Seeds

I was drowning in the molten of her honey-colored eyes. My body melting away, stripping me down to my very essence, intoxicated by her existence.

She was talking, I think. Her beautiful butterfly-shaped lips parted to show off the soft curve where her deep reddish-brown lips ombre to a softer wetter pink.

“Well,” she snapped.

My soul crashed back into my body. I reluctantly dragged my gaze away from her perfectly plump lips. She stood tall, one hand placed on her cocked hips, her long Goddess Locs framing her face falling just beneath the curves of her breast. My gaze grazed over every visible inch of her deep chocolate skin, and landed back on the rounded orbs of honey that missed nothing. Her eyebrow arched up as she shot me a knowing look.

“Are you checking me out,” she asked smugly.

I inhaled sharply and choked on absolutely nothing! Smooth. My coughs mingled in with her overly amused laughter.

“Are you okay,” she asked between snorts. She was actually snorting. I was doubled over coughing up my guts and she was snorting. I wanted to taste her joy.

I nodded frantically and held up an unconvincing thumbs up. She handed me her bottle of water our fingertips brushing against each other. An electric charge shot up the length of my arm and my heart lept towards her, desperate to be caressed by those same fingertips. Everything in me ached to close the distance. She removed her hands from mine and I bit back a whine.

“Try not to choke again,” she teased.

I rolled my eyes and brought the water bottle towards my lips. The scent of vanilla and shea butter filled my nose instantly. Was this what she tasted like? I shut my eyes and inhaled deeply. I was so far past drowning. My center began to heat, wetness pooling at my core. My tongue slipped past my lips and slid slowly along the rim of the bottle.

“Girl!” Acacia yelled.

I closed my hand reflexively, completely crushing the plastic bottle, and shot my eyes open, just in time to get a face full of water.

“What the hell are you doing?” She asked, confusion thick in her voice.

“I'm..” I started, water dripping down my face.

How did one even begin to explain licking a water bottle? How would I explain any of it?

“Why are you covered in water?” She hollered her laugh booming through the woods.

‘Water?’, I thought, “Had she not seen me lick the-’

I stopped in the middle of the thought, deciding not to question the universe's small mercies. I shook my head viciously trying to dislodge the memory from my brain and escape the embarrassment flushing my face. Letting out a loud exaggerated sigh I finally faced Acacia. Her eyebrows were pinched together and one corner of her lips kicked up into a cheeky smile.

‘Dear God, how could one person illicit so much damn…. Stuff,’ I thought ineloquently, ‘She might be a witch.’

“You know what I'm not even going to ask,” she laughed while shaking her head. The motion sent her Goddess Locs dancing freely in the breeze.

“Come on...”, she called, twisting her body away from mine, giving me an uninterrupted view of her sinfully delicious curves, “ ..our tree is just up the hill.”

I followed closely behind her, diligently tracking the sway of her hips.

“Did you think that little seed we planted would turn into this?” She breathed.

I stared at her. She stood with her head pointed towards the sky, her chest rising and falling in slow controlled breaths. She was inhaling life. Even the sun couldn't resist her, making love to her skin until I could no longer tell where her skin ended and the sun's rays began. She was glowing.

“What do you think?” She asked without moving an inch from her position.

“It’s beautiful," I instantly responded without moving an inch from mine.

She turned to face me. Her eyes studying mine speaking words that I could not translate but desperately wanted to understand.

“Let’s sit”, She said, breaking both eye contact and the thick silence that coated the air. She gestured to a patch of grass before our tree.

It was only then that I actually took in the view that had captivated Acacia. Our tree’s brown trunk had gotten much thicker than I last remembered, her branches stretching out winding in every direction full of broad green leaves. Compared to the other towering trees that littered the forest she stood alone at a medium-size, fighting for every bit of nutrients she could find. Fighting to inhale life. She was beautiful.

Acacia and I have known each other from birth, our mothers bonded in the hospital over the horrific miracle that is childbirth. During our eleventh year of life, our families decided to do a joint camping trip. Thinking our girl guide training had prepared us enough for the wilderness, we snuck away to go on a “secret adventure”. The adventure ended up with us getting lost for over 5 hours and a wicked ass whooping from both of our moms.

During our "adventure", we had wandered into this exact same clearing and sat in the exact same spot, exhausted, slightly afraid, and ravenously hungry with only a single pear to soothe the hunger.

“ I don't have a knife but we can take turns biting it,” Acacia offered after taking the first bite. She extended the pear towards me. I held the partly bitten pear and stared at it skeptically.

“Wouldn’t that be a second-hand kiss?” I had asked cautiously.

Acacia tilted her head to the side and pondered the question. Without a word, she suddenly gripped my face between both of her hands and brought our lips crashing together in a fast hard kiss. My brain went blank only registering the sweet taste of pear on my lips.

“There! Now it won't be weird!” She exclaimed, beaming a broad smile in my direction.

We ate the pear.

“If we are lost forever, we should plant this and live off pears,” Acacia giggled holding up the only thing left of our pear, the seeds.

“Let’s do it,” I laughed.

“Okay, but first we need to do a ceremony,” she demanded.

“What kind of ceremony?” I asked.

“Well, a promise ceremony. We need to put good thoughts and promises in the seed so it can grow big. So, let’s promise to always love each other and be best friends forever! Oh and that we will come back to this exact spot every 10 years and make new promises even after one of us dies. That way you’ll never get rid of me!” She teased.

I smiled broadly because I already knew I never wanted to get rid of her. I stuck out my pinky, Acacia immediately wrapped her pinky around mine and we kissed our thumbs, sealing in our promises.

I sat next to Acacia beneath our pear tree and smiled at the old memory. If we had been lost forever we definitely would have starved to death. It's been 10 years and for the couple of years that I've been coming to check up on it, this tree has never produced a single pear. I chuckled at the thought.

“What’s so funny?” Acacia asked me.

“Nothing,” I muttered playfully.

“Oh really? I thought you were laughing at the fact that you lick water bottles now,” She said nonchalantly .

My eyes bulged. If ever there was a time for the world to miraculously split open and eat a whole human, it was now!

I raced through all the words that I had learned these past 21 years throwing them together in incoherent patterns, “I, my, the, when you, how, your bottle”, and when that didn't work, I resorted to a barrage of painfully awkward sound effects.

Acacia responded by throwing herself onto the floor in a fit of laughter, beating her fist against the ground. I gave up on words at that point and just laid down next to her wordlessly, my hands folded over my chest and my eyes fixed on the branch hovering above me. When all else fails, play dead.

Acacia’s laughter continued for what felt like hours. While I embodied the human personification of mortified.

“For someone who was worried about second-hand kisses 10 years ago, you sure give no shits now,” she joked.

I laid perfectly still.

“ Don’t be like that. I told you, that the first kiss canceled out all weirdness. It’s fine,” she attempted to reassure me. I could hear the smile in her voice and pictured it in my mind. A small smile tugged at my lips.

“There. That's the woman I love,” she whispered.

My head snapped towards her only to be snagged in her concentrated gaze. The exact same type of look she had given me earlier. This time i broke the silence.

“Love?” I asked tentatively.

“Of course. Didn't we promise to love each other forever”, she asked rhetorically but I nodded my head all the same.

“So don’t you love me,” she asked.

My throat dried and I swallowed back a rough gulp of air. I nodded.

“Then why are you surprised? We are best friends. Of course, I love you,” She said plainly. The air deflated in my lungs.

‘Of course, she loves me', I echoed in my head, ‘we are best friends'.

I turned my gaze back up towards the tree branches carrying with me the splinters of my soul. I concentrated on the branches willing myself to calm. A bright golden hue peeked through the sea of green, my focus narrowed as I studied the colour intently.

“But also, I'm in love with you,” She said frankly.

Our tree had borne fruit.

“Love”, I choked out, Acacia’s words finally registering. My heart stood at the edge of my skin rapidly expanding and devouring me in its feelings.

“Love”, Acacia confirmed, nodding her head. She definitely was a witch. How else could she steal the air right out of my lungs?

“I've been waiting for 10 years to say this.... I love you more than anybody dead or alive and I want to be with you forever so I promise you my heart for as long as you’ll have me”, she professed with her hand on her chest.

I sat up, stared at her and said nothing. She shifted her eyes side to side growing visibly uncomfortable. My mouth opened and no words came out. She shifted her body and wrinkled her nose. I closed my mouth.

“Well?” she asked timidly.

I blinked once to confirm that I had not imagined the entire thing. When they opened she was still there perfect, glowing, and waiting on me. She moved to get up. I grabbed her hand, desperately willing my words to come back.

“I will if you will!” I shouted.

She smiled so warmly at me that whatever was left of my mind dripped away.

“Can I kiss you?” She whispered, her long lashes lowering.

“Please,” I breathed.

She brought her face slowly towards me, her eyes searching mine. The anticipation bringing me to the brim of destruction. She closed her eyes and gently pressed her butterfly-shaped lips against mine. Nothing existed but that kiss. Our lips and body gelled together, working in unison to find each other's rhythm. Her tongue swept gently against my bottom lip asking for permission to deepen our kiss. I obliged. Our tongues claimed each other fiercely battling for each lick suck and swirl.

A heady sensation washed over me. I was breathless and insatiable. I had been starved and chasing the taste of this fruit for 10 years. Now that I had it, I would devour each and every last inch right down to the seed.