"WILL YOU GO TO PROM WITH ME?" 

     I was pretty sure I would need stitches from smiling this hard. "Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes!"

     Monroe stood from her kneeling position and grabbed my hips, swinging me around her. Breathless and dizzy, I clutched tight onto the lapels of her leather jacket. The sun warmed my face, or maybe that was a blush from the way Monroe was looking at me now. 

     Skylar cheered from somewhere behind us. I saw Aaron's phone flash━he was probably recording this on video.

     "I am so in love with you," Monroe whispered against my lips. "And . . . how was that for a promposal?"

     I grinned. May's goal was: The best promposal ever. Monroe had written on a poster, in beautiful cursive letters, a simple sentence: You have bewitched me body and soul. When I saw her at the end of the school day, she was waiting on the seat of her motorcycle, the poster on her lap. I'd broken into a run, and she'd knelt before me. 

     "You forgot one part," I murmured now.

     "Which one?"

     "The end of the quote. What Mr. Darcy says after that."

     Monroe smiled, a wicked curve to her lips, and I knew she'd been waiting for me to ask. I couldn't help it. Even though it had been around three months since we'd begun dating again, I never got tired of hearing the words.

     Especially when it came to her.

    "You have bewitched me body and soul," Monroe said. In a soft, relinquished voice,  she continued, "And I love, I love, I love you."

    "And?"

    The sun in her eyes made them glow, and the dark of her hair was haloed by the gold light. "I never wish to be parted from you from this day on."

    "I'd be swooning right now if I was a maiden in the nineteenth century."

    Monroe hoisted me onto her hips, my legs wrapping around her. "If you're not swooning right now, then I haven't done my job right."

    "Oh?" I teased. "What are you going to do about it?"

   She set me onto the back of her motorcycle, letting me slide my arms around her as she gunned the engine. With a glance back in my direction, she smirked and said, "Whatever it takes."

    I waved goodbye to Skylar, Cody and Aaron━who had been avidly observing━and Monroe took off from the school parking lot. 

    When we arrived at the destination, I said, "But this is━"

    "Home?" Monroe unclipped her helmet, and then mine. "I know. There's something I want to show you, though."

    "If it's your bed, I've already seen that. In thorough detail."

    Monroe leaned the motorcycle on its side, took my hand, and hurried me into Mr. Andersen's house. She didn't stop until we were up the stairs and in her room. When she finally let go of me, it was to turn on her computer and pull up the website for an apartment building.

    She was smiling now, but I still didn't get it. "Look," she urged me. "Look at what it says."

    "One-bedroom apartment, sold?"

    "It's mine." Patiently, she raised an eyebrow. "Look at it, if you want. That's where I'll be staying next year."

    The thought of Monroe at NYU filled me with dread, although I knew she'd be happy there. It was just that she was so far. A two-hour drive away, and what if she had too much schoolwork to come back for weekends? I'd only end up seeing her a couple of times a month, and I'd just . . . I'd miss her. So much. Too much.

    "Oh," I said, trying and failing to be enthusiastic. "That's so━"

    "Alright, look." She slipped her arms around me, hugging me from behind. She guided the mouse to the bedroom.

    That was where she would sleep next year. For the next four years. Without me. I tried not to cry.

     "Do you see that space on the wall over there? Above the bed?"

     I zoomed in with the mouse. I nodded, for fear that I might choke on a sob. God, I was so dramatic. She wasn't dying, but I wouldn't be able to hug her, and kiss her, and whisper I love you to her every day anymore. 

    "Look at it," Monroe said. The absence of her arms around me sent a chill down my back. She was now digging into her closet for something, and I had to chastise myself, because I missed her and she'd been gone for two seconds. "Now, look at this."

    I turned, and almost lost it.

    She was holding up a picture frame━so big it nearly dwarfed her body━and it was of us. That snowy day in January when Cody had taken a picture of us kissing on the train tracks. It was magnified by at least twenty times its original size. I could see the pink of our faces, the snow-flecked, wind-blown strands of our hair tangling together. I could see the way she cupped my cheek, her fingertips tinged in red, and the way I gripped her lower back. Pulling her closer to me like I might never get enough. We both looked beautiful in a way that seemed ethereal to me.

    "You . . . framed it?" Stay chill. Do not cry. 

    "I'm going to put it in my apartment, right above my bed. Okay? It'll be like you're marking your territory. No one will dare try anything, knowing how beautiful my girlfriend is."

    "Monroe," I whispered. My lips were trembling, so I pursed them together in an effort not to sob. "You didn't have to."

    "But I wanted to, Talia." She set down the massive picture frame and stood, arms outstretched. She didn't have to wait for long: I threw myself onto her, and we both collapsed onto the bed. I nestled my face into her chest.

    "I'm going to miss you."

    "We still have all of June, July and August. And May's not over yet."

    "I'm still going to miss you."

    She sighed against my hair and whispered, "I'll miss you, too."

    I buried my face deeper into her chest. "Ugh. I should've known you were a homosexual."

    She only laughed and hugged me tighter. "It'll only be for a year. You'll go to university, too. Maybe even NYU. And then we can share an apartment. Live together. Throw parties together, with dumb themes, like Seventies Stoners or Disney Characters. And we'll have all of the freedom we want, so we can━"

     "Have loud and extravagant amounts of sex, anywhere and everywhere?"

     "Have loud and extravagant amounts of sex, anywhere and everywhere," she agreed. "And come home to each other, every single night."

     I lifted my head off her chest and leaned in to kiss her. "I might kick you in my sleep."

     "I'm looking forward to it," she said. Every inch of her body was pressed into me. Her forehead was against mine. Her breath mingled with mine. She was as close to me, or I was as close to her, as another human being could possibly get. It wasn't enough. I loved this girl just as Darcy had loved Elizabeth, body and soul. Damn it.

     "It's going to hurt, not seeing you as much anymore."

     "I know."

     "I might have to call you. With outrageous frequency."

     She grinned. "Good. As long as you don't forget about me. Or go elope with Samantha Reyez."

     "Samantha . . ." It took me a moment to remember, and I felt guilty about that. Samantha had seemed so sweet on the phone. "Oh. Well. Maybe I will, if you don't come visit me often enough. I'll be off in Vegas before you know it, and my last name will be━"

    A challenging smile caressed her mouth. "Don't even say it."

   "Reyez,"  I whispered.

    She flipped me onto my back. I laughed━and then stopped, as she kissed me between my legs. Instantly, that familiar need heated my blood. I squirmed against her touch.

    "Take it back," she murmured, pulling down the waistband of my pants.

    "No," I moaned.

    With only my panties on, she trailed her fingers over the fabric. Eliciting soft cries from me. "Take it back, Talia."

    "Fine. I want━you," I breathed, closing my eyes as she continued rubbing. The friction made my back arch, my fingers clutching the bedsheets. "Only you."

    "What's that?"

    "I'm your girl," I continued. My breath caught in my chest, and she pulled my panties aside. Using her fingers to probe the wetness there. I whimpered. "Yours, Monroe. Oh, God. Monroe."

    "Tell me. What's my name?"

    "Monroe," I moaned. "Monroe, Monroe━oh."  The need inside of me built, reaching a peak, when she suddenly stopped. The absence made my hips writhe, seeking that friction again. Just one touch would send me over the edge. "Monroe Kingston." 

     She smirked. "I knew you had it in you, Talia."

     With one finger, she dragged my orgasm out of me. My eyes rolled back, and I clutched her forearms as my legs trembled on either side of her. She didn't stop rubbing until I was completely spent, my body limp in her bed. 

    "You know," she said, laying next to me. "Your June goal is to end the year with a bang. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

    "I'm definitely thinking what you're thinking," I said, rolling over. "But it's still May."

    "We should practice."

    "We should?"

    "We definitely should."

    "So what you did to me, just now? That wasn't practice?"

    "We need more practice."

    I straddled her hips. "You want to do that to me again?"

    "Can you handle it?" 

    I scoffed and began tugging off her pants. "Let's see if you can. You're going to bite your words, Kingston."

    "Never. I would never━"

    The moment I brought my mouth between her thighs, her words cut off. I smiled up at her. "Not so talkative anymore, are you?"

    She opened her mouth to respond, and I slipped my tongue inside of her. Her hips ground against the bed. Wordless ecstasy glazed her face. I made her bite her words, and afterwards, she took a nap with her hand between my breasts. A territorial touch. I placed my hand on top of hers, and I marveled at the fact that this was possible. If I'd never come out, if I'd never accepted I liked girls━and only girls━I could've never experienced what I had right now. A girl who loved me, who was infuriatingly beautiful, in a bed beside me. After we'd just fucked each other senseless for two hours. I was fooling myself, believing I could ever be happy with a boy. Especially when love with a woman felt like this. 

     "I want to have your babies," I informed a sleepy Monroe.

    "That'd be a medical miracle," she mumbled, her eyes closed.

    I mussed her hair a bit. Why was she so beautiful? "I'm going to tell everyone I'm having your babies."

    "Okay, but only if I'm having your babies, too. How many metaphorical children are we going to have?"

    "I can't do math. But probably at least two."

    "Okay." Monroe pulled me closer to her. I breathed in her citrus-and-pine scent, and it felt like coming home. "At least two. But they have to have cool names. We need our babies to have cool names. Like Slayer and Napoleon III and Artemisia."

    "We need to have a serious discussion about your idea of a cool name. Napoleon III? Seriously? I can deal with Artemisia, after the 17th century artist, but not Napoleon III, the former president of France."

    "Artemisia is the name of our first baby, then." Monroe's voice grew softer and softer. "What's our second?"

    She fell asleep before I could answer. Her chest rose and fell, a gentle rhythm. I whispered, "Angel."

***

Okay, one more chapter, because I'm a whore for my fictional characters.

From the moon and back,
Sarai