We talked into the heart

of the night batting away mosquitoes, and

painting our toenails. Despite the heat

we drank hot tea, steam curling around our heads,

our words.

We laughed,

talking of our lives now and those past memories

we'd been afraid to speak of earlier.

Sharing secrets,

crying together in relief.

It was those nights we actually spent together,

the ones everyone assumes we share

always.

-

Slide into the bay.

An ancient oak, half-propped

in the lake weed, was our resting spot. The sheltered

glade we'd sit in when exhausted,

or to reapply the sunscreen that would just wear off

when we slip back in, anyway.

Burnt faces cool in the water, everything

just fades away.

There were no boundaries,

no holding back. Both on the cusp

of true adulthood, womanhood.

It was just her and me.

Me and her.