Sunset and Vine | Adopted By Elizabeth Olsen

07 | Show You How To Breathe

The sun could only keep the streets of New York City warm for so long as it grew closer to nightfall. There was an almost violet hue to the evening sky, and though most of the soft purple sunset was concealed by thick rows of stratus clouds, the deep grey color they reflected reminded Lizzie of the gloomy English mornings she'd become accustomed to in London. The deeper Olive and Lizzie walked into the night, and allowed the night to engulf them, the easier it was to let go of pent up tensions.

The two didn't drop hands, not when a trashcan nearly took Lizzie out, or when rude groups of people tried to step between them. They kept their fingers locked together like a padlock on the Pont de Arts, and it felt immensely comforting to have someone to share the walk of life with, even if it was only for a couple of minutes to ensure the younger of the two didn't have a severe allergic reaction. It felt healing, not just to Olive who has become so dependent on an independent lifestyle, but to Lizzie who craved genuine connection in a world where it feels impossible to ever attain that.

They probably looked like fools, walking the streets of New York with combined hands and flour covered aprons, but fools in a sense that they didn't look out of place. They shared the sidewalk with cab drivers, cyclists, fashion icons, single mothers coming home from college. Everyone in New York was so uniquely challenged, that even two girls in aprons seemed normal. New York made Lizzie feel small, but it was moments like this that she cherished. Where she was just normal. Not a product of nepotism despite working tirelessly for her place in the Industry, not a tired actress who's only problem is she keeps booking major films, and definitely not a woman who just broke off her engagement. She was just a woman on the street in an apron, and that was perfectly alright for her.

Olive stared contently down at the cracks in the sidewalk, avoiding every single one as best as she could with opticals like people and spit out gum in the way. For a while, she'd been looking at all the bodegas and the buildings they passed, trying to memorize where Lizzie was taking her so she could find her way back to the café if things went south, but somewhere between the third left and second right they took, she'd stopped doing that, just trusting Lizzie to lead the way and pull her along. She hadn't even realized she stopped looking around until Lizzie stopped walking and she plowed right into her back, disoriented and confused.

"Oops." She smiles bashfully, but doesn't step away from Lizzie's warmth. Instead, she leans into it, resting most of her body weight against Lizzie as she looks around, and drinks in the sight of a park. She hasn't been to a park in a while, and never one like this. The parks she could find not too far from the apartment were rundown, sorry excuses of broken metal and plastic all thrown together, but this one has yellow plastic slides, red monkey bars, blue ground that looks bouncy, and the greenest trees she's ever seen in New York outside of the one time Alan dragged her along to Central Park to keep up appearances. "A park?"

Lizzie smiles, squeezing Olive's hand twice. "Remember when I left on Tuesday?" Lizzie questions, looping one arm behind her back so she can semi-hug Olive. Albeit awkward, the little girl leaned more into her, craving the deep connection. Feeling a nod against her back, Lizzie continues. "I came here. My sisters have an office not too far from here. We laid in the grass for hours. It's one of my favorite spots to just decompress."

Olive took a look at her surroundings, eyeing up a set of swings that were entirely abandoned by this hour of the night. Most parents had their kids at home, probably in the bath or eating dinner, very few wandered the streets in the coming of darkness, and if they did, it certainly wasn't in the name of playing at the park.

"See something?" Lizzie quizzes, noticing the girls silence. She can't see where Olive is looking, so she only hopes that the little girl will be honest with her. Either way, Lizzie's perfectly content with just breathing in the breeze that floats by them.