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The grass below Vee tickled her arms and the spaces between her jeans and shoes. She took a deep breath, allowing the calm breeze to flow through her system. The sun's warmth hinted at summer as it reached through the cracks of the tree above her and warmed her skin. Her concealed ears picked up the sound of birds chirping in the nest above, and the steady breathing of the human laying beside her.
Vee cracked an eye open and peered at the space between their hands. It could only have been a few inches at most, Masha’s black chipped nail polish gleaming in the sun beside Vee’s smaller plain one. Still, she couldn’t bring herself to cross the space, there were too many secrets, too many what-ifs in their way.
Masha breathed in deeply, whispering “I'm gonna miss this,” in their exhale.
“Yeah…” Vee agreed, an instinct, really. “Wait, what?”
She stood up abruptly, looking at Masha’s relaxed position on the grass. “Where are you going?”
“Well, you didn’t think I was gonna stay in Gravesfield forever,” Masha cracked open an eye, looking at Vee curiously. “Did you?”
“I mean, I uh,” Vee scrambled for words, staring at her hands to distract herself from the panic filling her chest. “Aren’t you gonna at least stay to finish the year?”
Masha laughed, the sound filled their little corner of the park. “ Of course, silly! Can’t leave without that diploma but after that? I’m off, Vee.”
“Where are you gonna go?” Vee brushed the blade of grass beneath her fingertips, she couldn’t bare to look at Masha right now.
Masha made an I-dunno sound. “Anywhere but here, I guess. Don’t get me wrong, I love Gravesfield, but there’s so much world out there, y’know?” Masha crossed their arms behind their head, utterly content with the uncertainty after high school. “ I wanna see it all, Vee.”
Vee’s breath caught in her throat with a feeling she couldn’t quite place. Despair? Grief? And below that… Hope?
“You wanna go somewhere completely different, huh?” She said slowly. “Would you be interested in, uh, an exchange program of sorts?”