Girlfriend On Mars

30. "I was made to love her"

Thirty.

"I was made to love her."

A few nights over, under a clear, moon-centred sky, Jen was sat outside Marley's house in her car, which was still rumbling quietly. She'd dressed appropriately for the chill, late night in a tartan scarf and a navy parka coat. The temperature had dropped drastically just in time for the annual 'beginning of summer' firework display in Delray East park, the one Marley had been so excited for.

The door to the car was pulled open then, the overhead light flicked on, and Marley climbed into the seat beside Jen, hands balled in the cold.

Jen shook her head and smiled, "you are not dressed for the weather. Seriously, you're gonna get ill."

Marley frowned, looking down at her thin, zip-up jacket and sweatpants (which had a hole beside the pocket). "I think it's fine! I wear this jacket every time it's cold in soccer and I never get ill."

"Well, you've jinxed it now." Jen tutted jokingly, checking the rear-view mirror before she drove off into the street.

"I brought mittens too!" Marley said, producing a pair of red mittens from the pocket of her jacket, to which Jen just laughed.

"Oh, sorry, I take back what I said—you're gonna be like an oven."

Marley just rolled her eyes and smiled to herself, facing off out the window. She'd asked Jen if she wanted to go to the firework display, the one she usually just watched from her window, and she felt proud just for asking. Her romantic checklist was filling rapidly, especially with a new one being added after Jen took her virginity, which she continued to blush at the thought of.

The moon had rose as a button of smooth bone that night, rounded and full as if cut by template. Marley raised her thumb and forefinger to the window and pinched the outline of the moon between them, smiling when it fit perfectly. She wondered if you'd be able to live there, she wondered which planets could be inhabitable.

"Which planet do you think we'll live on in the far future?" She asked, watching the moon dip behind houses and trees as they drove on.

"Hmm? My friend, Hamilton, he told her the big planets like, uh, Jupiter are most like earth, so probably them." Jen said, one hand at the wheel, the other messing with the stereo. "But we'll be long gone by then—skeletons."

"What about Mars?"

Jen grinned, "what about it?"

"It's close, the next planet—wouldn't we just go to that one?" Marley asked, lowering her fingers from the hidden moon. She turned to Jen, big blue eyes fixing on the side of her face.

Jen shrugged, still smiling, then glanced at Marley. "Dunno, maybe. How about you go up there and I'll stay here and buy a telescope."

"What the hell are you gonna do with a telescope?" Marley giggled, folding one leg up onto the seat and crossing it over her lap.

"Look at you, of course." Jen smirked, knitting her eyebrows, still staring on at the road.

"That must be an amazing telescope if you're able to see clearly onto Mars with it." Marley smiled. She thought Jen looked good while she drove, her side profile being very well-defined and very beautiful. Her nose was thin and curved neatly like a ski slope, but her hair had fallen around her eyes so Marley couldn't admire them from the side on.

"Damn right, I'm gonna invent it so I can look at Mars on Mars." Jen grinned idiotically, glancing to check Marley's response, which was a hard eye roll and fail at suppressing a laugh. "So, you gonna go up there?"