Her Name is Memory

12| empty void

"Where did you learn this?" she asked, interrupting my thoughts.

"One time at summer camp." I answered. I crouched down to my knees.

"You mean where boys and girls make out with each other, skinny dip behind the counselors' backs, and other sexy stuff?" she asked.

A joke. She just made a joke.

I shook my head and chuckled her question.

"I went to an all boys came, so sadly no sexy time for me. Sounds like my thirteen year old wet dream though."

I shifted from my position, inching my knees closer to her. When our eyes locked, her smile disappeared. Her body stiffened, and her hands were dripping the grass tightly next to her.

"You okay?" I asked her.

She blinked for a moment before giving a smile again. Her grip on the grass loosened.

"Yeah. Sorry."

I took her hands, which she allowed with little objection. I held them, immediately noticing how soft they are. Her fingers were pale in comparison to my tan skin. Her fingers curled into my own. I ignored the fact they felt great- like they were meant to be there.

Get a hold of yourself.

I planted her hands over the center of her chest. "So hands are on your chest. I am going to push down on your chest gently and while I do that, breathe out with a laugh."

She frowned. "That's not my real laugh."

I held back the urge to smile. She squinted her eye like she's trying to scowl but the expression was too sweet to find intimidating.

"Just shut up and do it. You will see what I mean," I insisted. We made eye contact again. "You ready?"

She nodded. I placed my hands on top of her own, and gently pressed down on her chest. It caved underneath my hand, and Elise gave a fake laugh while breathing out as I instructed. For a brief moment, I thought it was not going to work, but then it did.

Her fake laugh bursted into a real one. Letting her hands go, she brought her head back, laughing. It was like ringing bells. She attempted to cover her mouth like she usually does, but her hand couldn't cover her loud laughing. She looked free, none of her worries or shyness holding her back.

I probably could hear her sweet laughter from my home, echoing through the halls that would cheer someone up. I found myself smiling again, realizing how genuine it was. There was no energy put behind the smile and pretend I was okay.

There were only a few things that could make me smile nowadays.

Her laughter seemed to be one of those things.

When her laughter died down, she turned to me with a tired smile. She still had little aftershocks of laughter, rubbing the tears pooling in her eyes.

She got up, and looked at me. Her hair was a mess with grass bits caught in her strands. Her eyes were filled with mirth while she was still laughing. Her arms were wrapped around her sides, and she cocked her head to look at me.

"I guess a deal is a deal" she said, running her fingers to let the grass pieces fall from her hair.

"Does tomorrow work for you?" I asked.

She nodded quietly after a moment of thought. The frown that appeared on her face made my smile grow bigger.

"Aw don't frown because you lost," I teased.