December

outside the air was ice and the night was cold and glassy but we were liquid and neither of us paid heed the chill December whispering its end.

a smile trembled, lingering on the edges of my lips as tears began spilling down the flushed cheeks below my half-closed eyes.

i breathed.

i inhaled and my chest rose and the air around me moved through my nose and mouth into my lungs. i had done this.

i looked up at the boundless, glittering sky above and i was firmly posessed and spun around and shown magnificence of starlight.

i turned to her and we understood. and this was funny, so we laughed. we laughed and laughed until we were breathless.

we breathed.

we inhaled together and our chests rose and the air around us moved like a shining fluid. we were here.

inside we turned up the music loud and rested our eyelashes against our bright faces and breathed in the euphoria.

i did not have to look at her to know she understood. and this was funny, so i laughed and took her hand. and she took mine and we laughed.

i breathed, and she breathed with me.

outside, the world changed from December and she was gone. a smile trembled, lingering on the edges of my lips as tears began spilling down the flushed cheeks below my half-closed eyes. i was unrestrained and indefinate and limitless and cognizant that those tears had been the inevitable conclusion of our laughter...

i yet breathed.