limerence

I just wanna get high with my lover
Veo una muñeca cuando miro en el espejo
Kiss, kiss
Looking dolly, I think I may go out tonight
I just wanna ride, get high in the moonlight

-"Moonlight" by Kali Uchis

They drove up into the hills to the spot where they'd once watched the Fourth of July fireworks on a sweltering summer night nearly a decade ago. The valley below their feet was a carnival of dotted lights. Grey wisps of cirrus clouds glinted from the light of the three-quarter moon. 

She sat perched on the hood of the car. He leaned forward, fishing his vape out from his jacket. She'd always hated his habit, the perpetual carton of cigarettes tucked in his pockets. She thought about making a comment about how at least he no longer coated his lungs with tar, but swallowed the words. She had forfeit the right to make those comments years ago.

In an alternate life, maybe she would have stayed. But they'd each chosen paths that shut the doors on others, until the crisscross of alternative timelines withered off the vine. 

He exhaled beside her. A sweet scent rose into the air. 

He caught her staring in his periphery and turned. His eyes met hers, placid and impossible to read. Minutes passed before he moved. Maintaining his gaze, as if daring her to stop him, he settled his left hand over her right hand, palm down on the hood of the car. The calluses on his palm brushed against the back of her fingers, enveloping her in warmth. 

An errant cloud floated across the moon, casting shadows across their faces, granting a moment of privacy. His thumb stroked the back of her hand in a lazy rhythm as he watched her, like a panther with a tail swishing in anticipation. 

 In an alternate life, maybe she would have looked away.

She shifted her hand under his palm until their fingers were interlaced together. Without breaking eye contact, she raised their interlocked hands to her mouth. Her breath exhaled as she brushed his skin against her lips in a ghost kiss.

All at once, they were sixteen and seventeen again, intoxicated on the fumes of first love.