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In the snow-water streams dancing over dark mountain stones, Max saw her. The way the wind would sometimes howl outside her of the way the other girl laughed. Sweet, low, and like it was the only sound in the world.
In the friendly hugs of people she'd met earlier that night, Max felt her. Warm, tight embraces that smelled of summer air and long, wild nights reminded her of how it felt to be in the same room as the girl.
Exciting. New. Rare.
In the singing of her friends to their favorite song during a sunset drive to nowhere, Max tasted her. Cold coffee and sun-baked sweat lingered on her tongue long after she was safe in her own bed. No matter how hard she tried, she could never fully describe how the girl had really tasted- not with any justice. But that was a good substitute.
All of it, all thousand moments of fall were spent with the girl in mind. The smile in a goofy laugh of one of her friends. The eyes in the dark night she snuck in to. The heartbeat in the music of a stranger she’d met that day. The singing. The jokes. The lips. The hands. The sighs. The power. The girl.
And then the thousand moments were up, and it was time to finally meet that inspiration again. Share the same breath. See the same room. Max, normally so comfortable with herself, was nervous. Unsure. Did she look okay? Act causally? Was it just her, or did the room smell weird?
It was actually a surprise when she first saw her. In the beginning of a sunrise, Max met her friends on a field where dew soaked their feet and coffee hung low in the air. Max's mind broke when it drifted across the horizon and landed on her, tan and freckled like summer herself.
Straight out of a cliche, her heart panicked and her lungs forgot how to fill. Skin flushed red and hot. Fingers instantly slipped with nervous sweat.
There she was. Her summer, her muse, her daydream, her-
Max stopped herself when the girl looked in her direction, hoping the girl would interrupt her. She was ready. She felt the words rise up in her throat, the laugh building in her stomach, she imagined the grin across the girl's face, how she’d float words into the sun-breathed air and trace circles with her fingers and Max felt those late-night eyes trace, over, her, skin-
And then glance away.
Look away.
Stare away.
They were avoiding her. Her. A laugh went up in the group of friends that was standing with near girl, circling and cawing like a starved vulture.
THEY all stared at her, every gaze but the one she wanted tearing apart her skin to reveal crumbling bones underneath.
She never knew what they laughed about, but it wasn’t rare. And it became quickly obvious it wasn’t going to stop- not ever.
Always laughing. Always ridiculing. Always hurting.
But the girl?
Never even bothered looking.