The swing set creaks as we all sit down, a row of three, passing a joint between us. The girl smiles and I catch myself staring again. We sit in silence for a while- until she breaks the silence

"I'm Maddie by the way" she chuckles, flicking the roach onto the ground, where I watch the flame struggle to survive the puddle it landed it- it fails. I stare at the distant suburb lights and let the high take over my brain, and before I know it- I'm blank, my mind is blank, and I can't feel a thing. All the sounds fade to a low hum and I feel like I'm underwater, like I'm drowning- because drowning is actually beautiful- and peaceful. I want to feel peaceful all the time- so I smoke all the time. Damn im a low life- eh, doesn't really matter.

        The sun sets as Damien attempts kick flips on the bumpy pavement, the silence between me and Maddie is deafening, and I barely thought It through before my mouth was forming words

      "So Um do you go to school here?" I ask

    "No I got kicked out" she laughs. I take a once over, looking her up and down and she looks like the most suburban princess in the world.

      "Where do you live?" I mutter, half hoping she wouldn't hear me.

      "Up on the north side" she rolls her eyes and lights another cigarette. "It's hell on earth man" she sighs and chews her lip. I look away and feel her eyes burning through me. I jump up and walk over to Damien, grabbing his hand and trying to teach him to do a kick flip. Maddie just looks at us as the night grows dark and the park grows silent and I wish I would die right now, because nothing can be better than this. Everyday of my summer has felt good, but now with this beautiful girl laughing along with us, I feel like this might be the best night of my life.

We run down the empty streets, each street light a checkpoint, a safe place- safe from all the monsters that lurk in the dark. Safe from all the monsters that lurk in my mind. Maddie pulls out a Polaroid camera and starts snapping pictures, ominous and beautiful, me and Damiens shadows stretching across the pavement below the street lights and starry night. We get too my house and my dad is already gone to the bar, we sit and watch the tv for a while- were not really watching the show, were just watching the screen move. We head to my room, where I turn on music and light a candle, me, Damien and Maddie are all huddled onto my bed, me and Maddie knee to knee. Damien takes off to the bathroom and I stare into the eyes of Maddie, a girl I didn’t know a few hours ago, and now I can’t stop imagining her as my wife.

“Your beautiful” I blurt, my eyes softening as I study her face.

“So are you” she smiles, grabbing my hand with hers. She leans over and kisses my forehead, and from that kiss, I feel more love than I ever have in my entire life, and for one second my fears disappear. I’m not scared that no one will love me back, I’m confident that I will spend the rest of my life in love with this girl- and if I’m lucky, she’ll feel the same way.