Finally the smoke cleared and I could see.

The beach was quiet and calming.

The smoke from the campfire had drowned my oblique view of the stars.

My thoughts seemed empty, chattering to one another about my uneventful day.

I had been lying here since midday and beams of sunlight had been caressing my face.

Julia had been here when the rain came down.

It had soaked her through; her face moist yet happy, her hair messy yet perfect.

I had sheltered her.

I loved her, every moment I was with her, the hatred I had for myself was forgotten.

Julia was still here now, just not in mind, her mind was now awashed in dreams, and she smiled in her sleep.

I touched my face to see if I was still there and I touched hers to see if she was real.

The stars and the moonlight made her olive skin seem porcelain.

The rhythmic crashing of the waves beside us made my eyes drowsy and I felt as though I were a baby being cradled in it’s mother’s arms.

The sand was cold but I didn’t care.

I held her, held her so tightly not even god himself could pry her away.

I felt myself shiver and was surprised.

With my head resting in the sand beside hers, collecting grains of sand in my hair, I wondered what we must have looked like to anyone else; a lovesick, pair of teenagers run away from home and sleeping on a beach.

There had been no one else on the beach all day.

The world had finally left us alone.

I looked into the horizon and felt breaths of wind flush my face.

The horizon seemed to be an eternity, stretching into unknown darkness.

While uneventful, the day had been perfect in every way.

For hours straight we had laid there, speaking little yet growing closer in body and mind.

She’d mention little things like; how enticing cherry cola was on a hot summer’s day or how religion was a disturbance of world peace or how she felt through every moment of an unimportant event.

I listened and with every word, I loved her al the more.

After many hours the day began to feel like a dream, a whirlwind of thoughts, opinions, memories and conversations that meant so little to the world but meant so much to us.

She always played with my hair, ever since the day we first met.

She ran her fingers through my spiked, dark brown fringe.

She’d always tell me that my eyes could inspire a nation of poets and writers.

Her description of them: chocolate brown with swirls of gold and amber surrounding the pupils.

They were an obsession of hers, it didn’t matter because I was obsessed with everything about her.

I looked at her face again, he smile remained and her cheeks were pink from the cold.

I closed my eyes and put my forehead to hers almost trying to enter her dreams.

She mumbled in her sleep and stirred slightly.

I moved backward again.

I loved her far too much to wake her, and yet I hated feeling left behind.

She’d left me here and fallen into her dreams, leaving no rope to help me climb in after her.

But I loved her far too much to disturb her dreams without invitation.

In confusion and love, I kissed her perfect pink lips and let out a sigh.

I quickly reminded myself that I wasn’t alone, that Julia was here and that she wouldn’t lie in dreams forever.

I stroked her silky, black hair and wondered how after being washed in rain, it stayed this beautiful.

I peered at her face again and suddenly felt immense panic, I had forgotten her eyes.

They’d been closed so long I’d forgotten their compassion, their mystery, their detailed interpretation of ‘Icy blue eyes’.

I felt as though my own eyes wanted to cry.

Pour out tears that would trickle down my cheeks and penetrate the surface of the sea causing tides to change.

I murmured their description over and over in my head until words lost all meaning.

Eventually I re assured myself that I’d see them in the morning.

I loved her far too much to awaken those eyes against their will.

So I closed my own eyes too, in the hope of joining her, with my last thought of her eyes in the morning.

Beside the crashing waves we slept together, the silence surrounding us echoing everything said that day.