The Air that I Breathe(Candygreyton) I saw them.

Her and him. Standing across the high school library from me. He smiled down at her, while she took off his glasses and put them on her own eyes, batting her eye lashes at the adjustment. Then she kissed him.

Especially without his glasses, you could see just how blue his intoxicating and bright blue eyes were, even from this far away. His eyes were his mother's, he'd once told me. His looks though, like a real Peter Parker, belonged mostly to his father. A good looking man, especially considering he was much older.

He smiled like a child, laughing as innocently as his name, Ryan, always sounded to me.

I felt a pang in my stomach, as it twisted into unsettling knots. Watching him and her was tortuous, even though I didn't stand much of a chance with him. I was only a sophomore, he was a senior.

But still, I thought the way he cuddled me, lent me his sweaters, lifted me up and spun me, dancing to no music, and carried me across the hallway meant something.

And to watch him so intimate with a girl I knew didn't care about him, was just--

"Candace. Are you okay?" A voice snapped me back to reality.

I almost forgot my best guy friend, Anthony, was sitting there next to me.
I looked over at him.

He was beautiful in ways different than Ryan was.

Anthony possessed Spanish beauty. With dark curly hair, deep brown eyes and tanned, flawless skin.

But it wasn't just his outer beauty that made him so striking.

His personality. Beliefs. Morals. Everything inside made him beautiful, too.

"Yes, I'll be okay." I told Anthony.

"Are you sure?" He asked, he looked over at Ryan and his pretty girlfriend, and frowned. He knew exactly what was bothering me.

"I just... I wish all the beautiful girls in the world would be invisible." I admitted.

"So you want to be invisible?" Anthony said in a smaller voice than usual.

I looked over at him, and his big brown eyes met mine.

I didn't even know what to say to him.

I watched him bite his full, soft lips and for a moment, imagined kissing them.
But instead I just smiled.

*** (that night) ***

I couldn't seem to get Anthony out of my mind. His words, his beauty I somehow had failed to notice before. He was everything I thought Ryan was, everything I wanted him to be.

I started to realize, whenever someone asked me what I looked for in a boy, I thought of Anthony.

Who did I cry to? Anthony.

Who listened to me and never judged me? Anthony.

Who just always held me when I had boy troubles and told me someone out
there loves me? Anthony.

And who was I out walking at ten o'clock at night in the light rain to see?

Anthony.

By the time I reached his house, I didn't have any hesitation left. I knew it was right. Even if he looked me in the eyes and turned me down. It was right. I had to see him.

I walked from the driveway and onto the lawn, stopping under his window.

I could the back of him, shirtless, sitting at his desk. Probably finishing his homework at the last minute, like always. I could hear "The Air that I Breathe" by the Hollies playing from his room. I smiled, and without thinking twice, picked up a pebble and tossed it.

Instead of bouncing off the window, it just went through.

The window was open.

I saw Anthony stand up from his desk and walk over to the pebble on his floor. He looked puzzled at first, but then he grinned. He picked up a sweater and pulled it over his body.

"Hey, Candace." He said, without even looking down to see who it was.

"How did you know it was me?" I yelled up, putting my hands in the pockets of my shorts.

He turned around with a smile, and leaned out of the window frame.

"Who else would throw a pebble through the window because they didn't check to see if it was closed?" He called. "Be more careful, Candy-Love!"

I laughed. He always called me "Candy-Love" when I did something kind of stupid.

"Yeah, well I got your attention." I said.

"You could have climbed up the stairs, too." He laughed, gesturing to them.

That was true, there was a flight of stairs leading from his window to the ground. The window used to be a door, but his parents converted it. They never got around to taking out the steps.

"I could just use them now," I said.

By that time, the rain was falling harder.

I walked up the steps and up to his window.

Rain had soaked his hair, and mine. Our faces were inches apart.

"So, what did you come all the way, in the pouring rain, to see little old me for?" He smirked, moving a strand of wet hair from my face, tucking it behind my ear.

"Because..." I said. I watched a raindrop fall from his nose and smiled.

"Sometimes..." I sung, in time with the Hollies still playing on his stereo. "All I need is the air that I breathe and to love you,"

He smiled. "You know I hate it when you sing songs to fit the moment."

Laughing, he pushed up the window all the way. I'm small enough he could lift me inside.

I stood on my feet, but he didn't let go of my waist. His one hand traveled to my cheek, and his thumb ran across it.
Before I could stop myself, or think about it twice, I pulled him in and kissed him.

Our rain soaked bodies pulled together as close as possible. His body and the electricity that seemed to coarse through my veins warmed me.

He lifted my legs around his waist, and carried me to his bed, and I felt myself fall to it.

He landed, his body hovering not nearly an inch from mine.

He covered me in kisses again, from my forehead to my neck, and finally my mouth.

When he was finished, he rolled off to the side.

"You don't know... How long I've needed this to happen." He smiled, his eyes kind, but intense.

"I think I do." I said.

---