Pinky Promising Orion's Belt

"They are butterflies with their wingspans sawed in half and I want to join them in holy matrimony. Or not so holy matrimony, since I've always tired from plexiglass lectures given by those past-their-prime ministers. I expect those butterflies to lead me to the edge of the world, granted I have a map, but half-wingspan-butterflies get you there quicker. At least that's what he told me."

"What are you talking about Sarah?" she propped herself on grass kissed elbows and glared at my forehead, "I think you ramble too much."

"It'd be a good place to visit, Charlotte."

"You're right I'm sorry."

She paused to spread her threadbare arms along the ground.

"Are you inviting me there?"

"I wouldn't go without you," I said, twirling a smile against my lips and letting my hair become dampened by the tiny dew-star droplets.

"I'm glad."

"I love you."

"Of course you do."

She says this with a straight face and I try to restrain my laughter, "You're supposed to say it back."

She smirks, with love tapping at her cheeks and our friendship keeping her heart sixteen, "I did."

"Now who rambles too much?"

"Sarah, the girl who ties her hands to half-wingspan-butterflies."

"You'd come with me, right?" I ask as I look at my best friend and wonder if this is what it would be like to have a twin.

"I always wanted to see you in a wedding dress."

"Then you're out of luck," I look at the sky and I can see us dancing in September thunderstorms, "I'd have my wings by then and there wouldn't be a wedding."

I hear a thousand grass-fingertips weave through her hair and cradle her fall into the red-clay earth. She sighs and it sounds like a plink of water and I begin to worry. She only sighs when she's seriously thinking. I feel my stomach turn into an amusement park as the silence stretches into my breathing and I forget what oxygen tastes like.

"Sarah?"

I close my eyes because I could feel the tears grapple her cheeks and my lips suddenly feel splintered.

"Yes?"

"Promise me when we get to the end of the world, we'll still be best friends?"

"Do you know what's at the end of the world, Charlotte?"

My voice-box is filled with nails as I speak; I pry my waterfall eyes open and glance at her, "You."