By Emma Stokes, TIWP Student

I don’t have to say a word and neither does she. Her eyes sparkle like the stars that we watch together and I understand. Every sparkle means something more complex than the spider webs that she’s so afraid of and yet often runs into but each sparkle means the same thing. Each sparkle doesn’t speak but says she loves me. No more nights sleeping in flower fields half-awake mumbling. She loves me, she loves me not. Everything I see those gorgeous eyes smiling at me and telling me they love me I could jump in and drown. A tragedy surely but all romance is a tragedy. I know she’ll save me because I know she loves me. She won’t let me forget and I don’t think I could. The words she said were practically shaking in that parking lot and she meant it. “I love you” that’s what she told me. Those words are carved in my brain in the same way our initials are carved into that tree in the back of my elementary school. I have the proof, the evidence, she loves me no more hand brushing, no more awkward hugging that lasts far too long. I have the proof in every look, every kiss, every shirt that I’ll never give back to you. She loves me and I love her. That’s all I need. We have each other no matter what and I love her more than the coffee I obsessively drink.