You Belong in the Wildflowers

Glorious summer and vivid yellow dandelions. For me, the combination was like peanut butter and jelly, movies and popcorn, Joel and Myself... It is meant to be together. Without one the other isn’t at its full potential.
I sit in the grass, the dandelions I plucked placed in a neat line in front of me. The sun has began to drift lower in the sky producing a dimmer light which I enjoyed more than the harsh piercing rays of the afternoon. I centralize my focus on knotting together the dainty blooms into a crown. I connect each flower which eventually creates a loop to fit around my head, but I set it aside to make a second ring. The sticky air doesn’t bother me, the mosquito bites I'll have on my legs are worth it. Worth it for time spent among the wildflowers, where I feel free.
"Glen! I brought you something," My best friends voice is the only thing that could break my concentration; If it was anyone else they could have been screaming my name and I wouldn’t have noticed. Joel lowers himself next to me and hands me a deep purple popsicle. I smile and accept his offer, happy to see the boy.
"Blackberry flavored," he tells me "Aunt Rosie is getting kind of crazy with her homemade popsicle flavors..." he chuckles. The woman loves to cook anything and everything, I happen to love eating anything and everything, but especially popsicles. The flavors progressively get more interesting with every trip to Arkansas, they are always amazing and taste of summer to me.
"I'll eat them even if she decided to blend up cupcakes and freeze it in popsicle molds," I lick the frozen treat bursting berry flavor.
"Now," he points to me "that would taste awesome."
We watch the setting sun in silence, perched in grass and abundance of flowers.
I savor my ice pop, letting it melt onto my tongue coating it with flavor. Joel however, takes bites off after only a few licks and finishes when mine is halfway gone; teenage boys...
He starts picking from the colorful flowers next to him, setting them on his knee.
"What are you doing?" I peek over him
"Making you something." is all he answers, then shifts his concentration to tie the stems together.
"Well I made this for you," I place the crown of yellow hued flowers over his hair. The sunlight hit his hair turning it to a radiant golden color, reflecting off his brown eyes making them brighter than the dark shade they usually appear as. Joel was perfect. In every way I thought he was utterly perfect.
His lips curled up into a soft grin and he placed the other crown I made onto my head of light brown hair.
"I was trying to make a bracelet for you but..." he holds out two straggly flowers that were knotted together and a few others that had begun to lose their petals from lack of gentle hands.
I laugh and turn to face him better.
"You have to be gentle, and get flowers with longer stems."
Our knees were touching, both sitting with our legs criss-crossed. Being so close to him, my nose picked up the scent of his breathe, "Why do you smell like pumpkin?"
"Your popsicle was blackberry," I continue to tie the stems together between us "And mine was pumpkin spice"
"Aw, I wanted to try that one. Rosie said she only was going to make one batch." I look up at him , his eyes were no longer focused on the technique I was demonstrating but deeply looking at me. He never looked better than that moment. Even when he offered to take me to prom as friends and I saw him in a suite for the first time, even when he spent an hour getting ready for the bands first show, never did he look better than right then. The sun highlighting all his sculpted facial features and that look in his eyes was different than any way I had seen him look at me before.
"You can still try it," his popsicle tinted lips spoke in a deeper tone that he normally used.
I inched my face closer to him and he closed the small gap of space. His lips tasted like pumpkin pie, and felt like a piece of heaven. When we pulled away I immediately pushed my lips back to his. He was a drug, one taste and I became addicted. He lies down and I shifted on top of him as we made the kiss deeper. Years of unknown emotions finally revealed in the first kiss exploded into a passionate second. Pumpkin spice might now be my favorite out of any popsicles his Aunt has made... We eventually pull away, heaving heavy breathes.
"I think blackberry might be my new favorite...." He quips with a wide smile spreading on his face then picks me up and sets me upright next to him. I playfully push him to the side and smile as well.
Flowers in my hair, sunshine on my face, Joel by my side.
Glorious, glorious summer.