Work Text:
9
the way the doe eyes of her first best friend made her stomach fill up with a kaleidoscope of butterflies was nothing like the sharp headache she felt every time her friends would bring up their potential next husbands while pointing at the mud-covered boys who ran around the school park spewing incoherent sentences to each other. yves did not speak up, even at her young age, she had already learned that her feelings had to be kept hidden. that her emotions were filthy and unnatural. her mother had taught her that. her mother had taught her lots of things.
14
it was a thursday when yves saw two girls kissing each other, their love creating a soft halo around them (though, looking back yves thinks it must’ve been the sun going down and peeking through the dirty bus window). hands intertwined, red cheeks and gentle touches was all yves could see hours after getting off. she caught herself thinking about the halo as something holy, out of this world, but quickly hindered her train of thought with the various comments her mother had let on about this kind of behavior.
17
yves kissed the girl from her english class, the girl she was supposed to be tutoring was instead stealing kisses from the taller girl. still, she kissed back. and again. until she forgot all nouns, all verbs, all adjectives. the whole english dictionary flew right out the window into oblivion. the entire universe was locking lips with her. the kaleidoscope of butterflies was exchanged by colorful galaxies and millions upon millions of twinkling stars.
she was pulled back to earth when her mother appeared in the doorway screaming words she had searched too many times. everything was a black hole again.
21
the world shouldn’t be awake at this hour and yet yves is getting dragged to her apartment building’s roof at 5 in the morning by a girl she calls home. home is singing and laughing, yves can’t help but to look at her and hold home’s hand a little tighter. as the sun rises, home’s face glows, her smile brighter than the sun itself. the light surrounding chuu takes her back to the day she witnessed two girls kissing each other for the first time and for once the memory doesn’t sting. yves closes her eyes and takes a deep breath in. when she exhales the chains her mother’s words had left on her come undone. when she opens her eyes, chuu is basking in sunlight, hues of pink and yellow melding together as the sun takes its place. yves thinks it looks like a halo and this time she leans in to kiss her lover.