Lyrics in the Lines

Youth

"T-Minus 2 days," Angelica declared with a scowl, putting an angry cross through the box on the calendar in red sharpie. Counting down the days in blood.

"Stop being so alarmist, Ange. They're just exams." Jessica lounged on Angelica's bed, an unopened geography textbook beside her.

"Just exams that determine what universities we get into." Angelica put the sharpie down and crossed back towards the bed. "Just exams that every job we ever apply for will ask us the results of. Just exams that will shape the course of our adult lives. Just-"

Angelica grabbed her by the wrist, pulling her down onto the bed and pressing her lips to Jessica's. Silencing her. "Forget about the rest of our adult lives," Angelica whispered, her lips hovering only slightly away from Jessica's. She could feel the movement of the words. The warmth of Angelica's mouth. They kissed again. Longer this time. Deeper. "We're seventeen," Angelica continued, trailing kisses across Jessica's jawbone as she spoke. "We don't need to be adults yet." Jessica closed her eyes as Angelica continued the kisses down past her ear, along her neck, her collarbone. "We need to enjoy our youth."

"What we need," Jessica replied, opening her eyes and sitting up, trying to bring some order back to her love-clouded mind. "Is not to squander our youth with all play and no work."

"You work plenty hard enough, Jessie," Angelica murmured, using the pet name that always made Jessica's will crumble. She sat behind her, massaging some of the exam-induced tension from her shoulders. "Besides, I'm not squandering my youth at all; my youth is yours. And while I get to spend every second of it in your arms, I'm happy for it to never end."

Jessica smiled, twisting to catch Angelica's lips between her own again, pushing her back onto the bed so that she could lay down beside her.

"Run away with me," Angelica whispered, trailing her fingers along Jessica's arm, making the hairs stand up on end.

"What? Run away to where? And why?"

"So that we don't waste our youth staring at books and memorising facts we'll never need or want to know in later life. So that we can be young and free and having fun. Out there, right now-" Angelica was on her feet, pointing at the window. Passion shone in her bright, cerulean eyes. Jessica loved her best when she was like this; so caught up in a crazy dream or idea that her body forced itself into action. "Stars are exploding into supernovae, forming new galaxies. While we're sat in here reading about the world, the world is out there begging us to go out and experience it!"

"Angelica, you've lost your mind."

"Good! I hope I never find it again. Now we just need for you to lose yours too and we can start to really live."

"Angie..." Jessica's doe eyes were creased in uncertainty. She tugged at a ringlet of hair, her expression so sweet that Angelia crossed back towards her at once, desire gnawing at the pit of her stomach. She was breathless with exhilaration; half wild and determined. She knelt beside the bed, taking Jessica's hands in hers, her voice soft.

"What if we wake up one day and discover that the best years of our lives have passed us by. What if we realise that we've wasted all of our time in school and work. What if one day there's no time left? Jessie, I want to live. I want to see the world with you by my side. I want to tell you goodnight in every language there is. I want to watch the sunrise reflected on your face in every time zone." She rose and her lips met Jessica's once more, in a kiss so deep and pure and certain that Jessica felt her losing the threads of her argument. She could think of nothing beside her heart pounding in her chest as adrenaline and desire coursed through her veins. Blood-rush. Love rush. Angelica's body pressed to hers, one hand holding her softly at the curve of her waist, the other in her hair, pulling her closer.

"When?" Jessica gasped, pulling back from the kiss before she lost all sense of reason.

"What if we left today?" Angelica pressed her forehead to Jessica's, her breath coming in ragged gasps. "Come on, Jessie. Let's say goodbye to safe and sound. Let's have an adventure." With Angelica's soft rose lips still millimetres away and her hand so close to the waistband of Jessica's jeans, toying with the edge of her underwear, Jessica felt her sense reason ebbing further away.

"But-" she started, trying once more to protest. To clear her mind.

"Jessie." It wasn't just a name it was an invocation. Imploring. Heartbreaking.

"Okay. But just for two days. We need to be back for geography."

"Forget geography," Angelica replied with a laugh. "We can be sipping from the Iguassu Falls in South America by the time the rest of the class are starting to answer questions on that stupid case study. I've had enough of studying the world; I want to see it."

"So wait a few more weeks, then we've got all the time there is."

"We have to go now!" a childlike petulance seeped out in Angelica's words. She was frowning. "If we wait, it won't mean as much. It won't be an act of defiance; a way of telling the world that we refuse to conform to the expectations it places on us. No, Jessica. Wait a few more weeks and it will be nothing more than another cliche gap year. You know it's true."

"Angelica, I'm not sure." Jessica crossed her legs, pulling the cover up around her feet, worrying the fabric with her toes.

Angelica's eyes were bright with certainty. Ablaze with delight and excitement. "What have we got to lose? If you're that afraid of missing your exams, you can always retake them next year. But give me a year first. Give me a chance to prove to you that this is the right path to take. The right risk."

"What am I supposed to do, cross my fingers and hope I'll still have a life here to return to if it all falls apart?"

"Nothing is going to fall apart. We're fireproof. Unstoppable. This is the beginning of a new life for both of us; one so fabulous and amazing there's no way you'll want to return. We'll find our own little slice of paradise." She looked down and began tracing tiny hearts on Jessica's ankle. "Just you and me."

Jessica could feel the lure of Angelica's words, working their way through her reason, burrowing into the deepest desires of her soul. They were only exams. Exams that would lead to yet more exams on a university course she was only accepting because she didn't know what else to do. And after that? No fixed plans. No dreams. Nothing she wanted with the same urgency she was feeling now.

"Okay," she said quietly, a smile spreading across her face. "Lets be young and free and stupid. Let's take a risk."

"Really?" Angelica's fingers froze. She looked up, her eyes wide.

"Yes," Jessica said, her voice rising with conviction. "You said South America, right? Let me find my passport."

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