Chapter 41: I just want to hold you close

Every time she saw him, she thought he was just like her. He was strong. His eyes held a flinty hardness about them that made her apprehensive about showing any signs of affection toward him. But there was something behind that. After a joke, his eyes dropped, emotion lost, and so did his face. When he thought she wasn't looking, he'd look at her longingly, but cautiously, as if he wanted her to touch him, to hold him, but wasn't going to ask her because that would betray the wall he had built around himself. And she wanted him, too. She saw that his eyes were lonely, that his body seemed to lean inward with insecurity and aloneness. His smiles were real half the time, and half the time his cruel, sharp retorts jabbed at anyone who tried to become to familiar with him, anyone who might pity him. She wanted to hold him close. She wanted him to not be so alone. She wanted to hold his body tightly, press his warm body close against her own and show him that she loved him. She wanted her feelings to touch his loneliness and reach his tiredness and help him be happy