Love, Gwen

Prologue

"Shhh!" she said in quiet laughter, "you're going to miss the experience."

"Amelia, it's freezing!" she replied, crossing her arms in an effort to warm up her body. "We'll die of hypothermia before we have any experience, besides, what're we doing out here anyway?"

"Just close your eyes" Amelia instructed, both girls hearts beating faster in anticipation, "now let your arms hang loose and to your sides, like you're laying down but keep standing" Amelia laughed again as her friend jokingly tried to lay, "now turn your back towards the peer and just breathe, Gwen."

Gwen listened to her friend, anxious as to what she was going to "experience", she waited for something to happen. The waves were loud as they crashed against the peer, lightly sprinkling Gwen's feet, further making her cold. Amelia's cold, soft, hand found Gwen's as they linked pinkies but stayed silent with both their eyes closed.

Then, all of a sudden, a loud breath from the distance, and a splash. "What was that?" Gwen asked, slightly suspicious.

"Shhh!" Amelia giggled. The breath and splash happened again. Gwen had heard the sound before, but never in real life, only ever on documentaries but Gwen couldn't figure out where. Again came the breath and the splash, breath, splash, breath, splash. "What could that possibly be?" Gwen silently thought. Breath, splash, once again.

"Are you still confused?" Amelia laughed, opening her eyes and staring at the dark-haired woman on the peer.

"Yes, very much so," Gwen replied, slightly sad that she couldn't put her finger on what the sound in the ocean was.

"Turn around then, and open your eyes." Amelia smiled, excited for her friend to see something new and wonderful to her. Gwen slowly loosened her grip on Amelia's pinky, she hadn't realized how hard she was squeezing as she became deep in thought. Her eyes blinked open towards the ocean. Gwen remembered that they had been at the very edge of the longest peer in Edmonds. They were basically in the middle of the beach, but just a short distance away, there were tons of little fins revealing themselves from under the depths, breathing, and splashing.

"Orcas!" Gwen screamed, jumping up and down excited to see the beautiful sea creatures that once drew Gwen to Washington as a very young girl. "How did you know!"

Amelia slowly slipped her hand in Gwens and rubbed her thumb against Gwen's palm. "Because you talked about it once before, I come here sometimes when I remember that the Orcas are migrating and I remembered you said that you loved Orcas when you were a kid. I wanted to do something special for you."
Gwen stared, mesmerized, "This is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me, I love it, Ams." Gwen and Amelia found a nearby bench to sit at and watch the rest of the pod migrate their way up. "Gwen?" Amelia said, breaking the silence.

"Yeah, Amelia?"

"I really, really like you."