I finished washing Dan's clothes and made sure they smelled nice. I'd have to go out and buy him some more outfits but I couldn't today. Tomorrow sounded like a better time.
He walked out of the shower covered with a polka-dotted blue towel. His hair was waving a bit and his eyes were dark. He smiled at me and I smiled back.
"How was your shower? Did everything go smoothly?" I asked him, and he nodded.
"I feel so clean! I've never felt so clean before," he told me, and I was shocked. Had he never taken a shower or bath before? I just shrugged it off my shoulders and handed him his clothing. He accepted it and skipped to his bedroom, stumbling over a box on his way. Dan just laughed at himself and went in, closing the door behind him. I smiled. I'm being a very kind person to give him all these things, and it warmed my heart.
And he was cute...
Days went by quickly, and they were filled with laughter, fun, smiles, stories. We would feed Angel from the palms of our hands and brush her mane. I took care of him and I couldn't feel any more blessed than I already did to have met such a wonderful person. Sure, taking care of him was tough. Sometimes it seemed as though he was a small child, and he would do the wrong thing because of ignorance. Sometimes he would carve words into my things, but what do you expect from a boy who was raised in the wild? I taught him what was good and what was bad, and he learned quickly, never forgetting what I told him.
A month after he moved in, we were really getting close. I knew I had a major crush on him and I didn't know if he had one on me. We would sit very close on the couch as we watched Animal Planet (he wouldn't watch anything else) and we knew each other's secrets. Well, he didn't know my big secret. We were best friends and flatmates. I knew that we had to be together soon or I wouldn't be able to take it anymore.
We were watching a show about meerkats on the telly. He would smile when they popped up and laugh when they gave strange looks to the cameras. I laughed with him. In the middle of some boring fact about the animals, I turned towards him. He noticed and glanced back at me, a look of confusion on his face.
"Is there something wrong, Phil?" he asked me. I smiled. It was nice to know that he had gotten to the point where he actually cared if I was okay.
"I'm just perfect, and how about you?" I asked Dan. He smiled back and told me he was alright. We spent a moment just looking into each other's eyes, blue connected to brown, the show completely forgotten. I rubbed his cheek and he nuzzled my hand, showing me he enjoyed the gesture. I grinned and looked at his plump, beautiful lips. Time was in slow motion as I leaned in and kissed him. Fireworks. The kiss was gentle and soft, like a butterfly on a marshmallow. He smiled into it and we pulled away, both completely starstruck.
"Wow, Phil. I knew I liked you but I never would have guessed that you liked me." He smiled widely and I chuckled softly before we connected our lips once again. When we pulled apart, I hugged him tightly and responded.
"Of course I like you, Dan. You're beautiful and you're funny and you're so special to me. You're a part of me now, and I simply couldn't hold back." I held him for a while, feeling his warmth against my chest. You know that feeling when you're so relaxed and your mind is so blank that you forget your existence and the existence of the universe for a moment? Like nothing is real, and nothing is fake? The world to your brain is shut down and you're unaware of it because your mind isn't working. There are no colors, no time, no words to be spoken. This happens when you aren't thinking of anything at all, and this was happening to me until I felt cold on my right shoulder.
I snapped out of my daze and felt him shaking. More cold was dripping down my back and it wasn't really comfortable. I stopped hugging him and looked at his face. He was crying.
"Dan! Dan, what's wrong?" I asked him, my voice scared. He looked into my eyes and his expression told me that something was terribly bad.
"My stomach and my chest feel strange, Phil! Help me!" he exclaimed, and I asked him to describe how it felt. "My stomach feels like it isn't there and my chest is jumping everywhere. I'm scared." I thought about it for a moment and then I realized- that is what you feel like when you've fallen in love with somebody. I had the feeling around him a few times, but it didn't worry me. He had fallen in love... with me. I gave him a massive smile and looked into those chocolate brown eyes that had so much confusion in them.
"You love me, that's all. It's alright. I've had that feeling around you a lot," I assured him. He nodded his head and I told him to just breathe in and out slowly. That would make the feeling go away. Dan did as he was told and felt relief just moments later.
