"Leah, don't be mean to Jake, okay?"
(Yeah right.)
"Jake, stop that right now!"
(He'd never.)
"You know, men, boys tease girls when they like them."
(As if.)
"Eew!" His nose crinkles like his father's wrinkles.
"Not for you. For me. Gross!"
(We were seven.)
"Hey! I am not gross." He's oh-so-defensive, his nose still scrunched up and ready to spring.
"Yeah? Prove it."
(We were diabolical.)
"How do I do that?"
"I dunno. Think of something, lazy."
(We were insulting.)
"I'm not lazy! I'm tired."
"Same difference."
"Nu-uh!"
(We were young.)
"Leah. Jacob. Right now. Separate." They get tired of us, as everyone does.
(We were trouble.)
"But I want to play here!" He refused to let me have my way. Ever.
(We made excuses.)
"No! I do!"
(We lied.)
"Jake, do we have to go home without dinner?"
"No, Daddy! Please!"
(We were adorable.)
"Then hug Leah and tell her you're sorry."
(We were awkward.)
"Fine…"
"Eew! Get off me!"
"Leah! Hug Jake back, right now!"
(We were horrible.)
"Erm…"
(And yet we fit. Our forced embraces fit.)
"Uh…"
(We worked together, in stranger ways than we can imagine.)
"Okay."
"Okay."
(We were filled with something we couldn't identify.)
"I--"
"We--"
(Perhaps it was passion. Maybe it was attraction. Maybe it was plain, unadulterated lust.)
"Sorry. Uhm, say what you were gonna say." He clears his throat awkwardly.
(We were seven.)
"I can't."
(We were stuck in a limbo, a limbo of young hearts, shredded roses and hate.)
"What?"
"I can't."
(I needed to feel those lips, I think. That's what made me lean forward to touch his forehead with my own.)
"Leah…"
"Jake."
(We broke apart less than a second later, but something passed between us.)
"Leah."
"Oh, Jake."
(And then I'm gone. I'm always gone. Years later, I'm still gone. Always gone.)
"But--but wait!"
"I'm--I'm so sorry, Jake. I--I--"
"Don't say it."
(And yet it was true. I never told a lie. It was true, it was that something.)
(But it was too late.)
A/N: For Cubie's I Love You challenge. The first part is when they're seven, clearly, and the second is "years later". I just sort of had to fast-forward. You get to make up the ending time. How old were they in the last few sentences? You tell me.
(Review.)