Moonlight Kisses

arabella

When I learned how to drive, I thought I'd be taking myself on long late night drives down an open road, screaming out lyrics to my favorite song because there's no one around to watch you. I thought I would have the freedom of being able to drive up to my friend's house unannounced and grab food after school whenever I pleased. I can do those things, but I never thought about the errands I have to run because my parents couldn't.

I woke up this morning, barely even had enough time to grab a cup of coffee before my mom came in through the door, still in her scrubs looking especially worn out from the recent 10 hour shift that left her with barely enough time to sleep, eat, or drink much of anything. So I signed myself up for at least 2 hours of dropping things off here, depositing things there; needless to say, I was out for a good 3 hours thanks to typical Friday traffic. The thing about living in a big city is that weekends are always hectic. What with all the tourists bustling about and the locals just trying to get their afternoon lunch break, it made for a solid extra hour of traffic.

The perks of being able to drive, ladies and gentleman.

I trudge upstairs to my room to see that everyone has retreated to their own separate spaces. My mom, catching up on much needed sleep. My dad, working on something in the garage whatever that may be. And Kat, probably binge watching episodes of Game of Thrones. Everyone usually does this during the day, lingers in whatever brings their joy and on certain nights we all join together to play a board game or watch a movie.

I notice a white box placed on top of my bed that wasn't there before. A black ribbon secures the lid. I toss my keys aside as I rush toward the foreign object. Someone was in my room. I really don't know how to feel about that.

When I get closer to the box, I take notice of the folded up slip of paper tucked just underneath the black bow. I unfold it to reveal a one-line message, cryptic enough to say the least.

"Be my Arabella. I'll pick you up at 3. Beau."

I swiftly pull my phone out of my back pocket. 3 is only an hour from now. What the hell is this boy planning? 'His Arabella'? What does that even mean?

The only thing left to open is the box. My fingers untie the bow from both loose ends and toss it aside to my able to shake the lid open. Inside is filled with white tissue paper covering something up. I snatch that out of there impatiently, revealing a silk black dress.

That clever son of a bitch.

~

"Why'd you choose Arabella?"

"Well it gives off this like dark vibe, you know? I can't really describe it. It's like this: when I'm listening to Arabella it makes me feel like a badass and you and I both know I'm nowhere near that."

"Right."

"It puts me in this state of mind where I'm like a better version of myself. Black silk dress, black boots, a motorcycle, everything. It's literally the badass anthem."

~

Ideas start forming in my head. How I could do my hair, how I could do my makeup, everything to amplify the experience he's setting up for me. I take the dress and hang it on the hook on my closet door. He must've just bought this or took it to go get pressed or something because there is not a single crease on it, not even from being folded up in the box for however long it was. It's incredibly difficult to make silk look this seamless but I guess when Beau wants something, he makes certain to get it down perfectly to his standards.