Jessie. I always knew she was special; and I know that is super cliché and straight out of a 90’s chick flick, but it’s true. We had been friends for a long time, and I was drawn to her for some reason that I, no matter how hard I tried, could never name.
This day was no different as I began walking down the path through the forest towards her house. I felt a small vibration against my hand, which was in my pocket, and I ignored it. I know it is a text from her, but still I continued my journey. I hated the feeling of the cold breeze blowing my hair out of place, but I continue on through the small  path leading to Jess’ house. The leaves crunch under my feet, and the ones still left on the tree are brightly colored in an array of reds, yellows, and oranges (with the occasional dead, brown leaf). I trudge on, feeling the cold air nipping my heels as I do. It is getting colder as the sky starts to turn to beautiful shades of blue, orange, red, pink, and purple. The sun is low in the West, and the moon is clearly visible to my right. I keep going, admiring the scenery, and knowing that no picture could capture the real beauty of this moment, for not even a painting could do the sky any justice.
I arrive to her house after appreciating my surroundings quite a bit, and rap my fingers on the front door. I wait, looking at my own breath forming little, white clouds as it collides with the cold air. Then the door bursts open abruptly.
“Well it’s about d*mn time you show up, where have you been?” She playfully shoves me while saying this.
“Sorry, I was held up,” I say, motioning behind me with my shoulder.
“Oh, by what? You got a secret relationship that I don’t know about?” She laughs at her joke, and I join her.
“No not at all... It was just your land. It was beautiful,” I watch as she looks to me, giggles, and then flashes me a mischievous grin.
“I’ll show you someplace better,” She winks. “I mean where we  can get a better view of the scenery,” she says, taking my hand. Suddenly the cold night gets hotter as she leads me to the side of her house.
“Wait here,” she says as leaves me alone with my thoughts for a second before returning with a ladder. Propping it up against the side of the house, she starts to climb up.
“Um... Jess...What are you doing?”
She finishes climbing up the ladder before turning around and beckoning for me to climb up as well. I do eventually follow her, but with extra precaution every step up the ladder. It takes twice as long but eventually I am up on the roof with Jess.
“Be careful not to slip on the slate, you’ll probably crack your head open,” Jess warns me as we walk across her roof. She goes over to the chimney and reaches behind it, pulling out two sea-green bottles. Each has ‘Korbel California Champagne’ written on the label. She carefully retraces her steps towards me and hands me a bottle as she drinks from her own.
“A toast!” she says. “For trying new things and following me up onto my roof,” she takes a big gulp from hers, and I copy her. We make small conversation as we sit down on a flat part of her roof.
“The sky is pretty tonight” she says, swinging her feet off the edge of the roof and kicking them back and forth.
“Yeah!” I exclaim. “The sky matches your eyes, sparkling and full of stars.”
She smiles shyly and I take a good, long look at her. I haven’t really gotten to see her since she shaved half of her hair off last August. Jess has short lilac hair that curls nicely on the left side of her face. Her pale skin deeply contrasts to my dark complexion as we sit side by side on the edge of her roof. Aside from the color contrast in our skin, hers is covered in assorted tattoos, all very small except for the gothic cherry blossom sitting atop a rose that is tattooed on her back. My favorite of her tattoos is the semicolon on the right side of her neck, where her head is shaved. She has deep blue, nearly black, eyes that really sparkle when she talks about things she is passionate about. At this moment, they match the dark sky perfectly. She takes another drink from her champagne bottle.
“I never realised you saw my eyes like that. I’ve been told eyes are the window to the soul, and my eyes are black like my soul. So I suppose it’s true,” I laugh and a little champagne falls from the bottle and off of the roof.
“No your eyes are nice,” I smile. “And your soul matches your hair more than your eyes. I mean, not that your eyes are bad because your eyes are really great actually but black. Wait, not black...,” I start to feel hot and uncomfortable, what am I doing? I stutter and I get the feeling of heat behind my cheeks again, on the brink of uncomfortableness. I take a big gulp of champagne, and Jess was laughs at me the entire time.
“You’re cute,” she smiles to herself, and I blush.
“...what?”
“You’re cute... and I like you,” She flips her hair out of her face with her free hand.
“Um... okay,” I say looking straight ahead while taking two big swigs of champagne from my half-empty bottle.
“Well... what about you? Do you like me too?” She is looking at me now, her nearly empty bottle loosely hanging from her hand.
“Um... I think so. I really don’t know, I’m sorry-” I look back at her now, and she leans in. Her soft, small lips press against mine and that’s when I realise  something that changes my life, as well as my lifestyle forever. It would also appear to be the reason that none of my previous relationships worked out.
“Hey Jess?” I look at her and smile.
“Ashley?”
“I think I like you too”.