The Girl in Seat 23 {l.r.h.}

twenty-seven.

He came and found me in the old oak tree in my backyard, clambering up the trunk to sit on the branch beside mine.

"Hey, I'm--"

"I remember once," I whispered, dangling my legs over the side of the tree branch that held me, "it was a summer night and Ma was gone. The rain was absolutely drenching the world. And I laid out on the porch just staring up at the black clouds that buried the stars. And I was soaked. And it wasn't how I wanted my night to go, but at least it's what I was feeling." I turned to him. "What are you feeling?"

He looked away when eye contact was too hard. "I- I don't... Look I just really don't want to think abou-"

"God, can you just kiss me already?" I put my hands over my eyes.

I heard his tree branch rustle. "W- what?"

My lips quivered. "Kiss me until I don't feel anymore pain. And don't tell me how it's not polite for a girl like me to say that or that you're afraid my dad will see or that you're scared. Kiss me and make me forget. Kiss me and let me remember."

He put his hands on the sides of my face, gently brushing away the tears. He tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear and stared into my eyes with a love that could make the earth tremble. "Finally," he whispered.

His lips met mine like the fireworks on the Fourth of July, like midnight on New Years. His lips were the taste of spring after a long winter and the few when the sun greets the day. His breath was on my lungs and his hands were in my hair and time stopped and I was drowning.
But somehow I could breathe.

I breathed him in like the thin air at the peaks of the Appalachians. And when he let go, my eyes fluttered open to see a messy haired boy with eyes like daggers and his long legs dangling from the old maple in my backyard.

"I love you," I breathed.

"I love you."

"You stole my idea."

"I had it first."