept glancing back and forth, tickled, as we walked down the street. If I’d thought Leah had changed, that she was calmer, more like a grown-up, I was wrong. She was still the same girl, adventurous, up for a dare, and here she was walking with me amid the soft breeze on a random Thursday night.

“What are we doing?” I asked.

“I don’t know.” She laughed, but under the streetlamps, I could see her eyes were still a little red. “I don’t know where I’m going to sleep.”

“You just caught a bus and didn’t think about it?”

“I was making it up as I went along!”

“Let’s go to my place.” I reached out, but she looked at my hand, shook her head, and kept walking. “What are you thinking?”

“Let’s just stay up all night,” she said. “We’ll walk, talk, or just sit there.” She didn’t say she wasn’t ready to sleep at my house yet, but I could see these things sometimes just looking at her.

“Sounds fantastic.”

And that’s what we did.

We let the hours slip past strolling over empty streets, seeing them from a different perspective, not at all like the daytime, when they were full of people. We walked down to the boardwalk, and I tried not to do anything stupid while we were lying on the beach and she told me her relationship with Landon was passing through a rocky phase. I tried to listen. I tried to be her friend. I tried not to want to fuck her then and there. But it was in vain. And when we retraced our steps and stopped in a lonely park, we sat onthe swings. I laughed, and she swung back and forth, and her hair went to and fro. I sat there holding the ropes and I felt alive again. When we were together, the world felt more colorful, more vibrant, more intense. That’s what she was for me.

“Be careful,” I said as I saw her start to twist in the air.

“If I fall, will you catch me?”

“What’s that question mean?”

She stopped.

“In Paris. If I fall, will you pick me up, Axel?”

Now I understood.

“Always, babe. I promise.”

“I’m scared to walk on my own.”

“I know. But I’ll be there.”