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flashback

Pluto had been taken out of school for her depression, so I had no other choice than to hang out with Jane. Jane was vibrant, Jane was lovely and I wanted to be special like her. She had been particularly sad on this day, weaving around, but not how she normally did. Jane normally left a mark. A trail of sunshine and light and heaviness wherever she went. You could feel if she had been in a room just before you, or if she had spoken your name from miles away or kissed you in another dimension.

Jane was almost crumbling, almost like the wind was knocked out of her. So I asked. Because Jane was the closest thing I had to a friend. The closest thing I had to Pluto.

"What's wrong?" I tilted her head up with my finger under her chin. 

Jane never lied. Jane was never cruel. Jane was perfect, and she responded exactly how I thought she would. "I'm so worried about P-Pluto. What if she never comes back?" Her voice cracked at the end. It stung my heart. It hurt to see such a beautiful thing so damaged.

"Pluto always come back, nothing can break her, not even herself." I said with a smile and I whole-heartedly knew what I was saying was true. 

We went to go sit down on a bench outside the school. She laid her head on my shoulder. I sighed. That was my weak spot. Any time anyone rested their head on me like that I had an immediate urge to fall in love with them. And of course Jane wasn't exempt from this. 

"You're so beautiful," I said. I was thinking. I was daydreaming. I was daydreaming about her perfect lips on her perfect face and how her perfect hair glided down her back like a fountain of gold. 

She lifted her head and looked into my eyes. "You're just as beautiful, Mari," she smiled, "If not more so."

And the reason that this touched me was because she was lying. She was lying with such conviction and such unblemished, profound confidence. Like she was reading Shakespeare. Like she was living Shakespeare. I watched her mouth move. 

She was the one who leaned in, she was the one who kissed me. Her kiss wasn't hot and passionate like Pluto's. It was warm. Her lips were plush and pink against mine. She tasted like raspberries and regret. But she also tasted like love. I ran my hands through her hair. And I stopped when my lungs had almost evaporated. I felt light-headed, I felt dizzy, I felt dazed. 

When I pulled back, she just continued to smile at me. And then she laid her head on my shoulder once again. I sighed. 

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