Long Summer Night

The sky twinkled with stars. Even with the full moon, the stars shined brightly against the perfect black sky. We walked for hours before the sun had even set. Our hands brushed against each other at first, then met and intertwined. Our conversations took us in circles around town and time flew by.

Now we sat on the curb in the starlight. Far in the back streets, into the early morning hours when no one was awake. Only the silence of night joined us.

“Do you ever talk with your eyes closed?” I leaned back with my hands behind me propping me up. Alli’s head in my lap.

“What are you talking about?” she was probably looking up at me, her blue eyes shining with starlight.

“Like this.” I looked down at my lap where I felt her hair spread on my legs, but with my eyelids still closed.

“So it feels like there’s nothing else in the world but our voices.”

“Let me try.”

I peeked down to see her eyes closed, her face lit up by the stars. She looked like a princess out of a fairy tale. Her dark hair pooled below her in contrast to her pale skin. I closed my eyes again and lifted my face to the sky.

“Do you feel it? Its like everything falls away and its just us here. Like we are just voices floating in space.”

“Feel this?” she pinched my nipple.

“Gah! Yea, kinda like that.” I rested my open palm over her face and looked down at her.

“I don’t get it. But, you looked adorable just looking up at the sky with your eyes closed in thought.” She lifted my hand off her face and slowly intertwined her fingers in mine.

I kissed her hand and closed my eyes again.

“Maybe someday you’ll get it. We’ll try again later. It’s nice having just us here.”

“It is nice. I wish we could stay here forever.”

“I do like this curb.” I patted the concrete with my free hand.

“Look!” Alli lifted her head off my lap and released my hand.

I opened my eyes to her sitting upright next to me, eyes up at the sky, hand pointing high out in front of us. I saw the star-filled sky, the bright full moon, but nothing else we hadn’t seen earlier.

“What?”

“It was a shooting star! You can have that wish though. I have everything already.” Alli wrapped her arms around my waist and dove her head into my lap again.

“What about staying here forever? I thought that was your wish? What about our lovely curb??” I drummed by hands on the curb for emphasis.

“Naa, I think I’ll just stay on your lap. You can decide to stay on the curb or take us to the top of a rain forest waterfall or maybe a nice hot spring.”

“So it sounds like you do have a wish.”

“No, just some suggestions. The rest is up to you lovey.”

“Alright, I get it. Let me divine the proper wish from the universe.” I twisted to the side and cupped Alli’s face with my hands. Her eyes were like two crystal balls, an intense blue made stronger by the starlight of the night.

I saw our whole day replay in her eyes. The joy of reuniting with a great friend. The nervous tension of brushing against her hand, debating whether to grasp it. The relief and elation when she squeezed my hand back. Floating in that elation through our walk around town. The nervous tension returning when she leaned in to kiss me in the parking lot. The explosion of emotion that froze me in place before I pushed her against the truck and merged my lips with hers in a sloppy mess. The new feeling of adoration for a friend that had turned into something more.

“I wish for this moment to inspire an endless string of more just like it.”

Alli blew me a kiss from down on my lap.

“So sappy. I guess that means we can leave our precious curb. Shall we go make a new moment?”

We stood up from the sidewalk and brushed ourselves off. The moon was lower in the sky now. Trees partially blocked the light shining down on us as we walked down the street, our steps took us through alternating moonlight and shadow. Our hands swung together in a playful arc and we started skipping down the empty street. The silence of the night broke as we giggled out loud, our wild motions activating some motion lights of nearby homes.

We made it back to the parking lot where Alli parked. It was empty save for her truck. She ran ahead and leaned into the driver side door. She stood on her tip toes to reach something inside, then music began to play from the speakers. She rolled down all the windows and danced back to me. I picked her up and spun her around, set her back down and we hopped on the pavement dancing to the music. The moonlight was our spotlight in the open parking lot. The stars shone brighter and the angle of the moon seemed to laser focus on us.

Our dance ended in a tight embrace that led us back into the the car. With the windows rolled up, a fog quickly obscured everything outside. Condensation rolled down the glass as the light filtering in changed from white moonlight to the yellow sunlight of early morning.

We were awake piled on the passenger seat as a car rolled into the parking lot. We froze grinning at each other trying not to burst out laughing, imagining what this person was thinking seeing a fully fogged up truck sitting the middle of an empty parking lot at 6 in the morning. We heard the car door close and looked through the fogged passenger window. There was a figure separating from the car and it started moving towards us.

“He’s coming! He’s coming!” I whispered urgently pushing Alli up.

“What?? Why is he-?? Whatever, let’s get out of here!” Alli laughed pressing her palm into my face to lift herself off me and into the driver seat.

She started the engine. I cranked the A/C as she hit the windshield wipers and pulled out of the parking lot.