Shawn Kirsten Maravel

I was investing more and more of myself into an outcome I couldn__ predict and would very likely be disappointed by. But for me there was no other option.

The longer I looked into his eyes the more I felt that he was leading me down a road that I was determined not to follow.

Looking up at Max he asked, __o you recommend anything?_ He kept his eyes low and to the table, trying but failing to keep his eyes open against the bright sun light.__ou okay?_ Max asked, watching as Landon struggled to meet her eyes.____ trying not to look at you,_ he replied.____ sorry, what?___ mean I__ trying not to hurt my eyes.__ax crossed her arms over her chest and raised a wicked brow. Landon shielded the sun with his hand and finally made eye contact with her. __hat came out wrong,_ he said apologetically. __t sure did,_ she said with a chuckle.

I knew that she couldn__ hear me if she was there. But the sound was enough to grab me, to hold me to hope, and with desperation that I__ never known before I knew that I must find my way back to her.

His eyes darted over the surface of my face. Like a moth to a blaze he was hesitant, seeming to crave my warmth but not its inevitable burn. He explored me from a distance with his unspoken desire, with the fear that touching me would set him to flame. I wanted nothing more in that moment than to prove very much the opposite.

Though he wouldn't dare admit that he might have felt more for her. He wasn't ready to care for a person that much when he still didn't care too highly for himself. most days Landon regarded himself as a lost soul, a wanderer. Who could love such a man?

_''A heart that had chosen its path couldn't be led in any other direction.

_''Your heart is either beating or it's not, your heart never forgets. As long as your heart is beating follow it, it will always stay true to you.

_''I froze. Like an idiot I froze. He was staring right at me. (...) He wore an innocent and mesmerizing smile directed right at me. I did my best to ignore it but having a gorgeously naked man staring at me like I was the only girl in the world was impossible to brush off.

I was the silent and ever present figure in your life...but you._ I kissed the back of her hand softly and closed my eyes. "You've always been the meaning of mine.

So, how is it that you don__ have a girlfriend?_ I asked boldly.Joel shrugged.__ave you ever had a girlfriend?_ There was no way that he__ never had a girlfriend.He shrugged again.__ou__e not serious.___ou__e surprised?_____ sorry, do you own a mirror?__oel laughed in that I__l-never-understand-women kind of way. ____e never wanted one,_ he admitted, though it seemed that there was more to it.__hat? A mirror? Or a girlfriend?__e laughed again, even harder this time. __ girlfriend.___re you gay?_ He smiled. __o, I__ not gay.___h._ I blushed. Why was I being so nosy all of a sudden?