It was a good thing I was sitting closest to the water, otherwise Mitch surely would’ve fallen in. His hand shook, reaching for mine. I took it and squeezed hard. He remembered how to breathe, and looked at me. Light glinted, reflected in the whites all around his chocolate irises. “You see them, don’t you?” I asked.
An incredibly slow nod.

He was, for maybe the first time ever, reticent. What I wouldn’t have done to hear his thoughts.

“They’re…beautiful. Luminescent.”
“Maybe that’s why they lit it up,” I mused. “People who can see them. Maybe they lit up the city so those who couldn’t see would be as awestricken.”
Mitch looked at me, drunk in the romance of it all. He was strangely calm. I was surprised at how well he was taking all of this. Very relieved I was, to have someone with whom to riddle this out. I smiled back, so in love…
But then he started giggling. “What a pretty dream…”

My smile fell. “No, Mitch, this isn’t a dream!”

“Yes. Sure.”

And again, I felt like crying.