Baby, Lie With Me Underneath The Stars

Baby, let’s lie beneath the stars tonight. Let’s take nothing but ourselves and a blanket, and disappear into the woods as night falls to that stretch of green where no branches cloud the horizon. Let’s lie on our backs with our hands laced together and let the darkness swallow us.

Let’s pretend that just for tonight we are the only two people on this earth.

Let us just be here, in the open air so we can revel in the way our bodies feel pressed together, and you’ll nuzzle into the top of my head that way you always do. I’ll rest my cheek against your chest and listen to the calm melody of your heartbeat as you whisper into the night all of the things these sun-lit fields do not allow.

We’ll talk of the years which stretch ahead of us now and make big plans; we’ll laugh as we talk baby names and weddings more extravagant than either of us will ever be able to afford. We’ll argue about the location of our first apartment and hear the excitement mirrored in each other’s voices as we imagine ourselves there, in London or maybe somewhere by the coast, tangled up in the sheets drinking coffee and reading the newspaper together.

It won’t be perfect but it’ll be ours.

I’ll hold on tighter to you as you speak of this next month when I’ll be leaving to go to college, and I’ll try with every piece of strength I have to push the tears to the back of my eyes but fail. We’ll speak of the phone calls and the travelling and the texts we promise to send and I’ll begin to feel myself slipping, falling, coming undone. I’ll pray for the darkness to swallow us, for the world to just stop spinning, just for a second.

Just so we can have this time beneath the stars.

You’ll press your lips to my head and whisper “let’s be quiet now” before you just hold me. I’ll relax a little, fold into your body and close my eyes. And I’ll try to remember it all, your scent which has become a drug to me and the smoothness of your hands against my skin, the sound of your voice and the way my name is spoken softer than any other word which leaves your beautiful mouth. I will feel the cool air brushing past us, hear the rustle of the trees in the distance and you, your heart, racing like the wind, just like mine.

Because though your strength is admirable my darling, your heart cannot lie. You feel the pieces breaking away from you just like I do.

So just for tonight, just so we can hold on to this, just so we can find comfort in the fact that no matter where we are, no matter how far we may be from each other, no matter how empty the space beside us feels, the night’s sky will always look the same.

And that star, the brightest one, it’s shining for you, for us, for our love.

And it will be there, always.