Murmuration

They talk. They always talk. And apparently you’re something to talk about.” “Yeah?” He wrinkled his nose a little bit and said, “Yeah. Now, like I said, I think I know what you’re looking for.” And Mike wanted to say you and yes and I think I’ve been looking for you.

They could take away your memories. They could make you forget who you were. They could make you into something else. But they could never make someone love you. They could never make you love someone else. You can’t manufacture that.

I noticed it first, you know. The two of you.” “I didn’t….” He stops himself, because he doesn’t know how to finish that sentence. Instead, he says, “Noticed what?” “Your hearts. Your brains. Always in sync. Always finding a way to match up with each other.

This is it, you know? This is how we end. Like this. Like you and me. This is our ending.” His eyes close and he lets out a little sigh, sinking into sleep. Mike thinks, No. This is how we begin. Mike thinks, All that came before? That was the lead-up. The intro. This is our beginning. Mike thinks, Tomorrow. Mike thinks, Tomorrow I’m going to dance with you. Tomorrow I’m going love you just a little bit more. And tomorrow, I think… I think I’m going to tell you that. That I love you. Because you deserve to hear it. And I’ll mean it more than anything else I’ve ever said. I love you today. And I’ll love you tomorrow. And every day after. You’ll see. We’ve only just begun.

I would do it again.” “What?” “All of this. To get here. If I had to, I’d do it all over again.” Sean chuckles. “Lucky for you, big guy, you won’t have to. I don’t know if you know this, but you’re kinda stuck with me now.” “You say that like it’s a bad thing.

You and I are real. I don’t care if I have to tell you this every day for the rest of our lives. You and I are real and you and I will always be real. It doesn’t matter to me what happened before. It doesn’t matter to me what happens tomorrow. Just as long as right now, you know that I’m real. You’re real. We’re real.

You come in here. You deal with all of this like you do. Like it’s nothing. You make things better wherever you go. You always do. Three years I waited for you. I told myself to take it at your pace. That you needed it. That it was the right thing to do. But I swear to god, Mike, had you done something like that three years ago, I wouldn’t have been responsible for my actions, however improper they might have been. You catch my drift?

What’s wrong with what I’m wearing?” he asks. He’s got his Chucks on, his jeans, his shirt. What he usually wears. “The fact that you don’t know the answer to your own question is precisely why I’m here,” Mrs. Richardson says.

Mike said, “He seems like a nice fella.” [...] “Little dumb, though,” Mike said, feeling remarkably brave. Sean squinted at him but said nothing. “Told me he didn’t have time for reading,” Mike clarified. “That books were boring.” “The horror,” Sean gasped, clutching at pearls that didn’t exist.

That was the day I knew, I think.” “Knew what?” Mike asks as Sean’s fingers curl into the hair on the back of his head. “That I’d fight for you,” Sean says, and Mike feels a little chill at that.

Stop smiling,” Calvin said. “It’s disgusting to be smiling that much this early.” “He can’t,” Happy groans without looking up. “That’s his I’m-within-seven-feet-of-Sean smile. It doesn’t go away no matter how much you want it to.

Now, now is about standing in front of Sean’s little bungalow, trying to find the words to say I miss you when we’re not together and I think I might be in love with you and Let’s do this forever and for always without actually saying the words.

You’re my favorite part of the day too,

You wanna talk to your boy?” “He’s not my—” Oscar snorts. “Keep telling yourself that, Mikey.

He may not know how the world is supposed to work, but he’s sure this isn’t it. There is supposed to be an order to it, a definition in the chaos.