Just Stop For A Minute And Smile Novels & Stories

he smiled. I stopped.

"That sounds like something a Mage would say right before everything explodes." A corner of his mouth lifts. The smile is small but it is real. "Maybe," he concedes. "But it is still true." I study him for a moment then sigh heavily and let the laptop slide shut. The weight of it closing is almost physical. The weight of giving up the search for now. "Fine," I concede reluctantly. "Five minutes." He smiles clearly counting it as a victory. Counting my willingness to step away as progress. "I'm just glad to see you smile," he says softly. "Seeing you smile reminds me that you are still in there somewhere beneath all of this."

I grab his arm, stopping him "Stop. I'm sorry" ****************************************************

"You look so beautiful when you're smiling." "But I'm not smiling," Athena said, still not smiling. "Of course," Alex nodded. "Which is why you should stop frowning." Athena sighed. "I don't know how to smile when I'm asked to smile." "No problem. Just dance with me, then," Alex said, still whispering in her ears.

she remarked, her eyes taking in the tranquility of the setting. Ermanno, his face still set in a serious expression, merely nodded in response. Unable to resist breaking the tension, Celine teased him, "Frowning gives you wrinkles, you know." The corners of his lips twitched, and Ermanno finally spoke, his voice laced with amusement, "Oh really?" "It's actually proven that smiling keeps you looking younger," Celine quipped, a playful glint in her eye. "You should smile more often, it suits you."

I don't get to finish when he attacks me with tickles and I know that I'm done for. " S - stop!" I try saying in between laughs. "Nah - ah." He doesn't stop. " I'm so- sorry!" I manage to say and finally he let's me go. I take in necessary breaths, trying to calm myself down. When I finally get myself under control , I notice him smiling at me. The difference with this smile is that it is neither playful or teasing but just different. " What?" I finally ask, being curious. "This is it." He says.

He takes his forefinger away, releasing my lips before he returns my smile with a heart - stopping smile of his own. My smile falls off my lips as my heart actually stops for a nanosecond. “ You are smiling. ” I speak in a robotic tone and as an instant response he stops smiling. “ I mean you actually smiled. Not in that - ” I copy his smirk letting the left side of my lips curl up. “ smirk kind of way. You actually smiled like - ” I let the smirk drop and smile at him to explain how he just actually smiled at something.

She smile .................TBC.......................

I leaned my head back slightly, closing my eyes for just a second, letting everything settle, every word, every crack, every inconsistency. Then I opened them again. And smiled. “Now,” I said quietly, “we stop listening… and start breaking things.”

Something warm and involuntary, the specific expression of someone who has been surprised into a feeling they were not performing, the best kind of smile because it arrived before the person decided to have it. She could not stop it, I smiled too. I could not stop that either. We sat on the steps outside the official building in the lamplight, both of us smiling at the same time, which was something I could not remember the last time it had happened. Eight months possibly. Maybe longer.