i knew she could sense my uncertainty

by the way she beamed at me in encouragement.

“you don’t have to know yet, Sora-chan.

you aren’t determined by a label.”

i nodded.

even so

i liked knowing

i hated guessing

i hated moving according to emotion

i needed reason,

a method to this madness

they call life.

we waited a while until the rain tapered off

then braved the open and half walked, half jogged

across the grass to the road.

as we came to our parting

Midori grabbed my hand

“will you be fine walking home?” she asked

zipping up her rainjacket that i was wearing

and tucking my hair into the hood.

“yeah.”

“maybe...

this friday

we could...

i mean if you want to-”

“Midori,

i’ll go on a date with you,”

i replied laughing but

beaming wide.

and she smiled back

and i couldn’t get the image of it

out of my mind

the whole way home.