A Thousand Boy Kisses(16)

Taking hold of her hands, I kissed the tip of each finger and made myself stand. I helped Poppy get to her feet and pulled her into my chest. I wrapped my arms around her, keeping her close. Her sweet scent drifted into my nose. I vowed to remember exactly how she felt in this moment.

The wind grew stronger. I broke our embrace and took hold of Poppy’s hand. In silence, we began walking down the petal-strewn path. Poppy rested her head on my arm, tipping her head back to take in the night sky. I kissed the top of her head and heard her sigh deeply.

“Have you ever noticed how dark the sky is above this grove? Like it’s darker than anywhere else in town. It looks jet-black, but for the bright moon and twinkling stars. Against the pink of the cherry blossom trees, it looks like something from a dream.” I tipped my head back to see the sky, and a smirk tugged at the corner of my mouth. She was right. It looked almost surreal.

“Only you would notice something like that,” I said as I lowered my head back down. “You always see the world differently to everyone else. It’s one of the things I love about you. It’s the adventurer I met when I was five.”

Poppy tightened her grip on my hand. “My mamaw always said that heaven looks however you want it to look, you know.” The sadness in her voice made my breath hitch in my throat.

She sighed. “Mamaw’s favorite place was under our cherry blossom. When I sit there and look out along the rows and rows of trees, then up at that jet-black sky, I sometimes wonder if she’s sitting at that exact tree up in heaven, looking out along the cherry blossom trees just as we do, staring at the black sky above just as I’m doing now.”

“I’m sure she is, Poppymin. And she’ll be smiling down at you, like she promised she would.”

Poppy reached out and captured a bright-pink cherry blossom in her hand. She held it out in front of her, staring at the petals in her palm.

“Mamaw also said that the best things in life die quickly, like the cherry blossom. Because something so beautiful can never last forever, shouldn’t last forever. It stays for a brief moment in time to remind us how precious life is, before fading away just as quickly as it came. She said that it teaches you more in its short life than anything that is forever by your side.”

My throat began to close at the pain in her voice. She looked up at me. “Because nothing so perfect can last an eternity, can it? Like shooting stars. We see the usual stars above us every single night. Most people take them for granted, even forget they are there. But if a person sees a shooting star, they remember that moment forever, they even make a wish at its presence.”

She took in a deep breath. “It shoots by so quickly that people savor the short time they have with it.”

I felt a teardrop fall on our joined hands. I was confused, unsure why she was talking about such sad things.

“Because something so completely perfect and special is destined to fade. Eventually, it has to blow away into the wind.” Poppy held up the cherry blossom that was still in her hand. “Like this flower.” She threw it into the air, just as a gust of wind came. The strong bluster carried the petals into the sky and away above the trees.

It disappeared from our sight.

“Poppy—” I went to speak, but she cut me off.

“Maybe we’re like the cherry blossom, Rune. Like shooting stars. Maybe we loved too much too young and burned so bright that we had to fade out.” She pointed behind us, to the blossom grove. “Extreme beauty, quick death. We had this love long enough to teach us a lesson. To show us how capable of love we truly are.”

My heart fell to my stomach. I swung Poppy around to face me. The devastated look on her beautiful face cut me where I stood. “Listen to me,” I said, feeling panicked. Placing my hands on either side of Poppy’s face, I promised, “I’ll come back for you. This move to Oslo, it won’t be forever. We’ll talk every day, we’ll write. We’ll still be Poppy and Rune. Nothing can break that, Poppymin. You’ll always be mine, you’ll always own half of my soul. This isn’t the end.”

Poppy sniffed and blinked away her tears. My pulse raced with fear at the thought of her giving up on us. Because that had never even entered my head. We weren’t ending anything.

I stepped closer. “We’re not done,” I said forcefully. “For infinity, Poppymin. Forever always. Never done. You can’t think like that. Not with us.”

Poppy lifted onto her tiptoes and mirrored my stance, placing her hands on my face. “Do you promise me, Rune? Because I still have hundreds of boy-kisses that I need you to give me.” Her voice was timid and shy … it was racked with fear.

I laughed, feeling the dread seep from my bones, relief taking its place. “Always. And I’ll give you more than a thousand. I’ll give you two, or three, or even four.”

Poppy’s joyful smile soothed me. I kissed her slow and soft, holding her as close as I possibly could. When we broke apart, Poppy’s eyes fluttered open, and she announced, “Kiss number three hundred and fifty-four. With my Rune, in the blossom grove … and my heart almost burst.”

Then Poppy promised, “My kisses are all yours, Rune. No one else will ever have these lips but you.”

I brushed my lips against hers one more time and echoed her words. “My kisses are all yours. No one will ever have these lips but you.”