A/N: Thanks to everyone, who give me comments for this story. It means a lot to me! Myles is a very difficult character to write about and I still don't think that I am able to do him justice, but when this idea came to my mind, I decided to go for it. There aren't a lot of stories about him, and I thought that I could have this little bit of originality. Personally, I love Myles, he's great! Well, all of characters are, but there is something about him that makes me like him VERY much. Back to the point, it's very nice to see positive comments for this crazy little idea and I hope you'll continue to enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it!
Toni sighed, as she reached the car and sat in the driver's seat. Even though she somehow managed to keep her composure during the visit, now that she left his house, she was right on the edge of losing it. Her eyes were filling with tears and she was desperately blinking them away; she couldn't start crying now, she had absolutely no idea how long it was going to take for her to calm down and she wasn't crazy enough to drive, crying. So, she started the engine and drove away, trying to get to her apartment as quickly as possible, but at the same time, without causing any danger on the way. And as she was making her way home, the flood of long buried memories continued.
After that day, they started to spend a lot of time together. He has never really had much of a social life; yes, he had a few friends, but even this word was a little too much to call them. He was hanging out with them, but he didn't have doubts that they accepted him only because of the benefits, that his company brought. It was however the moment, when he stopped spending his time out of school with anyone other than Toni. He was coming back home straight after school or any additional classes, that he was going to and always looked for her. She was the reason why he actually got interested in gardening; as much as he enjoyed walks or simple conversations with her, while sitting in some nice place in the garden, she knew what responsibility was and the most important thing was always the task, which she was given. When they were working together, it was always done much faster and they could simply enjoy each other's company afterwards.
When they managed to develop some sort of immunity to each other's charm – even though of course, they never stopped being affected by all those little things – and the uncomfortable awkwardness disappeared, they learnt a lot about each other, and all of those discoveries only made them fall for the other even more.
What he got to know about her only ensured him in his initial belief, that their 'worlds' were too different. They were attending two completely different schools, as he was going to the best private high school in Boston, which his family was connected to for generations as his ancestors were one of its founders and all the next generations had a huge respect to their legacy, while Toni was in a casual public high school, but he managed to find out that she was quite a popular girl. He wasn't surprised, in fact he believed that it would be strange if she wasn't noticed by other guys with her looks and personality. Still, he couldn't help feeling jealous and it definitely made him feel better when it also reached him that it was very difficult, bordering on impossible, not to be turned down by her when asking her out and she didn't accept any invitation ever since they actually started to spend time together. While it was a fact, that she was quite a talkative person, she was also a very good listener. For the very first time he has met a person, who not only wouldn't mind his fondness of sharing what he thought were interesting facts with others, but who truly paid attention to what he was saying and showed interested in what he was talking about.
One of the first thing, that Toni realised about Myles was that he completely lacked a sense of humour. She couldn't help feeling a little offended at first, when a couple of times she told him a funny story and he not only didn't start to laugh, but the look he sent her didn't leave any doubts that he didn't find it amusing at all. It didn't mean though, that he didn't laugh or didn't make her do it; jokes might have not been his thing, but he had a lot of interesting stories, which he could share with her all of them were very interesting and even some of them funny, although he wasn't always aware of that. He was intelligent and had this slightly funny and old-fashioned, but very endearing manner, which she actually started to really like about him. Almost all of the guys she knew were usually straightforward, sometimes to the point of rudeness, but Myles was different. She understood why a lot of people found him boring and claimed that he acted more like a forty-year-old than a teenager, but she never knew why they were holding it so much against him. He was always a very proper gentleman, who would never dare to cross any boundaries that she might have placed between them, even to the point of exaggeration. She really tried very hard to keep her father's words in mind, remember that any relationship that might - by some miracle - come out of their acquaintance, had absolutely no future and yet, the more time she spent with him, the more her love for him grew.
Because as much as they tried to suppress and deny it, their crush was evolving and they were actually slowly falling in love with each other. No matter what they tried to do to prevent it, their feelings to one another were only growing stronger and they could see the hints, that the other was feeling the very same way, although Toni was the only one interpreting them in the right way. Myles, as much as it would make him really happy to see that the girl, who seemed to be taken right out of his dreams and fantasies and placed in front of him, reciprocated his feelings, seemed absolutely oblivious to any hint that she was dropping. He made her feel really frustrated at times; there were moments, when she was almost one hundred percent sure that he would kiss her, and then she would suddenly come back to Earth and realise, that it wasn't going to happen. She couldn't help feeling a little ashamed because of it, even though her best friend and confidant tried to convince her that there was nothing wrong with wanting to be kissed by a guy, who she obviously liked and felt attracted to. Yet, no matter what she was trying to do to force him to make it clear to her whether their connection was going one way or another, even if it would mean for her hopes to get brutally crushed, it seemed hopeless; there was no reaction on his side.
It was on one evening, that she actually thought that would finally make a move. Her heart almost jumped out of her chest, when he reached out her hand and touched her face, gently stroking her cheek with his thumb. She leaned into his touch, sighing quietly; he swallowed hard, seeing her response to the gesture, which he actually failed to prevent himself from making. He was afraid it would mean crossing the line, offending her in some way and he definitely wasn't ready to face her disappearance from his life. It seemed inevitable that it would happen sooner or later, and even though the thought seemed difficult to accept, he actually learnt to do that, settling for the most distant later as it was only possible. Yet, in this very moment, he couldn't imagine that he would be able to ever survive it. All he was able to focus was just how wonderfully beautiful she was, how the sight of her sparkling dark eyes made his heart beat even quicker and how much she wanted to kiss those full, tempting lips.
She was truly shocked, when she realised that he had leaned down and his face was now barely few inches away from hers. She subconsciously licked her lips, parting them a little while her eyelids lowered, while she had difficulties to focus on anything other than her thundering heart and butterflies in her stomach. She couldn't help allowing the sound - which clearly showed her disappointment, to leave her lips and she found it absolutely impossible to prevent tears from filling her eyes, when she eventually felt him press his lips against the soft skin of her cheek.
"What's wrong with me?" she asked before she was able to bite her tongue and get rid of the tears.
"W-What do you mean?" he asked, taken aback by the sight in front of him and felt his stomach clench when he realised, that he must have made her upset.
"What is wrong with me, Myles? I bet that if I dated any other guy, he would at least try to kiss me after less than half the time, that we have spent together..! Yet, the only one that I would actually let to do it, is completely not interested so there must be something with me, that…" he interrupted, placing a finger against her lips and silencing her effectively.
"There is nothing wrong with you. You're absolutely perfect in every way."
"Then why..? Because I'm so much lower than you? Because you're from the local elite, while I am a daughter of a casual cleaner and a mere gardener, who emigrated to US looking for a better life and future?"
"What?! Of course not!"
He was just about to say something else when he felt her hands cup his face, and she stood on her toes, placing her lips against his. It seemed like time stopped in this very moment, like everything else besides her stopped existing and all his doubts and resistance disappeared in just a second. How many times did he dream, that he would get to experience this one day? Her lips were just as soft and sweet as he imagined, but what he felt exceeded all of his expectations. He leaned down a little, slightly reducing the height-difference between them and wrapped his arm around her waist, holding her close while he kissed her back. The kiss was short and neither of them had any previous experience that they could have placed in it, but it still left both of them breathless.
"Toni…" he sighed, looking at her and brushing a strand of her hair behind her ear. "I…" he started, but there seemed to be none words, which were right for what he wanted to say.
He has never been good with speaking about his feelings, but in this very moment he found himself unable to voice any of them. Luckily for him, she could actually read all of them in his eyes and the smile on his face made him feel better.
"I know." was everything she said, just before she stood on her toes once again to kiss his cheek and walked away, leaving him with a much brighter and colourful vision of the nearest future.