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—Don't just stand there looking pretty! Do something! —I said after he had been holding my letter in his hands for five minutes without ripping it open. I hadn’t realized what I said after giving it further thought and becoming as red as my hoodie—.
—You think I'm pretty? —Nate let out a giggle, as I covered my face with my gloved hands so he couldn’t see the redness climbing to my cheeks anymore.
Then, he passed his thumb under the flap of the letter’s envelope to rip it open and took out the piece of paper that had the ink of my deepest confession.
I took my hands out of my face to be received with Nate’s ice eyes, glistening in the sunlight of the park, as if they would melt and with a smile that looked crafted by the greatest sculptor, so honest and touching that I felt like I would faint any minute.
After looking at me, he unfolded the letter’s decorated paper and started reading what took me months to write.
“Dear Nath:
Everytime our eyes meet, everytime our hands touch, and everytime we build great memories together, I grow fonder of your sight, day by day.
Even though the first time we met was, well, not in the best circumstances that we would have wished for, your openness and generosity were the base of what we’ve come to be today. I wouldn’t be so close to you if you weren’t a box full of positive traits, after all. And I know you tend to not believe this when I say it to you, so I will number each one of them so you have them in mind.
First of all, you’re the prettiest person that I know, that’s why I’m so astonished and down bad for you in the first place. Your red hair sits on your face like a precious silky cloud that I love to caress. Your eyes are full of creativity that gets transmitted to those who have the chance to see them; their ice cold tone, so arousing, so different to your real personality when I got to know you more.
But it isn’t only your physique that hypnotizes me, but your incredible qualities. You are, as I said before, generous and kind, but you are also an incredibly talented artist, a hard-worker who never gives up on what he wants to achieve and will do anything to improve in art. Even though you don’t like teaming up, you’re so selfless with those around you, you don’t know how valuable that is to me and to everybody else. Everyone around you values your presence as it is so calming and welcoming; it evokes the same feeling as when you get out of your house and realize the arrival of a new season you love.
With all of this being said, I will detail the reason for all of this gifting being made before your birthday. I have been treasuring a secret that could change everything between us. Since the first day that I saw your face in the printing room, I was hooked. Hooked with your tranquility, the almost-confident-but-not-yet tone, the looks you gave to me —which you don’t probably know I realized, but I did— and everything you made me feel in that small interaction. But it all came before that, as the art you posted on the school’s blog was the first time I saw your incredible artistry and talent, that inspired me and made me curious about you.
Ever since those events and the rest of the positive memories we’ve made, even if we had our ups and downs, I’ve grown to fancy you, and that is the motive of this letter: to tell you that I love you.”
I really didn’t know if he had finished reading yet, so I was getting very nervous because he was staring at the paper with a blank look in his eyes. Did he not like it? Had I ruined everything?
But all of this overthinking and doubts that were floating around swooshed away as Nate looked up to me and hugged me. He even got on his tip-toes to put his arms around my neck, and there, right there, in the park where it all began, I looked at him and kissed him for the first time.