It was the last day of summer, a hot and humid day. The sky was alive with stars, glistening and twinkling in a way that makes you ache to reach out and touch them. I deep ache so strong you feel it in your very bones, the kind of ache that you feel when you look at the one you love, the ache to reach out and gently caress her cheek or press your lips to her lips. That’s why I felt that very same ache two times that night. When my gaze drifted down from the stars, my eyes caught something more beautiful than all creation. Her name was Genesis, and she was as lost in the stars as I was. She was looking straight up, absorbing the magic in the air. The look in her eyes was beyond description. It was longing, it was understanding, it was a desire for freedom, it was a feeling of being trapped, it was fear, it was hope, it was feeling small, and it was feeling larger than anything else in the world. I saw it all in her, I saw a whole world. Heaven was raining is magnificence down and she absorbed every drop. All of heaven was hers. All of the world was hers. My world stopped with her, and the way her eyes glistened in that moment reminded me why. Yet the perfection didn’t stop there. The way the moonlight danced on her skin and reflected on her soft curly blonde hair stole the breath from my lungs. She wore her hair tied back in a messy bun with bangs hanging in her face, keeping anyone from glimpsing those incredible eyes and the few freckles beneath them. Not tonight though. Tonight I could see every single detail of her soft, pale face. Tonight, I memorized the curl of her lips when she smiled. I memorized that twinkle in her eyes. I memorized the sound of her laugh and I memorized the starlight that she basked in. I memorized her glow. I memorized that feeling of ache right then, because that was the first time I felt love. I memorized everything about her and about that moment. When her stare drifted from the stars and on to me, I think she understood. I think she understood that I knew who she was; I knew what made her tick. . Yet I was frozen in place, stuck in my own terror and my own awe. She was much braver than I, something never more evident to me than that night. We stood there staring at each other. I wondered if she thought I was the world to her, which I decided was impossible. She wondered if I would ever kiss her first, which she decided was impossible. She confidently walked up to me, placed a single hand on my right cheek and kissed me as if it was the most natural thing she’d ever done…and I memorized the feel of her lips on mine.