Another brilliant piece from a GUNNAS WRITING MASTERCLASS writer.
In the corner of the garden by the dying pine tree is where she kissed me for the first time. I was all shaggy hair and awkward limbs and a heart full of want but too tongue tied to try anything.
I stood watching her carve something into the tree, trying to slow the rapid pounding of my heart. She sighed heavily and reached up to tie her hair in a haphazard ponytail. Her shirt lifted as she raised her arms and revealed the smooth tan skin of her hips and lower back. I prayed to a god I didn’t believe in that she’d let me touch her skin. She turned around, as if she’d heard my thoughts, and looked at me with those green-gold eyes that made my chest heave.
“It’s your turn, Eddie,” she said. I blinked.
“What?”
“It’s your turn.” She motioned to the tree. I stared at the place where she’d carved her initials inside the shape of a heart. My heart leapt into my throat.
I took the pocketknife from her and began to carve my initials into the tree. I felt her hand on the small of my back as she watched me, and it sent a jolt of white-hot heat through my entire body.
I finished carving and turned around to face her.
“Now what?” I asked. She stared back at me. I felt the hairs all over my body prickle as her eyes locked on mine. Slowly, she reached up and cupped my face in her hands, her thumb gently brushing my cheek. As she slowly moved towards me, I slammed my eyes shut – people always close their eyes in the movies and I didn’t know what else to do.
My heart smashed against my rib cage, and then I felt her lips on mine. She kissed me. Oh god, she kissed me. She tasted like the apples we’d stolen from the orchard next door and the wine we’d stolen from my fathers cellar and of every day dream I’d ever had. We stood in the corner of the garden by the dying pine tree and she kissed me and kissed me and kissed me until I was backed up against the tree and bark was digging into my back and I was breathing in nothing but her and swearing I’d do anything at all if she’d just let me hold her.
S. J.
+
E. K.
“It’s you and me, Eddie. You and me forever,” she said.
Our initials are still carved into that old pine tree. I still go out there and think about her sometimes. But she’s gone now.
Long gone.