New Story! Kinda...
The girl lay with her pale pink dress splayed around her like a parachute around a fallen skydiver. Her hair fell in soft, gold tendrils around her face, resting against her flushed cheek, intricately twined in the tall grass beneath her. She was both breathtaking and breathless, her hazel eyes sparkling. Her muscles burned pleasantly and her throat ached, but nothing could quell the joy bubbling up inside of her. She could feel her heart beat thrumming through her body, radiating heat from her skin. The stars above her sparkled with the same force that seemed to be flooding through her veins. She was giddy until her eyes clouded over with confusion, her thin brows furrowed, wrinkling her delicate complexion. She took her lower lip between her teeth and chewed it lightly, a habit she’d had since she was young. Her fingertips glided along her dress, dancing through the fabric, moving up to touch her lips. Her eyes widened and a smile slid safely onto her face. Memories of just moments before flooded her mind, filling it up, spilling over onto her face. Her entire body practically vibrated with a nervous, excited energy. She knew that eventually she’d come down from the natural high she was experiencing, and that reality would hit her like an oncoming freight train, but at that very moment, she didn’t care. About anything, really. All she cared about was that moment. It was unlike her. She was typically a young lady of planning, etiquette, dignity. But she’d never felt more alive than she had just minutes before she collapsed in the middle of the grass. She replayed the memory over and over in her head, memorizing every second of it until it overwhelmed her senses. This wasn’t how she was supposed to act and maybe it was wrong. Maybe what she was doing, what she was feeling, was some kind of crime. Against who, she didn’t know. But she couldn’t deny the pure, unadulterated joy that was overpowering every other feeling in her body. Her heart leapt. She was finally acting like the girl she’d always felt she was.
Just an hour ago, she was different. She was composed. Her hair was pulled up with just a few curls escaping to trail down her neck. Her dress was, in a word, perfection, each individual thread woven into place. Her smile was the same mysterious smirk that she’d spent at least a year perfecting in front of her mirror. Not a single mark marred her skin, her fingernails completely clean. She walked with grace. Her shoes were practically strangling her feet, but she didn’t show it. She took on a practiced ease as she walked through the room, sharing smiles with the familiar faces. This was what she was supposed to be.
The manners, the rules, they owned her. Everything felt so forced. In what some found to be beauty, she only found chains and restriction.
She didn’t let herself dwell on the thought too much. She wanted to shed her shoes. She wanted to run. She wanted to scream. She wanted to let her hair fall down to her shoulders, spilling down her back. She didn’t care for dresses or for manners. She didn’t care for rules. She ached for freedom with every cell in her body.
She was supposed to attend the dance. She was supposed to do exactly as she was told and smile her way through the night. But something happened that made her change her mind about doing as she was told.
She felt a warm hand brush her own, fingertips gently tracing her palm and she turned to meet sapphire eyes. Her lips betrayed her, turning upward just slightly too far, revealing a real smile for an instant before being quickly contained. Delicate fingers brushed her own, pleading. She nodded her head almost imperceptibly and the warm digits left her own.
She excused herself, perhaps a bit too quickly, trying to bottle her excitement. Her dress flowed around her long, toned legs as she walked briskly to where they normally met. She tucked a loose curl behind her ear, feeling a nervous fluttering in her stomach. Her hands shook at her sides and she swiftly wiped the perspiration from her palms onto her pale pink dress. She could almost hear her father’s voice ringing through her skull, chastising her for her reckless actions. Her steps began to slow as apprehension set into her stomach. Should she turn back? What is to become of her if she keeps walking?
It wasn’t anything new, really. She’d done this before. And she’d almost been caught on more than one occasion. So why did she feel so scared this time? Granted, she was always nervous. But this was… different. The air around her crackled, thick with promise. Of what, she wasn’t sure, but that didn’t stop her from soldiering forward to her destination.
A warm hand reached out and grasped her upper arm. She spun, ready to deliver a blow to her attacker’s jaw only to realize who it was. Her face went from blind panic to a warm, relaxed smile. Too relaxed for her mother’s taste, no doubt.
Instantly, she felt arms encircle her waist and she threaded her own arms around her “attacker’s” neck, intertwining her fingers through their hair. They tucked their face into her neck and she felt lips smile against her lightly powdered skin.
“I missed you,” came a muffled voice. She squirmed slightly at the tickle of the vibrations against her skin.
“I missed you too. It’s been a while, I suppose,” came her reply, fingers still threading in and out of her partner’s hair.
“Far too long for my taste.” She snorted at that.
“Ten minutes is too long for your taste,” she retorted, smirking. Her partner pulled back, their striking, steely grey-blue eyes piercing easily through her own warm hazel. Her breath froze in her lungs at that. No one knew her like this person did. Chills ran up her spine as she felt a warm hand brush a tendril of honey gold hair away from her cheek. It was strange to her how so many people put their hands on her shoulders, ask her to dance, looping their arms around her waist and yet none of their touch felt the same. No one could elicit these kinds of physical responses in her. No one took her breath away like this. No one else sent chills up and down her spine, raising goosebumps on her arms, making her skin flush.
“Well can you really blame me?” they asked, their lips raising at the edges. “You look positively breath-taking tonight.”
“I… Thank you,” she replied, her voice barely above a whisper. She’d heard the words all day and night long. So many people had thrown them carelessly at her, marveling at the flow of her dress, the glow of her skin. But their words lacked this sheer sincerity. They lacked the warmth, the life that she so craved.
She felt herself leaning toward the sparkling blue eyes before her, wanting desperately to drown in their depths. Her tongue darted out to wet her increasingly drying lips. A hand moved to her cheek, cupping it lightly as though worried that the slightest movement would shatter her fair complexion. Her own hands climbed upward, knotting into the thick hair at the base of her partner’s neck. Slowly she felt tentative lips brush her own and she was consumed with a hunger. It overpowered her, sending her heart thumping at a frenzied pace, her fingers to grip tighter, tugging on the hair tangled between them. Their lips met again. And again. She was intoxicated. She couldn’t get enough…
“Dianna?” she heard her mother call. “Dianna, where are you?”
Fear flooded her veins, freezing her into place.
“Run,” a voice in her ear spoke, barely more than a whispered breath.
And she did. She took off, letting her legs carry her as quickly as they could, kicking off her shoes as she went. Her breathing quickly became labored and she laughed carelessly, forcing her legs to move quicker, testing her own speed.
And that’s how she found herself here. A girl who’d just experienced something forbidden. Her first kiss. Her first set of kisses. She could taste her lover’s lips against her own and she savored the feeling. This is what she wanted. This is what she so needed. Nothing else, no one else, would fulfill her like this. And in that moment, she knew she was in love. Truly, deeply, in love. And nothing her mother did, no words her father could speak, would ever take that away from her.