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and quickly averted my eyes from Ulrichā€™s feeling so unbelievably uncomfortable, way more than I thought Iā€™d ever feel around him. More uncomfortable then I even was when I saw him watching me as I undressed. I twisted my finger around the slightly damp blade of grass and pulled, finding something to preoccupy my shaking hands, ā€œUlrichā€¦youā€™re my best friendā€”ā€œ

ā€œAnd youā€™re mine.ā€

ā€œā€”but Iā€™m not quite sure what I feel.ā€

Ulrich spoke softly and gently, but his eyes were dark and a bit hurt, ā€œDonā€™t try and skip around it, Sarah. You either do like me likeā€¦like I like you, or you donā€™t. Itā€™s one or the other, thereā€™s no in between.ā€

I couldnā€™t hold back the tears, as I shut my eyes trying to focus on my heart. I honestly, truly, didnā€™t know how I felt. And even if I did like Ulrich, I donā€™t think Iā€™d even know it. Ulrich thinks Iā€™m just an everyday commoner, but Iā€™m not. I havenā€™t grown up in the same surrounding with the same people as him. My life is easy and I rarely ever have to do anything for myself, unlike Ulrich who works every second of everyday, just to keep his and his fatherā€™s house in shape so they donā€™t end up sleeping on the streets. Iā€™ve never been around boys, other than my father and cousins, and older brother, and I do love them, but not in the way that Ulrich is talking about. I donā€™t have much experience with even tying my own corset, which is why changing in Ulrichā€™s motherā€™s bedroom had been such a challenge. I didnā€™t want to explain to him why I didnā€™t understand his feelings, which would mean sharing a secret. That would mean confessing to him that every time Iā€™d seen him, Iā€™d lied, and Iā€™d lose him. Iā€™d lose my best friend.

ā€œI honestly donā€™t know. Iā€™m just so confused about everything.ā€

ā€œItā€™s a simple question, Sarah. You donā€™t have to even think to answer it, just listen to your body, your heart. What is it telling you?ā€

ā€œMy body? How do you listen to your body?ā€ I asked, with a roll of the eyes, whipping away my tears before Ulrich noticed them.

ā€œJust remember, remember how you react to things.ā€

I rolled my eyes, this time out of frustration instead of amusement, ā€œThatā€™s the problem, I donā€™t know how to. I donā€™t even understand half the things youā€™re saying right now.ā€

ā€œEvery day for the past seven years, Iā€™ve sat here, at this very spot, waiting for you, hoping youā€™d show up. And when you didnā€™t, Iā€™d go the rest of the night with a hole in my heart. The rest of the day would be boring, gloomy, overwhelmed with blackness and depression. When younger, Iā€™d cry for hours because you didnā€™t show up. As I grew older Iā€™d bottle all my feelings and wonder if you were okay, what you were doing. All day and night, Iā€™d worry and miss you. When youā€™re gone I canā€™t eat, sleep, or even think a single train of thought thatā€™s not interrupted by the image of youā€¦and when you showed up todayā€¦everything changed. Your smile brightens my day. Your laugh and pure clumsiness amuses me on the worst of days. A single touch of your skin, a brush of your fingers holding my hand,ā€ Ulrich whispered, lightly grazing his fingertips over my collar bone and neck, making my cheeks warm and turn red, ā€œmakes my skin grow hot, and my body tingle with need.ā€

I took in everything he said, making sure I understood every detail of his misery and joy, which I apparently seemed to have caused him. I looked into his dark brown eyes and let out slow breaths as his fingers traveled up to my cheek. He continued to talk, but I barely heard the rest. I was too focused on my surroundings.

The tension between has had seemed to get thicker, the moment he touched me. His eyes were getting darker and darker, as he spoke with an overwhelming emotion that, like he described, made my whole body radiate heat. My fingers and toes tingled with such electricity that made my body ache and shiver to its very core.

It amazed me how well he was describing what I once had, and do, feel. All those years that I had promised to see him, and couldnā€™t, Iā€™d felt guilty and upset. I had so badly wanted to see my friend, to know how he was doing, and how his life in general was. I was looking forward to seeing his smile, hearing his laugh, and being able to be my complete self. He excepted me. Heā€™d seen me at my worst and best. Sometimes it even seemed he knew me better then my own father, and I was with him almost twenty-four-seven. Today was the first day in seven, maybe even eight years Iā€™d seen Ulrich.

And only now, did listening to his cracking voice and looking into his truthfully compassionate soul through his eyes did I realize how much I had missed him over that long period of time. Only now did I realize what my heart was trying to tell me when Ulrich would smile and it would pound against my chest. Only now did I realize why my stomach would flip, and why my knees would buckle when Ulrich would hold my hand or say the right thing.

Could this really be happening, and true? Was I just being naĆÆve and gullible, like my father said all teenage girls were? Or had I truly found someone who loved me and that I loved back. Just this morning the thought of loving or even liking Ulrich in this way hadnā€™t even crossed my mind! Is it even possible for me to have been so oblivious to my own feelings through all these years? Or was my body tricking me into believing something that was never meant to be or even true?

His lips brushed against mine, knocking me out of my trance of thought. I hadnā€™t even realized how close he was getting, hadnā€™t even realized when he was right in front of me.

My heart was pounding, blood rushing through my body, at such a quick pace as the electricity from my smaller appendages was. Adrenaline was coursing through my veins, warming my insides, fogging my thoughts. Everything up there was now completely blank. All I could think of, more like focus on was Ulrich. How weirdā€”but in a good wayā€”heā€™d always made me feel, how he now made me feel. And all I had to do, to forever hold him, to forever have him, was lean forward and return the kiss he was about to give.


~4~




Ulrich's P.O.V.



But she didnā€™t. She didnā€™t kiss me back, like for that moment I thought she was going to. She had closed her eyes and a barely audible moan had even escaped her lips, but she didnā€™t kiss me when I leaned in trying to close the last inch of space between us. Instead, she pulled back, and then quickly slid from out of my grasp and stood.

ā€œSarah? Sarah, Iā€™m sorry.ā€ I mumbled, and in all reality I wasnā€™t. At least not for what I was just about to do. I was sorry for her, about how overwhelmed and confused she said she had felt. Iā€™m sure after all these years of holding it in, me just one day blabbing it out was a pretty big shockā€¦but there was no way this thing we had was one sided.

Without saying one word, she took off, sprinting through the forest away from me.

ā€œSarah? Wait!ā€ I yelled after her, quickly stumbling to my feet to follow her through the forestā€¦if she didnā€™t like me back that was okay. I wouldnā€™t want her to admit feelings to me that werenā€™t true. I wouldnā€™t want to be strung along, so if she truly didnā€™t share the same feelings for me as I did her and that was okay. But that didnā€™t mean I was okay with completely losing her. I didnā€™t want to lose my friend.

A few minutes later I stopped running when Sarah, too, had stopped. She was sitting in the middle of a big pool of water. It was a lake, surrounded by open forest and lush green grass that seemed colorful lively even in the dark night.

I looked down at my feet and saw Sarahā€™s dress and under armor lying on the bank of rocks and mud by my feet.

Quickly, I tore my eyes away from the site and swallowed the thick lump that had formed in the back of my throat.

Sarah was good distance away, but I could still see her clear as day when she lifted her hand, and curled her pointer in a gesture calling me toward her.


Sarah's P.O.V.




Ulrich was purposelyā€”maybe unconsciouslyā€”torturing me. Either way, watching him strip out of his shirt, then his breeches, to join me in the cool waters of Crescent Lake, took forever. And once he was finally in front of me, towering over me, waters at his waist, what I had so badly wanted to do just minutes ago seemed horrifyingly scary.

But I pushed myself to go through with it.

Slowly, I slid off my knees, and stood revealing myself as I stood to look up at Ulrich. He looked over my petite body, eyes stopping at were the waters too stopped at my hips, just below my navel.

His eyes quickly snapped to mine, looking hesitantly but desperate.

He wrapped one arm around me, pulling me against him by the small of my back, and more words slipped out, ā€œI really shouldnā€™t be doing this.ā€

ā€œWhat?ā€

ā€œI justā€¦I wasnā€™t brought up this way; Iā€™m not supposed to be doing this. Iā€™m supposed to be pure for the day I marry my husband. I want to, but thisā€¦it just doesnā€™t feel right.ā€

ā€œI agree.ā€

ā€œYeah?ā€

ā€œMarry me?ā€

He said it quickly, sounding only the slightest bit nervous. I was shocked, though I guess I should have seen it coming, ā€œWhat?ā€

ā€œWill you marry me?ā€

ā€œIā€¦I canā€™t just marry you.ā€

ā€œWhy not? You love me donā€™t you?ā€ he asked, caressing my cheeks.

Only moments ago I hadnā€™t been sure, now I was, yet I wasnā€™t sure if I could say it. It took a moment of hesitation, but eventually I was able to, ā€œY-Yes, butā€”ā€œ

ā€œBut what? If I love you, and you love me, whatā€™s so wrong with marriage?ā€

The law, I thought. If only he knew who I really was. Me and him, it wasnā€™t possible. Itā€™d never work, it wasnā€™t aloud, ā€œI justā€¦I donā€™t know.ā€

ā€œSarah?ā€ Ulrich whispered as he looked into my eyes, ā€œIā€™m not going to force this on you. If you donā€™t want

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