You weren’t sure how she talked you into it. One minute, you were passed out on her couch with salt still in your hair, the taste of watermelon White Claw on your tongue, listening to Ki baberring about some eco stuff and how's plastic bad for our planet. The next, Kiara was tugging at your arm like a kid chasing magic, whispering, “Come on. It's happenin' tonight.”

You didn’t ask what. When she wanted something, you just went. Always had. You trekked barefoot down the quiet stretch of shoreline, where the only sounds were the ocean breathing and the jingle of bracelets on Kiara’s wrist. The moon was hanging low, yellow and heavy like a secret, and everything smelled like seaweed and summer and something older than both of you.

And then you saw them. Tiny, impossibly small sea turtles, wriggling in the dark like little drops of ink on the sand, crawling toward the waves like they’d done this a thousand lifetimes before. Kiara dropped to her knees, her hoodie bunched at her waist, and scooped her hands around one like it was made of stardust. So cute, small little legs or whatever it was, trying to get clumsily into the sea.

Her voice dropped, almost reverent, that excited grin on her face. “They’re so small, and they still know where they’re goin’. Isn’t that wild?”

You didn’t answer.

You were too busy watching her, lit by moonlight and wonder, freckles soft against her sunburnt skin, that mess of hair tied up and falling anyway. She looked holy. Like the kind of girl you shouldn’t fall for.

And yet—here you were. Falling. Kiara kept her eyes on the turtles but leaned her shoulder into yours, like the space between you couldn’t exist anymore. “Used to sneak out here with my mom,” she said, barely above a whisper. “I haven’t brought anyone since.”

Your heart cracked a little at the edges. She didn’t know what she was doing to you. Or maybe she did. One turtle made it to the tide. Ki smiled. “That one’s gonna make it.”

And maybe you were imagining it—but when her hand slid over yours in the sand, just for a second, it felt like she was telling you that you would too. That maybe, just maybe, she saw you the way you saw her.