❝ waiting is a sign of true love and patience. anyone can say, i love you, but not every one can wait and prove it's true ❞
_____
dedicated to httprilaya
(word count : 2354)
autumn ;; 1999
-- 🍁--
you waited below a summoned stop light, redeeming off of its own glow. both of you sitting, 'hind in the gravel, letting the nicotine puff seep through crevasses in your lips. purple polish, chipped upon ten holy-weaved fingers slick to the top layer, and bit down through the core. simple questions, impossible answers, but princess riley matthews bopped you atop the head with the end of her glittering fairy wand; releasing you from the next intoxicatingly refresh of air. you dressed up as a black cat, under her recommendation. under oath, more or less. you wouldn't be spotted dead in plastic catlike earmuffs. a splotch of dark blue marker slithered along the creases in your cheeks, outlining the whiskers with a button nose dotted on the tip.
you turned a slight inch, sizzling a glare through the pink dunce cap, and grimaced on a pair of purely with teeth. reaching far through the hem of your bag, you cradled a tube of crimson matte lip balm. popping the lid like a champagne bottle cork; you touched up the bland from your petaled lips. you took a swig from the maroon flask that you stashed below the miscellaneous products in your purse, offering it to the girl with the short brown hair and pink curls. she tussled the feathery wand once more upon the top of your head, sprinkling specks of glitter that were pinched out of a 'pixie dust' bottle.
"how many times have i told you that sprinkling glitter on people's head, makes them angry?"
"more than once, but-"
"riley, it's annoying. do you know how long it takes to wash glitter from your hair?"
"a long time, but-"
"riley!" your hands instinctively weaving through the air in gestures, and slowly becoming more agitated in the second. yet, you secretly despise that, for you could never want to be mad at her. she looks a little surprised at the jump and looks back into the ongoing traffic, refusing to make a start of eye contact. but you grab her chin, look far past her chocolate teddy bear eyes, and apologize.
she takes small strands of your honeydew locks and sticks them in the back of your ears- refocusing your eyes. the traffic clears, and you don't even notice. you're both receiving hits of déjà vu from back when little kids where rambunctiously playing with action figures or, pray tell, barbie dolls, but the two of you would sit in the corner, eating each other lunches. she would bring grapes, and you would absentmindedly forget the carrots, and she would admittedly forgive you.
but you still felt bad, so you promised cookies the next day, yet- that never happened. she would tell you, "it's okay maya, i have food we can share."
"but i bring the carrots! i always bring the carrots, i'm sorry. my mom left for work too early, and i couldn't reach them."
"it's okay!" and she would grab your chin, staring into your icy blue, kissing your forehead, making you feel better by the instinct. in only one way, though- because in other ways, you had this longing feeling in your heart, or an aching pain in your chest from something that smelled like happiness, but back then- you were only eight, and nothing of love made sense to you. you just knew that you felt something with her, not in any way differently than you do with your mother, but that's just what you told yourself.
she was now rubbing her thumb calluses along the line of your cheek bone, and that feeling was returning, bubbling to the surface. your eye lids flicker against the movement down to her lips; looking for a quick, quiet second, and then releasing yourself from that awkward atmosphere.
"okay!" you clap your hand together, and catch her off guard- gaining her attention, even though you probably had it intensely mere seconds ago.
"the party starts at eight, it's seven forty-five, and we still have yet to cross our street. how about we go!" you grab all five of her fingers and sprint across the street, without giving her a second to answer. you could still tell by the way she squeezed your hand tight, that you knew she agreed.
the two of you didn't stop running even when the road was behind you, but instead, kept pace all the way up to the train station.
winter ;; 1999
-- ❄️ --
it was freezing outside, with you wrapped up in five blankets, and her sitting next to you in the bay window. you had a cup of steaming hot chocolate in your hands, and you've become so amazed by it because the color resembles her eyes. you had your legs crossed, with the cup in the middle, and everything was fine, everything was sane, everything was right side up, until you started to stare at her again.
she was studying for the next spanish test, while playful twirling the end of her hair between the tip of her fingers, and you were biting your bottom lip, while staring intensely into the knuckles of her hands. riley kept a stern focus upon her spanish book, studying the questions for the next test's study guide, but you were too busy studying the freckles on her nose. she took a second glance at you, and began to smile at your attraction on the little fireflies lighting up her cheeks.
"what?" she asked with a smitten gaze painted upon the creases in her smile. you first recollect the situation in your own hands, and a small gleam of happiness spreads across the line in your cheeks. to be honest, you don't think about answering the question at all, but then her eyebrows squint upward, and her lips purse together. while she continues to tangle with the ends in her pony tail, your face begins to steam up, and riley's milk chocolate eyes melt into your gaze.
little winged creatures flutter amuck in your stomach as she blinks more times than once, against her butterfly eyelashes. you don't know what it is, but she makes you feel far more special than anyone else. sense it's only been you and her from the time of seven years old, and not letting it take a turn anywhere else, or never leaving each others sides, you seem to have only grown a different liking to only her and no one else.
so your answer becomes a lie, because you can't tell her you love her so much that the world feels saturated when she touching you.
"nothing, y-you've just got a bug in your hair." you say that only because you love messing with it in the middle of the night, and when you pretend to pick something from it, your heart beats against the home of its rib cages.
she acts like it's the end of the world when you say it, and jumps around screaming, "get it off of me!" your giggles fill the bay window, but then you calm her down with a hug, setting the mug on the side table, she laughs a little too. you mumble onto the top of her sweater on her shoulders, "you're so cute." and then she giggles upon your blonde hair. as she kisses the top of your forehead, you feel like the whole window is about to collapse then and there.
"maya, promise me something?" she whispers, and your head feels her breath, sending a rush of shivers down your back, and along your arms.
"okay" you say pulling your hair behind the back of your ear.
"we don't let this change." she says.
"i promise."
spring ;; 2000
--🌹--
spring was her favorite season of all. she would drag you outside to play in the freshly cut grass surrounding the park grounds. she would beg you to roll around in the lawn, and you did, smelling the aroma of remembrance during the blossoming flowers. and because you loved the girl with all you had, you would even roll down the slopes with her, racing to the bottom, and laughing with her all the way down.
you would hold hands with her while swinging upon the seats in the park, and sense she was much taller, she would always get higher than you and lose the grip in your intertwined hands. she would then stop her swing to reconnected them together, and smile towards you, filling up your body with a burning sensation in your cheeks.
now you both were lying upon the grassy floor with shoulders, heads, and hands touching each other's. she was looking up at the sky, and you were- again- memorizing the freckles on her nose, even though you had already known all of them by heart.
you stared a lot.
she closed her eyes, and you knew she was inhaling in the smell of the flowers. the strawberry sun was setting against the horizon, and her profile from the tip of her nose scrunched up against the spring cologne. you rested your head upon her shoulder, still feeling that longing in your chest. her touch against yours sent a mockery in your body, and every single inch was set aflame. your throat was closing in as you stared hard against your clutched fingers, and when she set her head upon yours, you lifted it off of her shoulder; staring her right in the eyes.
"what's wrong?" she whispered, and her breath smelled of the mint gum you gave her after lunch that day. her smile from her mouth was fading, and yours was left agape. then your eyes fleeted a glance upon her pink petal lips, and you swallowed the lump in your throat.
she's your friend!
she's your best friend!
she riley matthews, you're best friend, and you're sister!
but she was too close for it to be a friendly situation anymore, and yet- you didn't want to look away from her brown doe eyes. her breath was hitched too, and your mind fades back to that night in october just before the halloween party. except this time, you're not going to avoid anything! you're feelings are straight, you're feelings are simple; you love her, you always have, you always have and you always knew that you always have. but something's different than what had always seemed perfect.
you can't quite put your tongue on it, but you're loving the view of her blinking eyelashes, and little breathes that you hear her sneaking in from time to time. you place your palm on the one side of her cheek, brushing the stray dark brown hairs from her face, and you set them behind her ear.
she brushes her fingertips along the lines in between your thumb and pointer finger, and her hand lightly travels down your arm, then your elbow, and your shoulder, lying across your face too. her thumb caresses along the line of your cheekbone and- oh god, you're kissing her.
she's kissing back with a pink passion. everything is slow except your heart, which is beating at a pace of a hummingbird's. at first- it wasn't fiery, it wasn't intense, it wasn't all over the place with an orchestra of movements, it was breathy and inclosed together. with your lips in sync against each other, you felt as if nothing in the world matter except this kiss. she tasted of mint and- just her. everything that you knew and came to love was in that kiss, with an extra zest of mint leaves sprinkled around the lust in all of the things that were and that will be riley matthews and maya hart.
your breath was warming up, and your lungs were filling high with her scent, and a rush of spring mixture made your body grow numb against her touch. her forehead laid atop yours, and when you both slightly drifted away from each other, catching a breath, you hated the distance. she rapped her arm around your waist, and you kept your palm across her cheek, feeling the warmth in her face.
"peaches?" she lightly whispers into your ear. which shivers down your spine making you smile, and mumble something like, "mmhm?"
"what does this mean?"
you hadn't even thought about anything else sense the feeling off her lips on yours. you hadn't even thought about the future of what existed now. you just liked being so close to her in a way where you don't have to shove lies down your throat. instead; you're able to breath intoxicatingly easy.
"i don't know, honey. but can we just lay here?" you suggested as the horizon was almost covering up all of the sun's light, and you could feel the stars glimmering from the sky above. there weren't many people out anymore, and even if there were, it wouldn't matter to you. this whole time, you felt as if every single person in human existence was a big blur of splotches next to her radiance.
it wasn't a big surprise. she brought out the saturation and vibrance from those gloomy days, and made you smile with everything she had. she was a one of a kind, and you were glad that she was yours.
"that sounds okay, i just wanted to make sure that, what's about to happen to us, isn't going to change anything." she wouldn't look you in the eye, so you touched her chin with the tip of your finger, to level both of your faces across from each other.
"not if i can help it." you smile; kissing her again another time, and understanding that spring was now your new favorite season too. but even without flowers in her hair, or red gloss on her lips- she still made you gush and realize that everything that you've ever wanted was staring you right into your icy blue eyes, as she kissed you one more time.
fin.