I Felt like Our Smiles Could Touch
It’s Complicated: Lit Up & The Writing Cooperative Contest
She was here.
I felt like screaming till my throat couldn’t. Oh, how had I missed her in these two days. After these two tormenting days of desolation, I simply couldn’t comprehend why people ever wanted to be alone.
We embraced. I didn’t cry, tears simply leaked from the corner of my eyes without my permission. She just smiled and wiped them all with the back of her hands, and we began to walk down the path to our favourite beach.
“So…um, the professor liked my essay.” I began to talk without preamble. “He’s asked me to submit a piece for The Daily.”
She smiled brilliantly. “I told you he would. Have you thought what you’ll write about?”
“I have, partially.”
She nodded, the wind blowing her hair to the side, the vexatious strands coming to rest against her glasses, partially covering her jade eyes, and making them even more beautiful against the jealous, glaring sun.
She didn’t ask me to elaborate. She had never needed to, she already knew what was going on in my mind. “My mom’s coming back from her trip this evening,” she said, her hands busy trying to clear her vision from the joint forces of her hair and the wind.
“Perfect,” I said, and meant it. If I had my way, it’ll soon be the most beautiful evening of her life.
“And you aren’t even a bit nervous?”
It was my turn to smile. She just shook her head, as if trying hard to make me realise how big of an incorrigible prat I was being. “Yes, I am. There’s always some…. doubt that lingers.” I spoke honestly.
She half-turned to face me, a bit serious. “She’s just like me.” Her voice was gentle, unlike the roaring waves that were now touching our feet. The calming affirmation of her voice soothed some my nerves. She’d told me something that I couldn’t counter.
“So, I can be myself with her then?” I gestured with my hands.
“Of course.”
“And if she’s just like you, she — ”
“Will love you like I do.”
I grinned. I felt like our smiles could touch. I wanted to kiss her again. In one kiss, I’ll tell her all I’d wanted to say to her, but couldn’t.
Oh, what would I do without her.
Drown, probably.
I looked to where our feet lay bearing the weight of our heavy hearts on the wet sand. The sand was already slipping away. I took all of her ineffable beauty in once more, breathed her through my eyes and before I could utter another word, she’d disappeared.
I wanted to scream again. My knees crumbled beneath me, and there she was in my arms again. Her clothes were bloody, her eyes watering just like mine as my heart wept at the torture this was. I could still hear that last, silent breath that she spent in not keeping her body alive, but in saying that she loved me. She’ll love me till the end of time.
But that time had ended the moment she’d left me.
I stood up again. And as I put that mutinous strand of her hair behind her ear, she took my breath away again, and I stepped into the water.
