As we climb into the trunk of that little black car, I can’t help but feel a swelling inside me. I curl up next to you, wrapped in blankets and pillows that I haphazardly threw in last minute. It all seemed messy and rushed in my mind, but now it’s all brushed in an aura of beautiful imperfection. You place your arm around me, tentatively at first, on the slight curve of my lower back and we both just sit in the comfortable melody of breaths and ocean waves crashing on rocks not far below us. I just watch as the waves come and go come and go, back and forth like a seesaw, entrancing like the kiss you’d pull me in for. And before I can brush the hair falling in front of my eyes you’re pushing it back for me, ever so gently. Kissing my cheek, kissing, kissing my jaw, teasing me until you reach my lips. It feels so right. Like warm honey, melting in my mouth. The sweetness isn’t overwhelming it’s just enough. And your arms are pulling me closer. White tied t-shirt pressed against yours, until safety is now a tangible object. Until comfort is arms and lips and soft sighs in between. It’s the sound of people living, of kids running and screaming in the distance, of a ship docking at the marina. Sounds that would normally make my mind race, from tire on gravel, to splashes of fishing lines in water, to the rippling effect of stones. Moments that would have me thinking, always thinking and running from thought to thought. But it’s like I’m paused in time. You make it all stop. Until I can’t hide in my mind anymore. Until I’m empty in the best way imaginable, free from suffocating weight. Like my mind has taken flight for a day trip so I can finally enjoy every second in the passing. So I kiss you back, slowly, holding on to these minutes where I am nothing more than someone completely at your will. I’ll let my hands find the spot where your hair ends and meets your neck; I’ll let them wander because I need to be found. And maybe I’ll be there tucked away in your collar or somewhere in the length of your back. While once subconscious that others might pass and dismiss us as mere infatuated youth, now I want everyone to see. I won’t pull away when I hear footsteps approaching, or voices nearing the road before us. I won’t pull away because I’ve never felt more alive than in this very moment. So if they want to belittle a story in the making, skin bursting with energy and sunlight, two people falling madly in some sort of trance; let them. I will not give into their stifling glances, I will not fall back into numbness when the answer is touching me, is holding me, is giving me everything I’ve ever wanted. And we’ll stop eventually, but my mind is still in a drunken state from soft, sweet kisses. So I’ll lay entangled in these blankets and your embrace. Our bodies will fit perfectly like the puzzle I spent too long trying to finish. The sun will set, it gives us a final dance of burnt oranges and royal purples, and I’ll see it all in the reflection of your eyes. Because I said I wanted a pretty view and you. But it turns out the view was you. The view is anywhere where you are too.