A tear for the starry night lovers.

Norah’s dress hid her lower body, seated near the edge of a pond, with golden hair cascading down her back as she tilts her chin towards the stars. A summers breath rubbed curls along the pillows of her cheeks, copper eyes welcoming specs of glitter decorating a coat of black. Numbness she once felt escapes her to be replaced by the serene sensation discovered in the back garden. 

“Nor, it’s getting chilly. You shouldn’t be out here with no jacket.” The rasp in William’s voice rolls goosebumps along her arms, just as the tenderness pokes a finger to her dimples. The taller, sable haired male had been watching from the window absent of any shame. Brushing off those who seek his attention. His head swarmed with endearment at the irony of his celestial beauty gazing at all the others. 

“Have you ever had the urge to sink your hand into mud?” Determination intertwined each word of her question showing on her face with just the meeting of brows, both still in line with the lift of her jaw. 

“I can’t say I have.” 

“Would you like to try it with me?” 

In truth William would do anything for and with the strange girl, his fascination for her knowing no limits. Yet the worry she lacked for her parents reaction, to her ‘tom boy’ behaviours, he would capture as his own. Sure to keep her from any ridicule.

“But Nor, your dress will ruin. The hem is already buried in grass stains.” 

“Looks as though it’s already wrecked then. Come on, if my parents try to find us we can head towards the hills. They’re far too preoccupied to follow.” The bow in Norah’s hair had fallen to soil the minute she whipped her head towards William. A playful bite to her lip shifted his face from hesitance to joy. He struggled to figure out whether the light of her face came from the moonlight or the glow of her own flesh. Possibly an illusion created by himself. Deciding the only way to find out would be to stride closer, kneeling beside her petite frame, with a fidget of fingertips. 

“Why is it, you’re so curious about the dirt?” He asked because he cared. Every word that came from her mouth he clung on tight fearing he would miss a part of her. A piece he once brushed off so casually. 

“I struggle to place a finger on it. Some days I’m mesmerised by the act of something so unusual.” She seemed concerned for herself and her clouding mind. As though she expected judgment from the handsome man, expecting him to pull away forced to stagger back inside in fright of her being. Holler at all the guests, informing them of her peculiar behaviour. 

“Right, well, let’s get to it.” William elbowed her own as encouragement. 

“Three!” She started.

“Two!” He continued.

“One!”

Two pairs of hands drowned themselves beneath the mud with a squelch, a giggle and part grimace. William kept the bones of his fingers stiff, as though little movement would result in less to clean, while Norah teased him by flicking more towards the sleeve of his crisp white shirt. 

“I’ve missed you. Thought I wouldn’t see you again.” 

No matter how many women threw themselves at William, persuading him with a wink of flirtation, no one would ever compare to his soft spoken Norah. By the roses blooming across her nose and cheeks he knew she was bashful of her own admittance. It would be a complete fib to even suggest he hadn’t felt the same way. All those months spent solely, cycling around Japanese streets, caused an ache in his heart only soothing at the sight of her. 

“I missed you too…missed that dazzling smile of yours.” He didn’t want to disrupt such a moment he had been craving yet the words seem to leave him without notice. “Nor, I understand I hurt your feelings before I...” Williams’s jaw paused immediately as the blonde girl interrupted him.

“Don’t be silly. You have every right to spend your time how you wish, Will. It was wrong of me to interfere.” To this day Norah feels tears boiling the lids of her eyes when reminded of her blunder. Back then she was so sure what she felt for William was more than friendship. Now not so much.

Norah thinks back to the moment she skipped from home, in the direction of William’s parents house, waving a neatly written letter between a dainty thumb and finger. Graciously dodging pavement cracks or puddles of gloom. Her heart grasping arteries, to ensure it won’t burst from within her chest, while streams of glee emanated off her limbs. Only to arrive at the sight of William packing up his belongings, some of her most favourite novels falling stray upon the thick of his suitcase. It only took a single glance from his baffled eyes for the young girl to begin spitting scenarios of a possible future. Consisting of her joining William on his adventures to the postponement of the trip until Norah had saved enough pennies. A prick of betrayal still accompanies the small girl whenever her mind re-watches her supposed love leave her behind. The only sliver of her memory encased in the envelope she’s slipped into his pocket. 

She felt a fool.

She feels a fool.

“Norah, I must apologise. I should have taken time to speak with you.”

“Will, nonsense. You have no reason to say sorry.” 

“I read the letter.” 

The pair stilled, mute after William’s admittance. Both feeling empty at each other’s push back. 

William had read the letter the minute he settled in his train carriage, following each sentence with the tip of his finger, and attempting to hear the words in the variety of tones adorned by his beloved. He almost screamed for the halt of the train, balancing his upper body from the window ready to dive out. A part of him envied Norah for her bravery to gift him words he hid between the insecurities of his head. Some piece of William disapproved of her timing, praying this was a sick joke, that she had waited until their goodbye to inform him. But most of all, William ached for Norah. Eyes buzzing due to withdrawals from her picture. Finger nails traced the indent of her emotion on paper near every night. 

“I hoped you would.” Sadness beamed from the soil of Norah’s eyes. 

“Norah? William? What on Earth! Take your hands from the mud this instant, we have guests!” The shrill of her mother’s voice only multiplied Norah’s pain. It seems even more deafening once William rinsed off his hands in the pond before standing with words of obedience directed toward the older woman. 

“Of course Mrs Beaumont, my apologies.” Followed was a tilt of his head at Norah, eyes begging her to comply, with a hand stretched out for her. Placing his now fisted hand in his suit pocket, at the nod of Norah’s rejection, while his legs sauntered back inside the overbearing house party. 

Norah’s palms, along with her knuckles, wiped streaks of mud across the peach of her dress. The blonde finding much relief as the expensive material bathes in disgust, tainting lace grooves. Once tensed shoulders drop when her head swings back, flitting eyes looking for answers in the now dimmed sparks of the sky. Norah calls for a star to move, swimming through night air, presenting her with a wish. A chance for change. Instead their gleam darkens turning, once rosy cheeks, grey in their stride. 

If the girl would spare a glance backwards, over to the all seeing window, she could catch William pining. Tall frame slouched with the knowledge of waiting longer for his love. 

Norah’s stance didn’t waver, her nose reaching for the night sky, as her lips tightened in familiar discontent. A single tear falling at the bud of clouds soon to cover her scene.