Graduation

I was a bit drunk but I’m pretty sure this is how it happened.

The beach. Photo taken by a friend.

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“What are you guys doing?” Georgia demanded in a half-hearted way, words slurring. I was aware that she was on the other bed, along with several others, but it was difficult to estimate what any of them could see - or how much they really cared. I didn’t bother looking. In my tipsy state, I almost wanted to be caught, but some shred of decorum obliged me to at least continue my adulations undercover, in this case literally.

Our heads beneath the hotel sheets, I continued nuzzling into Blake’s delicious auburn hair. Her curls were soft and as sweet-smelling as a garden in full bloom. I couldn’t help but smile as I inhaled her springtime. I kissed her neck lightly, drunk on more than just the “Party Juice” that had been mixed earlier that night in the bathtub of Ryan Feely’s hotel room. Between the novel delirium of alcohol and the gently intoxicating intimacies shared with the young woman beside me, I couldn’t say which was a headier elixir. My lips found an earlobe and nipped. I wanted to kiss her all over. Or maybe just her neck. I could wander that delightful terrain forever, kneeling to inhale the delicately beckoning flowers at every step in infinitely patient staccato. Everything was exquisitely soft: her skin, her ears, her lidded eyes, the sheets covering our bodies, the light filtering into our cocoon of newly discovered wonders.

Georgia’s words, however, had made Blake tense. She tolerated my affections for a few more moments, then pulled away gently. I froze, fearing I had crossed some unspoken line, the punishment for which would be, of course, utter revocation of all privileges with her.

“Let’s go for a walk,” she murmured.

I nodded, relieved. We wriggled out from underneath the blankets, feigning normalcy as much as possible, and slipped out of the room, going unnoticed for the most part. Georgia raised an eyebrow at us, but I doubted she would remember her skepticism in the morning.

We took the stairs down, exiting through the hotel’s side entrance. As soon as we pushed open the door, the whoosh of the ocean waves filled our ears. I felt giddy, swimmingly alive. The warm night was rich and exotic with possibility, in the way only the last night in an unfamiliar city can be.

“What should we do?” I asked, hoping I sounded more casual than coy. There were certainly at least a few things I wanted to do with her. Or to her. But this tenuous unfurling between us was made fragile by its newness, like a butterfly emerging from its cocoon. I wanted badly to cup it and caress its beautiful trembling wings, but I dared not for fear my eagerness would drive it away. So I waited, hoping its first clumsy fluttering dance from its shell would lead it to my cupped palms.

“Maybe this is just me, but I’m actually so hungry,” Blake said, her large green eyes smiling guilelessly up at me. I consulted my stomach briefly and found that it was not, in fact, just her.

“Oh my god, yes. Maybe there’s a pizza place that’s still open.”

“YES,” Blake agreed emphatically. “Pizza. Genius.”

We looked around stupidly, waiting for one to materialize nearby.

“Or we could walk on the beach and see what’s open?” I revised.

“Also good,” Blake nodded gamely, moving her shoulders and hips to an inaudible song. I grinned at this and joined her.

“I love this song!” I declared. For another minute, we danced to the tuneless sound of ocean waves and late-night traffic, then burst out laughing.

“Yeah, that’s a good one,” Blake agreed.

“Avici, I think?”

“Totally. Avici. One of his lesser-known songs, but still a banger.” We turned to the black horizon and started walking.

“Maybe that bar where we did karaoke is open.” Having been there as a class earlier that day, it was one of the few landmarks we knew.

“I bet it is! And I bet they have, you know, bar food or whatever,” I replied. “Like tater tots.”

“TATER TOTS. Oh my god, Maia, yes. Fucking tater tots is what we need.”

“Loaded tater tots,” I continued. Blake bit her lip and rolled her eyes in the back of her head as she moaned.

“Fuckk. I just came in my pants.”

I laughed, loving this night. Loving her. Saturated with uncontainable love. I slipped off my sandals as our feet sank deeper in the sand and Blake followed suit. The air was salty and fresh and cleansing. I took a deep breath, drinking the night.