#yo steph

"Fries?" he offered, breaking the silence while still swallowing a mouthful of fries himself. She shrugged, hesitating, but took one anyways and quietly ate it. He watched her quietly, observing her slow movements. It was as if each move took twice as much effort as was needed and took thrice the energy it should’ve taken. "You can have more," he said after they both sat still for several moments. He nudged the cup of fries closer to her, and she carefully took another fry. Her head pounded with the conflicted thoughts, but she took one anyways.

"Thanks," she said quietly. He continued to watch her and follow her movements. She noticed, but paid no mind to it. "You don’t have to stay." He raised an eyebrow and sat back in his seat, lounging out further. 

"What do you mean?" he questioned. Now he was confused. Not to say he wasn’t before, but now he was more than ever. After she didn’t respond and simply continued to nibble on one fry at a time, he pushed further. "Hey?" he prodded, getting up and sliding into her seat until he was pressed next to her. She didn’t seem to mind, so he didn’t put the space between them back. What she wasn’t saying was that she enjoyed the lack of space. All she’d ever talked about was how all she wanted was space. Space from her parents’ rules, space from her friends’ and their need for more support than she could provide, space from the town that she felt was suffocating her, just space from life in general. But especially with him, she didn’t want space. She wanted nothing more than the opposite of space with him. So she allowed him to press his body next to hers. She was wishing it’d will the deep threaded sadness away. She was tired of being so tightly knit together that nothing got in, and nothing got out. She wanted to be unraveled. Even if just for a night. 

"They write books about you, ya know," she finally spoke up, though her voice wavered. He chuckled, his eyes sparkling in the dim lighting.

"What do you mean?" he asked, echoing a previous question. 

"I mean, I just, I didn’t know people like you in general existed…" she trailed off, now looking off at seemingly nothing.

"Hey," he said, bumping her shoulder lightly with his, beckoning her back to reality. His voice and just his presence was like a life preserver, and she felt she clung too tightly to it. She was terrified to lose it, or let it slip even for a second. The waters she’d tried to swim into were too much for her to handle, especially alone, and she wasn’t entirely sure how she could get back to calmer waters. 

"Shit, I’m sorry," she whimpered, trying to keep her composure.