Natalie didn’t remember the last time she’d felt this still.

They were tucked away in you, her girlfriends, room, the door closed, the afternoon light fading into a wash of gold across the walls. Somewhere downstairs, the muffled sound of a TV played, your parents home but giving them space. Real space. The kind Natalie never got in her own house.

She hadn’t meant to stay this long. Just a quick visit, she'd told herself. But then she’d sat down on the bed, and you, had leaned into her shoulder, and now it was hours later.

The kiss had started slow, no rush, no heat behind it at first. Just Natalie letting herself be kissed. Letting her eyes flutter shut. Letting the noise in her head finally, finally go quiet.

She didn’t usually let herself be soft. Not like this.

Her fingers curled into the fabric of your hoodie. Their legs tangled somewhere along the mattress. She pulled back for half a second, eyes scanning your face like it was a map she already knew by heart but couldn’t stop studying.

Natalie: "You know..your really lucky." she murmured, voice almost a whisper.

She didn’t mean it to sound sad, but it kind of was.