My breath was hitching in my throat, daring not to spill a bit. As the wind blew harshly against my hands, dashing with as much speed as I could kick up.
      Panting I cut a corner, my heart I left behind in my chase, it couldn't keep up.
      My legs carried most of the burden, as they trekked as fast as they could, until they could no longer hold their pace.
    My chest was burning with excitement, it hurt, but so did the rest of my body, the pain was an accomplishment. And I was writhing triumphantly in it.
      "Come on you nana! You're slow!"
   Squinting my eyes at his insult I jumped the ladder to the factory, and hopped onto the roof.
         I'll show him slow. Cutting him off where he raced, I shoved him hard onto the cement beneath him.
          "I..was not...expecting..."
   Looping his leg to entangle with mine he dragged me down. Our faces nearing a hard collision, but he caught me with his eyes. I lingered over him, enraptured by his stare, and his arms wrapped tightly around me. Smiling, I kissed his forehead tenderly. "That." Laughing at his terrible timing I rolled over next to him. He was still filling the air with his amusement and I couldn't help but join along. "What did I do?" He questioned smiling wider than the horizon, amazed by it I toppled onto my right shoulder and watched him.
  
"You're being you. Which is a bloody idiot."
 
        "I beat you fair and square you're the one that cheated!"

       "Oh please that little shove at the end was out of celebration. I was glad for you Stone, don't you believe me?"
  
       "I always believe you Grant, but that! You're a filthy, terrible liar!"His stomach flattened in his inhale, bewitched, I kept my admirable silence.
It was Wednesday, and every Wednesday we'd race one another to the abandoned factory. And the loser always had to confess something, last week it was Stone, and so was the week before that.
      
    I just think he wanted to get a lot of things off of his chest, but today it was me.
     And I had almost forgotten of all my memories from my time, but little by little they came clustering back to my elated mind.
     Tossing me the gold coin skillfully, Stone jumped to his feet, and pulled up a chair.
    "Alright loser, spill. You better make it good."
      Actually floating back down to reality, it didn't even take time to click.
    I spoke before I thought, it became a habit once I met you.
  The cool silence cradled me.
     Swayed me back and forth, and up to stand beside him.
         "Alright. I've never kissed anyone before."
    I was expecting laughter, an 'are you serious' facial expression, but he modestly smiled.
     "Well aren't you going to poke fun at me for never kissing anyone? I mean everyone back home does.
        It's either I'm too pretty, or too ugly, or too male to be female. Nonsense really."
     I trailed off lowly in the distance. Staring recklessly at the dozens of people walk by, so oblivious to our actual existence way beyond them.
      "What's there to poke fun at exactly? Change is within the mind, the body, the actions initiate it. All things, can be changed. Nothing doesn't have to remain the same if you wish for it not to."
     Squinting my eyes in confusion, Stone's presence became overwhelming. I could only take parts of him in doses, he was such a beautiful drug, and I was afraid. That I'd overdose and lose myself completely in his time.
  Because quite honestly I never wanted to leave.
      I suppose we were the two runaways, him from home, and I from my time.
    We were surviving perfectly on our own, money wasn't a problem. Ever since Stone got a job at his uncle's aviations mechanics shop, and the money he saved from when he lived with his parents.
       He didn't want me to work, he liked me at home, discovering the world that surrounded us, and together we cooked, we cleaned, and we lived harmoniously.
        It's my feelings that were growing stronger and stronger that prohibited me, from admitting how much I truly cared for him, and all that there was in this new life.
      We went on adventures, and made new friends, we kept a low profile, which never ceases to raise the suspense of our rebellious acts in the cities.
      All of my life I depended on my parents to keep me wholehearted, smart, vigil, humbled, but most of all happy.
        I didn't have to ask for permission  anymore, I could leave freely without the constant dread of the consequences.
    It's been almost a year since I've been on the run with Stone.
     And as he stood plainly in front of me, as I dazed out into my troubled mind I realized that I had left behind Eliza. She must've had her baby by now, she must've returned back to school with a swollen belly and a battered self esteem.
     She had to present the project without me, she had to figure out how to   overcome the pain without me.
      I had abandoned my cousin, for my own selfish needs.
     But how could this be selfish if I have no way of returning? Is it because I haven't been searching? I've become one with this time, in this world, one with Stone?
      "Thinking can be used as an escape, but it can also become a prison." I was drowning in my sorrowful mind, and he knew, he knew everything.
     Lifting my chin up with his delicate finger, he held my face with both of his hands, in search of my eye contact. "What are you thinking about? What is it that is bothering you? Tell me."
   "I've already confessed. I suppose the next time I lose I will tell you." I had to keep the reality away from the world we had created for ourselves. I had to keep Stone away from the dark which is contradicting, because to be away from the dark you have to keep to the light.
    But the secret I had baring was already enough to drive me mad.
Our eyes held on to one another strongly, and the silenced air cooled me over.
    He spoke of not a word, and neither did I.
    But my mind was throwing words at me every second as my eyes trailed off to behind him, and to the side of him, and finally at him.
When I felt the softness of a kiss graze my lips with ease, and passion. I felt myself stumble in his grasp, as he caught me in the midst of a mental meltdown.     
      And he was fighting the war with me, pulling him closer to me I felt my heart quicken in fear of ever losing him.
   But of course in reality I knew, I knew some way the evil hands of fate would snatch him away from me.
Just not now, I thought. Don't think of that now, love this. Love him, and live this, enjoy it.
      And so I did.