Petal [h.s.]

THIRTY-TWO - PINK IN THE NIGHT

*This chapter involves a conversation about a past suicide attempt and self-harm scars.

It may be emotionally damaging to listen to 'you are in love' by taylor swift repeatedly as you read.

I felt like a child again.

The wind was blowing against my face, smelling like salt and the remnants of a burning bonfire in the distance. It was comfortably warm outside and the sounds that surrounded me were that of pure joy. The ocean waves lapping against the shore, the bicycle wheels turning as they whizzed over the wooden boardwalk, the sound of Harry's laughter as I tried to teach him how to ride with no hands.

We stole the bikes.

We stole them. I don't know why it surprised me so much, but it did. There is a shop in the Wasteland to rent bikes, of course, it's a tourist town. It was closed though, on account of it being the middle of the night. I don't know why I didn't think about where the fuck we were gonna get bicycles from, but I didn't. I didn't worry about things like that when I was with Harry. I just followed him.

He lit a cigarette and put it between his lips as he led me down the boardwalk, all bouncy and giddy. He circled around me and held the cigarette up to my lips, watching me take a drag with a smile. His hand found mine, our fingers intertwining, something we weren't allowed to do in the daylight. Everything felt safer for us when we were in the dark.

We found the bikes fairly fast. It was amazing how many Wastelanders just left their shit laying around, trusting that nobody else would take it. I understood it, growing up in this town... I used to leave my little pink bike out all the time. My dads always told me that someone would steal it, that I should lock it away, but I never worried. And it never got stolen, because Juniper Bay was a good town full of good people.

Except for me and Harry, apparently. The bicycle thieves.

"We're returning these later!" I whispered to him sternly as we both got on our 'borrowed' bicycles, listening to him try to stifle his loud laughter.

"Of course we are. I don't steal." He winked at me, so full of boyish charm that my heart nearly burst.

We laughed and shushed each other as we rode off on the matching blue bicycles that likely belonged to some ridiculously active older couple. I was glad that I decided to wear my chucks tonight and not my usual platforms as I stood up on the pedals, gliding down the street toward the boardwalk.

"You wanna race?" I called back to Harry, admiring him.

He was wearing an old white graphic t-shirt, blue and white checkered vans with high socks and the best part-little cream colored shorts that had stitchings of bunny rabbits eating carrots on them. He showed them to me when he pulled them on, smiling so bright that his eyes squinted and sparkled. I didn't think my heart could soar any more until he yanked a bright pink beanie over his hair. It was warm out. He didn't need it, he wore it just for me.