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“Hey, Jonesy, you know what we should do?”
The comfortable silence between them breaks for the first time in what feels like hours, and Darcy’s got a glint in her eye. After five years of companionship, Tara knows that that’s hardly, if ever, a good sign.
“Do I even want to know?” Tara retorts. Darcy’s got her head resting on Tara’s chest, with their hands interlaced and draped over Tara’s stomach, and they’re laying on an old crossbarred blanket of Darcy’s so they could stay out to watch the sunset and stars tonight. It’s nearing summer, and the sky was clear and blue tonight, and their GCSEs are nearing their end—finally—they felt like they deserved to take a night away from it all. “Don’t answer that, actually. I don’t think I do. You’ve got that look in your eye.”
“I have a look in my eye?” Darcy exclaims, propping her head up from Tara’s chest and resting back on her free arm. “Hello, you haven’t looked at my eyes in ages!”
“I don’t think I need to,” says Tara, smug. “I know you!”
I know you. I know you. Suddenly, Darcy’s grateful that she’s the one lying on Tara’s chest and not vice-versa because her heart gets sent into the kind of frenzy where it skips a beat or two and flutters relentlessly from just a couple of words; the sort of thing that only Tara has ever caused. Tara, who’s nothing short of perfect in every way imaginable—Tara, who always smells like lavender and the morning after a spring rainfall, and whose lips always taste like her sweet cherry lip balm (the one Darcy used to hate the smell of in primary school, but nowadays would be lost without getting to smell it every day); Tara, who’s unfairly pretty, and honey-sweet, and graceful, and soft, and pretty much everything Darcy’s not; Tara, Darcy’s goody-two-shoes girlfriend, who would never dare suggest to sneak up onto the roof of their school with her girlfriend just to watch the sunset…
“Hello? Earth to Darcy?”
Darcy snaps out of her haze and blinks up at Tara once, twice, slowly. “Sorry,” she says sheepishly. Tara’s the only person in the world who could ever render her sheepish. Frankly, it’s a little embarrassing sometimes. Tara doesn’t seem to mind, though.
Tara quirks an eyebrow down at Darcy, who’s resumed her place comfortably nestled into Tara’s chest. “Well, what was it you wanted to do?” She asks, mindlessly carding her hand through a few strands of Darcy’s hair.
“You said it’d be a bad idea!” Darcy exclaims, nudging Tara with her shoulder.
Tara only laughs. “Well, sometimes your ideas are a bit…”
“Brilliant?”
Tara laughs even harder. “Maybe try a little outrageous.”
“Outrageous!” Darcy exclaims again, huffing. “Oh, I’ll show you outrageous, Jonesy.”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m sure you will,” Tara says gently, waving Darcy off and glancing up at the sky. She’s got this way about her that even her teasing Darcy feels nice, sweet. Like home. Darcy has never felt more at home than she does in Tara’s arms, her own intertwined with Tara’s soul, their hearts beating together as one.
“It’s really too late now, anyway,” Darcy says softly. She leans up and glances toward the sky. The sun is far deeper on the horizon now than it had been a few minutes ago. “I thought since we’re right near Higgs, we could climb up to the roof and watch the sunset from a little bit closer. It’s setting now, though.”
Tara looks down at Darcy, who's still staring at the setting sun. Her light eyes are sparkling in the blazing pinks and purples of the sky. She cracks a smile at Darcy. “That does sound fun…” she says softly, but her voice tapers near the end. “I don’t really want to get in trouble.”
“Well, who’s going to stop us?” Darcy challenges. “All of our professors are gone home.”
“The police!” Tara exclaims, but her voice is hushed.
“Oh, please,” Darcy says gently. “You know I’d never let you get caught. I’ll take the fall.”
“You’re ridiculous,” says Tara offhand, but then she gingerly pushes Darcy off of her chest so she can stand up and dusts off the back of her legs. A change of heart. Darcy just glances up at her, perplexed. “Are you coming, Darcy?”
A beat. “Where are we going?”
Another. “Well, where do you think?”
Darcy’s eyes light up. “Really? Even if the police come and catch us and take you away forever and ever?” She challenges, quickly pulling herself up to her feet and absentmindedly dusting off the back of her legs.
“You told me you’d take the fall. I trust you.”
I trust you. Darcy tries to bite back a smile but ends up rather miserably failing at it because the corners of her mouth pull up on their own, and her eyes crinkle a bit, and Tara has to hold back a giggle at the sight. Darcy holds her hand out. An offer. Tara reaches out and intertwines their fingers. Acceptance. “I’ll lead the way.”