I trudge through the alleyway that leads to the most idiotic boy I’ve ever met and the apartment he lives in.

Why did he have to be so infuriating?

I slow myself when I see the window of his home and pause to rest against the brick wall.

I mean really, why did I have to like this regular old human being? There are plenty of other options out there. I could go for a werewolf, an alchemist, I mean even a vampire would be acceptable.

When I press my back against the wall, I feel the coolness of it calm my racing heart. I stare up at the window and I notice his frame stalking back and forth as he talks into his cell phone.

Determined as I was to tell him how much I like him, there’s a part of me that wishes I wouldn’t. I’m scared he’ll reject me… Even without knowing my darkest secrets. I pretend to be so normal around him, not spilling my so called magical qualities.

In the world I’m from, if you so much as say you can see in colour you’re looked upon as a freak of nature. It’s irregular to see in anything but black and white, but those who possess, or even believe in magic and creatures, has this beautiful ability. I am just so lucky to be one of these people, all thanks to the fact that I come from a line of witches.

Both of my parents were raised as witches and warlocks and every moment of my childhood was spent immersed in magic until I was ten years old when I was finally allowed to enter a regular school. As much as I loved learning about potions and spells, there was a part of me that yearned to earn a regular education.

On my first day of school I met the boy that I was admiring now, and even at ten years old I would still blush whenever he looked at me.

I had to keep it hidden that I could see in colour, as well as knew magic, which made it hard to explain my giggles when he would show up in the most ghastly of outfits, all because the colours simply did not match. But, how was he supposed to know that.

I glance at the window again and see that he is still pacing, although this time there is no phone in his hand. He rubs the back of his neck, a nervous habit of his, and I quirk my eyebrow in interest as I watch him. I remember the first time I noticed this habit, although it was through much more difficult times.

We were both fourteen and it was the first time we ever shared any physical contact other than the occasional high five, and to be quite honest, it was probably one of the most memorable moments of my teenage years.

At fourteen, I lost my Father in an accident… He was on his way home and was t-boned by a semi-truck whose brakes seized; it was a complete accident and there was nothing that my Mother or I could do. Being witches we understood there was no spell to bring someone back.

A week after facing the impossible, I came to the realization that it’s possible for one to lose the ability to see in colour and practise magic all together. I had heard of this happening, but I never thought I would have to experience it first-hand.

My Mom datoriated throughout the week and on the seventh day, she walked from her room to tell me to realize that magic was a helpless endeavour; to find a day job. By this rate I was already explicably upset over my Dad, but to add the loss of the mother I knew my entire life, I couldn’t begin to describe just how I was feeling.

That same night, after holding in tears and sitting in awkward silence through a mediocre dinner, I took a walk to my favourite spot. It was in a park between where Ravi and I lived and it was easy to meet up at, especially at night time.

The merry-go-round had become our usual spot and I take a seat in the middle of it, scrunching my knees up against my chest and it’s the first time I let myself sob and I hope to God that no one can hear me… Although, this goes horribly wrong when I hear quiet footsteps come towards my location.

After I look, I take note of the lanky frame that is approaching me. Ravi wasn’t much at the time, just starting to go through puberty actually.

“Sera…?” he asks quietly as he steps towards me.

I gave him the best smile I could muster before he hopped onto the merry-go-round, snuggling up beside me. I remember him taking off his scarf and putting it around my neck after I in my breath in a shaky manner.

“I talked to your mom,” was all he said before I broke down into tears once more.

His hand was on my back, rubbing up and down to encourage whatever emotion was buried inside me. He let me rest my face in his shoulder, let me stain his jacket in my salty tears and let me hold him until I was calm. He also let me keep his scarf, something I still occasionally wear these days.

It was this moment I realized just how much I loved him; lanky, tall, and still unable to coordinate an outfit.

I am torn away from my memories when I hear that familiar voice calling my name.

“Seraphina!”

I turn my surprised eyes to the location of Ravi’s voice and see him sticking his head out the window.

“Don’t call me by my whole name!” I shout back with a cheeky grin.

“I can call you whatever I want,” he calls back.

I stick my tongue out at him and he returns it.

“Hurry up and come inside… AND DON’T COME IN THROUGH THE FIRE ESCAPE THIS TIME!”

I move towards it while rolling my eyes and he pulls his head in through the window, although leaving it open, fully knowing I’ll ‘climb’ the black metal staircase that leads to his window.

I check over his window one more time, making doubly sure he was nowhere near it.

I whisper an incantation, keeping my eyes closed to concentrate. I feel my feet lift from the ground and I finally open my eyes as I levitate towards the second level of the fire escape.

It’s strange to think it’s been six years since our hug on the merry-go-round and none of my feelings have deterred… Six years of puberty, hormones, boyfriends, spells and colours and I wouldn’t change it for a second.

Well, until tonight… My mentor finally pushed me enough to try and confess to him. Connor, the witch in town who I also begged to become my mentor after my mother stopped believing, was fierce when it came to her words. To be completely honest, she had no filter between her brain and .

To be exact she told me to ‘put on my big girl and confess to him… and get the out until your next lesson,’ all while pushing me out the door and locking it shut.

I was less than happy, but she has heard me talk about him for the past six years, and she was probably right in doing so.

I plant both feet steadily onto the platform and climb through his window.

“I’m quite fast today,” I whisper to myself proudly as I shut the window behind me.

When I turn around I notice Ravi jump in surprise.

“Jesus! How did you do that so quickly?”

I laugh, sliding my coat off my shoulders and I hand it to him to hang in the closet. As he does so, I slide my fingers through my fire engine red hair, playing with the pieces of it.

Before he returns I hear him rifling through the kitchen and he hollers at me after a minute.

“Do you want tea?”

“Yes, please,” I shout back, my nerves starting to get the better of me.

I know he’s playing with the kettle, filling it up and placing it on the stove.

How was I supposed to do this? Do I just sit down and say ‘Hey, I like you… What are you going to do about it?’

He comes back in and flicks the television on. He’s in his house clothes; casual black harem pants with a red zip-up… To be honest, I wish he would wear this outfit all the time, because I know for certain he was too lazy to put a shirt on underneath of that hoodie. On top of that, he doesn’t actually realize just how good he looks in that colour.  I give an obvious glance at the clavicles that protrude through the top of it and gulp quietly as I decide to tear my eyes away and have a seat.

I sit on the floor, as per usual and he takes a seat beside me as the reality television network plays. Good, he was happy; looking for some laughs to accompany his mood. This was just one of the small things I noticed about him. Reality TV. for a good day, documentaries for deep talk days, etc. etc.

“What were you up to today?” He asks, knowing my answer as it was the same every Thursday.

“Hmm… Went for a walk, studied, visited the old lady in town.”

He rolls his eyes a bit at the mention of my mentor.

“Why do you always visit that old coot?”

I give him a disapproving look but he smirks back at me.

“She’s sweet… in her own way, and lonely, so why not.”

“Well, she’s the one always talking about seeing in this so called ‘colour’ and does all that stuff…”

I smirk in dissatisfaction, “She’s still an elder, Ravi… Have some respect.”

He tries to further the conversation but I cut him off.

“You forgot om nom’s, let me grab some.”

“Yah, you still call it that?”

I stand up and run from the living room to the kitchen, giggling in the process.

“Why wouldn’t I?”

I rifle through the cupboards to pull out a package of cookies, some chips and a few sweet buns. I have it piled in my arms as I walk into the living room, the package of cookies clenched between my teeth.

He glances at me with a wide eyed look, laughing as I pile the snacks on the floor.

“You’re going to eat me out of house and home, you know that?”

Considering the amount of energy I focused on magic, I did get quite hungry, especially after my lessons on Thursdays.

Ravi grabs a bag of chips and rips the package open, throwing a couple into his mouth. My hands are pulling on the edges of the package of cookies. These were my favourite and I definitely hated sharing.

We sit in silence for a few minutes, and I enjoy the way he chuckles at the weird habits of those on the television.

When I glance at him he has a sweet bun hanging out of his mouth and the way he giggles makes me blush. How could I find someone so y but adorable at the same time?

He catches my stare and smiles at me pulling the sweet bun out of his mouth.

“What?”

 “I was just thinking how delicious that looks,” I tell him with a smirk on my face.

“Well, you can’t have any,” Ravi answers with biting into the bun once, leaving it between his teeth, hanging from his mouth.

“Oh, really?” I ask, raising my eyebrows in curiosity.

I drop my cookies into the package, placing them on the floor in front of me. In a moment’s notice I lunge forward reaching for the sweet bun with my right hand.

Ravi is laughing loudly already, our so called play fighting a regular occurrence when it came to snacks.

“Sera!” he manages to muffle out with the sweet bun in his mouth.

His large hands are quick to wrap around my wrists, holding me back as I kneel in front of him.

“Ravi, don’t you want to share?” I ask with a laugh.

“Not with you.”

I feign shock and begin to lean forward, although his arms are strong as they keep mine in place in the air. He laughs again, accidentally letting go of the sweet bun. It rolls from his lap to floor stopping about two feet away from us.

“!”

He glances over at it and back at me and I shrug my shoulders as best as I can. I flush as I realize just how long his hands have been around my wrist… But I don’t want this small amount of contact to end.

“Five second rule?” I ask, my eyes glancing over at it.

“You can’t have it still.”

“Try and stop me!”

We both begin to giggle as he holds me in place still. How was he so strong?

I begin to slide my knee’s sideways, fighting to make it to the desired sweet bun and in the process Ravi is moving sideways with me in an attempt to keep me away from his beloved sweet bun.

I try to slide my other knee over his thigh but it catches and I tumble forward. I shut both of my eyes tightly, hoping I wouldn’t hit the floor too hard, both of my hands in front of me and Ravi’s strong hands have left my wrists.

When I stop moving, it takes a moment before I open my eyes and when I do Ravi is staring up at me, his face a few inches away from my own, both of my hands planted on the floor on either side of his head.

I can feel my breaths becoming heavy when I realize his fingers are tightly clasped against either of my hips. My legs are separated by one of his and even the slightest movement has us brushing against each other, tinting my cheeks a bright pink.

His face is half shocked, the other emotion I can’t pick up on as his fingers loosen but he doesn’t seem take his hands away from my waist.

“Ravi…” I manage to breathe out even though I can feel my lips begin to tremble.

I have an overwhelming urge to close the space between our lips… What would he do if I just leaned down and kissed him like this? Would that get my feelings across?

Just as I am mounting up the courage to do so Ravi is saying my name.

“Sera… I-”

He is cut off by the whistling of the kettle from the stove, the squealing beginning to pierce my ears.

Really? You had to go off now?

I look towards the kitchen before I smile down at him.

“One second,” I tell him.

I push myself up, his leg bending down slowly as I seem to brush against him in all the right places. It was wrong to think that way when he didn’t know anything… But part of me can’t help it. I in a breath and hold it as I move down the hall.

I make it to the kitchen and I let out the breath I have been holding, my nerves settling slightly as I pull the kettle from the scorching burner and place it on a cooler one.

Ravi had the tea cups both sitting on the opposite counter, the cupboard with the various flavours of tea in it right above. I open it, my eyes scanning each flavour, taking my sweet time before I went back in there. Wasn’t this the whole point of today? Telling him just how much I loved him?

My stomach is flip flopping when I hear his foot-steps, the sound growing and I know he’s coming to the kitchen when he doesn’t stop where the bathroom door would be.

My back is to the entrance and I try to fill the room with chit-chat when his foot-steps stop at the doorway of the kitchen.

“What kind of tea should we have?”

He’s quiet, something very unusual for Ravi.

“I like that vanilla one we had before,” I stutter out as my hands shift through the cupboard, grabbing the container of it and placing it on the counter.

I hear his foot-steps once more and it is nerve racking to have him here not saying any words.

“Should I make a whole pot? Or maybe just two cups?”

My eyes widen as I try to open the container but my shaky fingers prevent me from doing this simple task.

He is right behind me when I spin around, the small of my back planting itself against the counter.

“Can you open it for me? It’s really difficult.”

He face is stoic like as his eyes look at said object. He takes it from me and his fingers momentarily graze mine. Ravi takes the lid off of it easily and when I reach out to take it from him, his arms begin moving forward to the surface behind us, one of them on either side of me.

He’s left barely an inch between our bodies when I hear both the lid and container being placed on the counter. He’s trapped me against it and I contemplate turning around but his words stop me.

“Seraphina, don’t run away this time.”

His thigh rubs against mine and now he is the one staring down at me. My lips part in nervousness as his face begins to move towards mine.

“You can’t keep lying… I know there’s something here.”

I’m shocked. Wasn’t I supposed to be the one confessing to him? How long had he thought this?

I bring my hands from my sides and place one on his arm, the other on his chest. I asses his face and he smiles at me when my fingers pat softly against the left side of his chest.

I can feel his heart pounding against them and I redden at his nervousness… At least he had the courage to do this much.

“Sera-”

This time I cut him off.

My lips crash against his and it takes him a moment to respond, his lips pressing against mine just as eagerly after a moment. When his tongue grazes my bottom lip, I open them quickly, years of desire flowing out of me in this moment.

His hand soon finds its way to my face and rests on my cheek, his thumb along my cheekbone as his tongue grazes against mine softly and for the first time I can taste him. He’s almost sweet, and I begin to wonder if it’s possible to even like the way people taste…

The hand that has been on his chest tightens and clutches onto the fabric of his red sweatshirt and sure enough, I can feel the skin of his bare chest against my knuckles. My breath hitches at this contact and Ravi notices this.

I feel him smile against my lips and he pulls away, his eyes roaming over my face. He chuckles when our eyes meet, taking note of my heavy breaths.

“You’re a good kisser,” I let out exasperatedly, my mouth hanging open a bit still.

A part of me is awestruck at the moment we just shared. Surely, he couldn’t have felt this for long…

He smiles again before leaning down to press his lips against mine, and even though there is still shock inside of me, I am more prepared to properly engage in his sweet kiss.

What future would await us now?