"The Color Of a Smile"

Hey, everyone! I wrote another short story, and I really love this one. I don’t know about the rest of you, but when it is 12:00 in the morning, and I can’t get to sleep, I think about someone or several someones whom I love, and I write a story in my mind. I really love this one. I thought of it last night. I hope you all enjoy it. As always, the names have been changed for the safety and reputation of everyone in it. Also, the descriptions of the characters are not all accurate either, so for those of you who think you know who all these people really are, feel free to have an opinion, but you shall get nothing from me ;) Thanks all so much. Again, this is all totally made up. Absolutely fictional. Enjoy and thanks for reading. :)

The Color of a Smile

The wind blew my hair back and forth in front of my face. The sweet salty air brushing across my nose. I picked up my pencil and sketch book and began to draw.  The led colored a portrait of the open sea, tall rocks jutting up in the distance and seagulls wheeling overhead.

Butterflies danced in my stomach. It had been just over six months since I had seen him. Daniel. The only person who could just sit with me and make all my problems fade into the distance. A hand lighted on my shoulder and I nearly jumped out of my skin. A high-pitched laugh erupted behind me. I looked back. A curly-black-haired girl stood behind me. Her hazel pupils laughed and her dark smile made me return the same. I lay down on the sand and spread my arms wide.

“Hi, Jessica. You suck.” she giggled and leapt away when I reached toward her to pull her down beside me. “Is anyone else here yet?”

She laughed again. “Nope, just me. You’re gonna have to deal with it.”

I groaned sarcastically. “Awwww! But I wanted to hang out with the cool people!”

She plopped herself down next to me and shoved me down. “Meanie.”

A deep voice resounded behind us. “Hey, ladies. The party has arrived.”

I turned around to see a ginger-haired boy staring down at us, a funny grin decking his face.

“Wow. Humble much?” I asked, standing to embrace him. We all laughed.

“Where’s Daniel? Is he even coming?”

A thoughtful frown flashed across my face. “Of course he is.” ‘he always does’ My head voice muttered.

As if on cue, a boy strode down the beach toward us. His curly dark hair bounced on his head and his brown eyes gazed only at me. I left all the others behind, throwing my arms around his neck. He wrapped his own around me, enveloping me in that sweet smell like brown sugar. A sob escaped my mouth and a tear ran down my face.

“I knew I would see you again. I thought maybe you had forgotten me.”

He pulled me tighter, his light laugh vibrating my very being. “I could never forget you.”

I squeezed him so tight I wondered if he could breathe, but he just kept pulling me tighter. The others had caught up to us now, and though I knew this must look odd to Jessica, I never wanted to let go. He was mine, all mine and he would never leave me again.

He carefully took his arms away from me and settled with gripping my hand in his.  Together, with Alex and Jessica, we walked down to the water.

The time passed quickly and soon enough, Abby had to go. We waved her off, and Daniel and Alex flanked me. I put one arm around either of them and smiled, pulling them closer. They both draped an arm around my waist and we strolled to the ocean front. I sat on the blue towel I had provided for such a use. They both grinned and sat with me. Leaning my head on Daniel’s shoulder, I said, “I love both of you.” I felt Daniel turn his head to Alex, and they both nodded. “Good.” I said, finally. Alex stretched his arms and lay down on the sand and soon, with the sun setting in front of us, he was asleep, dozing in the warmth.

Daniel looked down at me and gripped my hand. “Walk with me?” he asked, cocking an eyebrow. I smiled and he lifted me up with him. He took me along with him on the beach after we wrote a note in the sand for Alex. We drifted on the damp sand, the water barely kissing our feet.

“I missed you.” I said. My hand which had been clamped in his, was all of a sudden released. I wondered if I had said something wrong, but then he scooped my back into his arm in a gentle embrace that claimed nothing of me but my presence. “Do you know how much you mean to me?” I whispered carefully, before I could stop myself.

He gave me a curious look and shook his head, a small blue smile starting on his lips.

I cautiously let go of him to drop to my knees in the sand in front of him. I scooped a handful of sand starting the letter “Y” I continued writing in the sand until I had finished. A swooping “O” and a curved “U” made their way through my head. Finally, I was finished.

‘You mean everything to me.’ was written in a cursive hand before his feet.

I sat behind it, looking up at him, trying to read his expression. Nothing. Then, all of a sudden, he grabbed my hand and pulled me up to him. Every bit of my body met his and he bent his head into my hair where he breathed the soft words “You mean more to me than you could ever know.”

A breath caught in my chest, and escaped in a quick exhale as he ran his warm hand over my back. He pressed his lips into my neck, starting on my collar bone and working their way up to my jaw, finally resting at the corner of my mouth, teasing me. I turned my face swiftly into his, and our lips met in an embrace. I fell backwards a little, and slipped, but he caught me up, holding me in his arms. His sweet smell enveloped me, and I wrapped my hands around his neck.

“I love you.” I muttered beneath my breath into his ear.

“I love you, too, Ellie.” My heart skipped a beat and yet thudded in my chest, more alive than I had ever been.

We broke away and he smiled that irresistible red smile at me, sliding his palm onto my lower back and leading me back down the beach. Something fluttered in my chest, and a tear dropped down my cheek.

This was why I needed him so much, why my mother had made the biggest mistake in misjudging him. He was the only one in the whole world who could make me feel as though I were something more than just another person passing the world by. He made me feel like he needed me even though I had always needed him more. I was hopelessly and desperately in love and that was something that you couldn't just tear away. You had to let love grow or diminish on its own.

Just as you had to let a bird learn to fly, or a tree grow.

I had to learn on my own what real love was, I had to learn all the colors of smiles.