Elián;
I smile at the thought of how frequently she's been smiling and laughing these days, and her voice suddenly breaks the silence.
"Thank you."
I turn to her in confusion and blink with a berry halfway to my mouth.
"Huh? For what?" I ask confused, but she doesn't answer.
Instead, she looks at me… And smiles.
I freeze.
Because I have never seen this smile before.
Not once!
It isn't teasing… or sharp… or mocking…
This smile is soft. Warm… Beautiful enough that it catches me completely off guard.
For a moment, she looks younger somehow. Lighter.
…Like someone removed years of pain from her shoulders.
I blink, completely entranced, and she looks away from me again, and back at the starry night sky.
"Before I met you, I stopped believing in people." She says quietly, and my heart falls immediately.
"I stopped believing in kindness… I stopped believing in goodness… Everything," she adds with a faint laugh woven beneath her breath.
