Chapter 14: VEE

We had everything. I had never believed that the universe could fit in one hand, but it did in Yaron’s, when he intertwined it with mine. On his back, when he gave me a piggyback ride through the woods and we shared dreams.

Our afternoons were filled with of confidences, promises of eternal love and kisses. Lots and lots of kisses. We couldn’t get enough of ourselves.

I turned eighteen in front of a chocolate cake that I had made myself and shared with my father and Yaron. My world was small, but immense in what really mattered. It didn’t matter that Dad still drank, nor that most of the day he didn’t take his pills. Nor that no one else had congratulated me. Nor that they had painted the word ‘crazy’ on our mailbox for the umpteenth time. These things slipped away from me because I was with Yaron.

“I have something for you,” he said, grinning at me.

“Is this your way of telling me you want to do it? My father is in the kitchen.”

“No, my birthday is in three days,” he said, with a wink.

I nodded. Yaron wanted both of us to be eighteen for our first time.

He took my hand and pulled me upstairs. We locked ourselves in my room and he handed me a small package.

“What is this?”

Yaron smiled.

“You know I started carving wood as a hobby.”

I nodded. Yaron had been doing it since the day we met and I asked him for a cane. To my surprise, he did do it and gave it to me some days later.

“I’m not particularly good at it, but I have been working on something for the past few weeks.”

“I don’t expect anything in return for my birthday.” He looked at my short skirt, the one I had made myself from an old jacket of my father, and he smiled provocatively, running a finger around the rim of the fabric. “Or, almost nothing.”

“We both agree we’ll be together that night, so stop teasing me and give me my gift.”

I snatched the gift from his hands.

“What is it?”

“Why don’t you open it?”

“Because if I open it, it’ll be over.”

He looked at me without understanding.

“What?”

“This.”

I placed a hand on my stomach and he finally understood. If I was addicted to anything, it was everything that made me feel alive and capable of achieving whatever I wanted.

“I won’t let that end, Vee. Never.”

I was dying to kiss him. A year of doing it and not a single day had gone by when he smiled and I didn’t want to bite his smile.

“Do you promise?”

“I promise.”

I nervously tore off the wrapping paper and opened my mouth in surprise, when I found a small wooden pendant. It was made of two overlapping pieces, a “V” and a “Y”.

“Yaron...” I whispered.

Yaron. My Yaron. The one who always smiled at me, supported me, cared for me, took me seriously, laughed when I had a hard time, and above all, loved me.

Two letters that shared our names and they were hidden in a geometric figure from the eyes of others.

“Do you like it?”

“I love it,” I breathed out, adjusting it around my neck.

I didn’t realize I was crying until the first tear fell on my lap. I launched myself into his arms and kissed him hard. Yaron tripped on the carpet. We both fell on the floor.

“I’m never taking it off.”

“Not even when you’re famous and a guest at the Oscars?”

“Not even then.”

Another wet kiss and we fell onto the bed.

“What if they offer you to wear a gazillion-dollar diamond necklace?”

“I’ll say no.”

I smiled and licked his mouth.

“Not even when the most famous artist in the world wants to paint you naked?”

“The muse is the one who sets the rules, silly. I’ll make it a requirement that he paint it between my tits.”

“Will you take it with you when you leave?”

Yaron reached over and brushed my hair off from my face. I rarely combed my hair and the locks covered my cheekbones, but I liked it that way. Uncontrolled. A little wild.

We both knew we were running out of time, the love that was devouring us would have to face reality sooner than later. Lately, we lived in a constant countdown that began to hover over us too often.

Not yet, though.

“I will. I’ll wear it until the day when I come back to you and beyond.”