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An hour to kill with the shirts on our backs, Artemis was driving Rosa home. The two have become close friends after bonding over their shared interest in the arts back in high school.
Specifically, Rosa liked music, and Artemis liked acting. So it worked out. The two started talking more frequently after the last year of high school ended, as they started going to the same college. They began driving around the small town’s forests a lot more, sometimes getting lost in them, and spending the rest of the day and night together. Sometimes, with their backs pressed against each other, they looked up at the setting sun. It became more common to pretend to get lost in the forest, away from society, just the two of them.
Artemis was a freak, and Rosa knew. She had been warned by her guardian not to hang out with her, she was too rebellious. Her strange but artistic choice of clothing only made her guardian more suspicious of the orange-haired girl.
It was getting hot in the car, maybe it was because the AC wasn’t turned on, or maybe because of the girl next to her. The weird girl next to Rosa, too hyperactive for her own good, too funny, too mean, too much of an enigma for Rosa. Even so, she was willing to decipher Artemis, with her own fingers, she would pull on her strings, to detangle whatever she was. Rosa was curious, and not in a malicious way, she just wanted to know more about the girl with a strong outer shell.
“Hey… Artemis?” No reply, the radio was too loud. Artemis’ head was bobbing to the music, not even paying attention to the road anymore. Her eyes were closed, and she was mumbling the lyrics of a 00s rock song.
“Artemis!” She yelled over the radio, making sure she was heard this time. They were almost home, and while living close to their favourite forest is nice, she didn’t want them to crash into a tree because of Artemis’ inability to focus.
“Yeah?” The girl side-eyed Rosa while searching for a good place to park in front of her house. The garage door wasn’t working, so for months, they had to park in inopportune places. Constantly getting complaints from Rosa’s guardian. Artemis was rightfully sick of it.
“I was wondering… well,” Rosa began, then faltered, tripping over her own words. She wanted to spend the night with Artemis, as usual, which was a completely normal thing for the two girls. She didn’t know why she was so nervous, what for? They’ve done it a million times, and they will do it a million times more. It’s just that, there was something about today that seemed different.
Artemis had done her makeup, specifically, she used a bright lavender eyeshadow. It was different, she never wore any makeup, in fact, she was quite vocal about disliking it. Not only that, but her lips were a rosy colour, like she used a lip tint. Was she going on a date? Rosa thought, scared.
She should be happy for her, really. Happy she had found someone, but she couldn't help but feel the profound sense of jealousy and sadness in her stomach.
“I want to stay more in the woods,” She mumbled, disappointed. “If that’s alright.”
Artemis grinned, her teeth stained from her coffee addiction, but her smile was bright as always. “Yeah!” She looked behind her and began backing up the car. “We can. Give me a second, this thing is as old as time, quite ancient in fact,” She talked about her car, which was truly quite old, it was a second-hand car that was used years ago. Then the driver got into an accident and decided to sell it. It wasn’t the smartest move to buy a car that almost got its driver killed, but Rosa trusted that Artemis had fixed it. Even if there were clear bumps on the door.
After a while of driving around town, they ended up in their usual forest, the kind of forest where you can see squirrels and bugs under logs, fallen trees, and rivers, overall a pine cone forest where the trees are so tall they act as a roof above the two girls.
Artemis stopped the car.
“Well, here we are!” As soon as she opened the front door, she took in a deep breath, savouring the clean air. “God, I missed this place, it’s been like, what? Six months since we were here?”
Rosa picked her bag up and slung it over her shoulders. “Yeah, we were here on Christmas,” she looked around the place, and gripped her bag. All she had inside were a few notebooks, as well as a sandwich and a camera. “It’s been a while.”
“It has,” Artemis continued. She clapped her hands, scaring a few birds away. She grinned at Rosa. “Well, let’s have fun now!”
After walking for what felt like a good while, Rosa felt her feet start to hurt, so she sat down on a log. Artemis quickly joined her and sat down next to her on the small log. They kept pushing each other playfully, jokingly calling each other names while giggling. That was until Artemis’ stomach had started to grumble, and she went as red as a beet.
“What? Are you hungry?” Rosa asked softly. She didn’t mind giving her sandwich to Artemis, after all, it was just a sandwich, and there were more in the car. They always come to the forest prepared, somehow, they always know when they will spend the next night together in the woods. It’s just a feeling they both get, it’s unexplainable, but so beautiful.
Rosa pulled out her sandwich and handed it to Artemis, who thanked her. Her stomach grumbled again, and she began eating. She seemed to be enjoying the chicken sandwich. She looked quite silly like that, and Rosa made sure to note this down in her journal.
She took out her camera from her small school bag, surely a picture wouldn’t hurt, it would actually be a silly addition to the journal. Alongside the dried leaves and the bird feathers, a picture of Artemis would fit right at home.
Artemis noticed the camera, and while chewing, she loudly asked what, but Rosa didn’t reply and just took the picture.
“Why’d you do that?” She asked again, and Rosa just shrugged.
“I figured I should start taking photos whenever we go to the woods, it’s a good idea, right?”
“Well, I mean, yeah.” She loudly chewed some more, “But you could always take photos of like, the actual woods,” she waved her hand around, trying to get her point across.
“Sure, I could, but your makeup looks good today”, Rosa smiled, and Artemis smirked.
Artemis stood up and gestured for Rosa to follow, and she did, of course, she did. They walked until the sun set, it would feel like ages in reality, but it only felt like a few minutes whenever they were together. This time, it was no different.
Artemis pointed at the setting sun and then at the river in front of them, at the reflection in the clear water. They could see some fish just drifting with the water, but those weren’t as important.
“Look, isn’t this place beautiful?” She asked Rosa with a smile on her face, and she found this place back when they first ventured into the woods. He couldn’t just forget it, no matter how much she tried. That was years ago, it was summer as well, and they were only freshmen on a camping trip. Well, Rosa was, Artemis was a sophomore back then. Times were different, they weren’t as close, but Artemis was sure they would become close, and she was right. She couldn’t imagine a life without Rosa next to her.
That’s why she brought her here.
Rosa sat down on the ground, putting her feet into the water. She liked that the water was cold, despite the scorching temperatures. She smiled at Artemis and nodded. “It is beautiful, I’m glad you brought me here,”
Artemis sat down next to her. She ran her hand through the other girl’s hair, ruffling it slowly, running her fingers through her short hair. She placed her hand on her shoulder and leaned in closer.
“Okay… I’m gonna do something now,” She whispered softly, “tell me if you don’t want it,” Rosa was shocked. Was this really happening? Was what had been keeping her up at night finally happening? She couldn’t believe it. She closed her eyes and trembled under Artemis’ touch. She wanted it, of course she wanted it, more than anything.
Then it happened.
It was a soft kiss the two girls shared, soft with a longing feeling to it, almost as if the two girls were yearning for each other, for a soft love only for them.