I was walking home one day and someone called out from behind me. I turned around and it was my crush. I just smiled; we would occasionally hang out, maybe watch a movie, get some ice cream, study for a math test. We walked to my house together; I lived just down from my school so it wasn’t too out of the way. I was walking up the stairs saying my goodbyes when I heard a, ‘wait’. I turned around and as I did, she kissed me.

I breathed in, and I breathed deeply.

She noticed.

This was a piece of my life that for the first time, I felt like was mine again. This wasn’t that distant nine year olds anymore. For these few awesome seconds, I was me again.

I breathed in.

I breathed out.

It was all I could do to contain the piece of me that came back, that unearthed itself, that began to sparkle in all that darkness.

I breathed in.

I breathed out.

I breathed in.

I breathed out.