Stars

This is part of a writing project shared with a fellow blogger. You are assigned a word. Just one word, and you have to write whatever comes to you based on your assigned word. 

My word is Stars. 

I remember night swimming with you

In your apartment complex pool

With beers packed into a bag, and fresh boxes of cigarettes

We'd walk through the thick summer night and make small talk

Until we got to the gate of the pool and I had to jump it

You held your arms out to catch me

My childish giggling rising up into the inky night sky

Evaporating in the humid air

The water was warm as a bath left sitting too long

Rivers of water running soft as silk down my arms from my hair

And your face as pale as the moon.

You exhaled smoke in thick plumes and craned your neck back to stare upwards.

"I hate this city." You'd whisper "You cannot see more than 5 stars at night."

I looked up too and counted the stars we could see easily aloud 

Eleven

You laughed and said 

"Ok, then you cannot see more than eleven stars at night."

I was determined as always to prove you wrong

Not so I could be right

But so that you might see some beauty in this place

So that you might realize how much you're missing

So that you might want to stay here.

In the end it was me that always left

Walking barefoot to my car, my swimsuit dripping a trail on the ground

Little drops of water shining like Hansel's breadcrumbs in the moonlight

So that you might follow me

So that you might find me

So that you might, just this one time, ask me to stay.