The Prettiest Leaf

Another memory of mine

She walks like she is dancing, skillfully hoping over cracks and landing in atop a dry, brown, leaf that crunched out a song beneath the light weight of her feet. She skipped and twirled and spun ahead of him, her fall jacket catching the wind and lifting up and billowing behind her, struggling to keep up with her movement. Turning back to look at him, she smiled wide and beautifully. It was a grin that enveloped her entire body and lit up the whole world around her. She was like a beacon of light, always bringing him home.

            “Why do you do that?” he asked, always trying to understand the girl that never ceased to surprise him. She looked up at him with her big, seeing, eyes slowly letting his words sink in and allowing time for her own to form in her mind.

            “Do what?” she finally asked, with a smooth innocence to her voice.

            “Step on the leaves,” he asked, taking one step towards her. He looked down at her and into her eyes, waiting again as she processed the sentence.

            “Well, I don’t really know,” she said suddenly looking pensive. She lifted her foot and looked down at the splintered shards of the leaf she had just crushed. She looked up at him with wide, almost terrified, eyes. “You don’t think it hurts them do you?”

            “No, Baby,” he said. “Don’t worry. They’re already dead.” She looked down at the leaf and brought up one small, slender, hand to finger her lower lip. The light caught her mocha colored skin and she glowed beneath its warmth.

            “If you were a leaf, I wouldn’t step on you,” she said looking up and straight at him. She smiled at him and stepped closer, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling him towards her and even more fully under the mystic spell that she didn’t even know that her movements harnessed.

            “Not even if I was already dead and brown?” he asked, teasing a blush up onto her cheeks.

            “You’re already brown, Silly,” she laughed, raising a hand and placing it comfortably on his shoulder sending a ripple of desire careening through his body.

            “And plus,” she added. “If you were a leaf. I’d be a leaf, too. Sept I’d be orange all year long. And red at the tips and yellow at the center.”

She turned and looked shamefully at the pitiful trail of leaves she’d left behind her and then rested her head against his cheek. He lifted her chin with his finger, and he stared back at her silently. She had a soft smile on her lips, and she looked up at him as if she was seeing the entire world and all of its glory in his eyes. He loved the way she looked at him. The way she believed in him. Still, he couldn’t help feeling unworthy. Unable to stand it anymore, he closed her eyes with a kiss. It was soft and short and sweet. I love you. I love you. I love you. It said.

Then opening his eyes, still feeling the warmth her lips left behind, he somehow found words to break the silence.

“You’d be the prettiest leaf there ever was,” he said. 

Reviews

[Aravind]

Short and sweet :D

The ending was extra sweet :D I was out of my seat there ;)

[SheActsLikeSummer]

This is so cute. I love it. The way you describe everything is just so brilliant! I would say more but this keyboard is so loud and getting on my nerves. :P But I will say that in the first paragraph I would put 'her fall jacket catching the wind and lifting up, billowing behind her, struggling to...' a comma rather than an 'and'. I just think it sounds better and keeps the flow more steady. Anyway amazing job, keep those reading requests coming! :P