Three words. A letter. A kiss. And some splinters.

That is a transition from best friends to lovers in few books I have read.

But then again, I don't read many books.

Maybe I'm missing something. Maybe a relationship like Rudy and Liesel's isn't entirely outlandish. I suppose one just needs to search in places that only I visit.

Dirtier places are where fertile hearts and souls lay buried.

The dreaded walk was first. Their lips were stuck together the way mud clings to boots. A cold, colorless barrier of ice was between them that stuck to their tongues, silencing the urge to speak. The icy relic of their friendship could only be chiselled or destroyed.

They walked a tightrope of awkward silence to the farms that witnessed them as bread-givers. They followed one another until they found a resting place between the roots of a maple tree. The space allotted them just enough room that they didn't have to touch, and they couldn't, for their bodies drew apart like they were the same charge of magnet. They sat quietly for a long time.

Finally, Rudy made a dent. "So, we came here to talk." His voice cracked a little after the rare break.

Liesel studied the ground with intense focus. "And?"

"I only plan on saying three words." He stood on his feet and wandered a little from the spot.

"Why?" She hopped up and followed him. "What can you say with only three words?"

He stopped and turned. "I can say a lot with three words. I bet these three words will turn your world around."

She eyed him warily. "You're joking."

"No, I'm not. I'll prove it to you. Okay, here they are." Rudy cleared his throat to take a deep breath. Liesel seized a little in anticipation. Every time he took a breath to speak, though, he merely exhaled.

Liesel was growing impatient. "Spit it out!"

He gave her a little half smirk. "If you insist I do it this quickly."

He crouched down on the ground in racing form. Oh no.

The words came.

"Ready, set, go!" He took off at full throttle.

Liesel still waited for her words.

She remained planted in the soil and watched the distant Rudy race a ghost. He even made it about a hundred meters when he realized she was far behind him. He stumbled to a halt and turned to see her waiting quietly.

He jogged back to her. "What's the matter, saumensch? Is it too past your bedtime to race?" The bravado in his walk and voice couldn't hide the pain in his eyes.

Liesel's three words came next. "Grow up, Rudy." A tear broke free from the glass that covered her eyes.

Panicked, he stumbled up to her and clasped his hands on her shoulders. "What do you mean? Don't cry, don't cry . . ."

She yanked herself out of his grip. "You can't expect to win everything just by running. I'm not a finish line."

"You're my prize."

A laugh burst from her lips. "You're corny. Am I supposed to swoon now?"

"No, you're not. I'm just being an idiot." He shook his head and shut his eyes as if to block out something painful. "Let me get my thoughts sorted out."

He looked genuinely distraught, so Liesel regarded her eyes to the skin of the tree they'd sat under. She found the bark calling for her attention, brown as the leather of a stolen book but wrinkled as the face of the Fuhrer's.

Three words.

"Liesel, I'm terrified."

They turned her world around, those three words.

She moved her gaze to his, softly this time. She watched him reach into his pocket and pull out a crumpled piece of parchment. "I actually wanted to give you this. I wrote down everything that I can't say out loud."

She slowly took the paper as if she were trespassing. She unfolded it carefully, and in its depths were paragraphs of Rudy's handwriting, scrawled with words scratched out and sentences ridden with ink blotches and insomnia. Her mouth moved around the first three words: Liesel, I'm terrified.

"So, I'll be going now." Rudy hastily turned around.

"No." Liesel clamped her fist around his shoulder and dragged him back next to her. Wincing, he watched her eyes move across the paper while still keeping a firm hold on him.

"Okay, well." He extracted himself from her grasp. "If you're going to make me stay here, you'll have to read the letter to me."

She paused to look up at him. "Why?"

"Because I want to see where you are in the letter. And I think that somehow the words will make more sense if you say them."

She didn't know how that could be, but she began:

"Liesel, I'm terrified.

"I've loved you for so long, but it was kind of a kid love, you know? I'd look at you and all I'd want to do was build mud castles and race with you and climb mountains, if that sounds cheesy enough. I just wanted it to stay that way forever. Just two grown up children, you and I, for the rest of our days.

"Now we're getting older and I realize that it can't happen that way. I will soon have to get a job and a clip-on tie, and you'll have to find more books to steal somewhere else to make your library. I know our world isn't perfect, with Hitler and how we're so poor and starving we can almost see our insides, but when I fit you into that equation, it fits. I don't know how, but you somehow make that world perfect to me, and all I need is a perfect world with you. But the world isn't perfect.

"It couldn't last, Liesel. People change and one day you'll grow up and hate me for some reason, probably because of my stupid clip-on tie. Or maybe because inside, I won't be able to grow up with you. You'll want a man and I'll be a child. I don't think I can change. The stuff we did tonight was what I thought I wanted, but it scared me. If I'm to be with you, we'll have to change the essence of who we are. From everything you told me, you're already way ahead of me. And I can't grow up, yet. I'm not ready. But I still love you, Book Thief."

She breathed the last few syllables and looked up to his face, now much closer to hers. She was astonished. His eyes were heavily lidded and his hair tousled. His expression was serious. He looked kind of sexy. (Those are her words, not mine)

"See why I didn't want to say anything?" Rudy whispered. "The truth hurts. The truth is embarrassing."

The truth was a beautiful maxim laid hidden in a story. The truth was a sweet note that few singers could reach. She didn't dare tell him. "You think I didn't already know it? I know you better than you think, Rudy Steiner. Now, cut the ego crap and kiss me."

He looked surprised. "No, Liesel. I don't think I can give you what you want."

She smirked, refusing to play into his emotions. She wanted her old Rudy for the moment. "Why, because you're a kid on the inside?" She took an aggressive step towards him.

He withdrew. To his dismay, a playful smile crept onto his face. The game had begun. "Why yes, in fact I am."

She took another step and forced him further back. "Don't kids kiss their mothers?"

"Yeah."

Another step. "And their fathers?"

"Yeah."

Another step. "And their brothers and sisters?"

"Sometimes, if the family is open to-"

A large fifth step pinned him against the tree. His raised eyebrows and suppressed laughter were all the motivation she needed. "So," she whispered, her warm breath rippling onto his face, "why is it that they can't kiss girls they like?"

He pretended to be in thought for a moment.

The tension nearly killed them both.

"Ah, what the hell. Lay it on me, saumensch."

With that, she closed what little space was left between them and kissed him.

It was the best kiss of the night.