By Chance

8 - Harry

The night consisted of many laughs while revisiting old memories, one beer at a time. Tom had pointed out on several occasions (especially when she texted me during our second beer) that he still hadn't seen a picture of her and was very bitter about it. Sure, I showed him her profile picture, but the small, grainy picture hardly did justice to the real, up-close thing.

The girl still hadn't approved my follow request on Instagram, which was driving me insane, and Tom surely didn't help. He kept asking me to describe what she looked like, and every time I tried to, I could never find the right words to describe a beauty like hers. None of the words in the English dictionary ever seemed to suit her. Her beauty was like no other, and all the words describing one's looks always paled in comparison to the real thing: her.

"Check again," Tom demanded, hoping she finally accepted. I opened the app and took a deep breath. I clicked on the activity page. Sure enough, one of my notifications read: '@Genevieve_G_87 accepted your follow request'. I felt my heart soar as my wide grin demonstrated my excitement.

Before I could even click on her profile, Tom snatched my phone right out of my hands. He tapped on something, letting out a 'whoa' that told me he clicked on one of her posts. I grabbed it back and let out a heavy, lovestruck sigh that made me want to facepalm. Tom hurried over to where I was sitting and gazed over my shoulder. I held the side of my head in my hand as I moved my leg closer to my chest to prop it against.

"She's gorgeous, mate. I wish I had been in that airport," he said with a coy smile, bringing out a small jealous part of me that nudged him in the arm as my gaze never left the screen.

Sunsets. The only thing in this world that has a beauty that surpasses all else, or at least that's what I thought until I met Genevieve. In the current post, we were immaturely gawking at her standing in the middle of a wheat field, with a setting sun behind her that reflected ravishingly off the back of her head.

Her arms were placed behind her comfortably; the upper left arm pointed upward alongside her head while the lower half bent and rested against the back of her head, and her right arm pointed outward and bent, leaving a noticeable space between the upper and lower part of her arm. Her elbow and beyond rested slightly behind her neck, her hand still visible in the photo.

Her facial features were relaxed yet poised, and her piercing blue eyes stared straight into my soul as if suddenly knowing all my secrets. Her straight, golden blonde hair flowed behind her back, leaving a few stray strands hanging down by her neck, still in view. As for her wardrobe, she couldn't have been more gorgeous. She wore a yellow, two-piece dress that had white flowers strewn all over it. The dress itself revealed a decent amount of the middle of her tan stomach, but she doesn't seem like someone that would typically wear clothes like that. She looks like she's very laid back and relaxed and not the type that likes to show off her body.

The lower part of the dress flowed down to the edge of the picture and beyond that. That, too, had flowers printed on every inch of it yet remained very tasteful. I couldn't take my eyes off the picture. The way her arms relaxed and were placed behind the back of her head; how she had a severe yet calm look on her face; and the scenery all around her complimented her skin tone and dress immensely made me question if I was deserving of a girl like that.

The more I blinked to convince myself that she was a too-good-to-be-true figment of my imagination, the more real she became. The post remained in the center of my vision, and each time I refreshed the page to see if it'd go away, it didn't. She was natural; I found that more challenging and harder to believe with each passing second.