00:00 XO
Ten…
I hold my drink cup loosely in my hand, my made-up lyrics to an abruptly abandoned song evaporating into thick air. For a split second I forget what's going on when the moment plays out like a CD scratch should accompany it. The countdown has already begun.
Three-hundred and sixty-five and a quarter days later, and this is where the next three-sixty-five will begin for me. In this hot room congested with musky, intoxicated busybodies, but I may as well be surrounded by faceless crash-test dummies or post-apocalyptic zombies for as far as I can see, because none of them have my undivided attention.
None but one.
Nine…
Even from across a large, crowded room, our gazes meet like super-magnets crashing into each other. She's all I see. The buzz from earlier has slowly worn off but sparks of current continue to snap, crackle and pop in the space between us. Her eyes pin me against the wall I'm leaning on like 'stay'… and I want to kiss her so badly.
Before they turn the lights out.
Eight…
I've been dancing all night. I have no desire to dance around this any longer. I'm at the wrong end of this party and I know my smile's the wrong way up, but she's all the way over there and I'm all the way here. I may as well be Venus, and she, Mars. I'm exaggerating and she did this to me.
I look at her like 'you better kiss me or I won't recover' and my heart's already thudding.
She finally makes a move, quickly snaking through the masses like a shadow toward me.
Seven…
Nothing stops her.
Six…
I'm glued in place, watching. Waiting. My heart using my chest as a punching bag and I'm either having a heart-attack or a near-life experience.
Five…
She stops before me. So does my breathing.
Four…
Up close, she stares down at me and I look up at her: my eyes a dark shade of transparent hope; her eyes a bright shade of intense resolution. Her dimpled smile is Cupid's arrow and my heart is the bulls-eye and I am alive at last. Gorgeous. I want her to kiss me. I've wanted it all night. All year.
Forever.
Three…
She's got one of those glow-in-the-dark hearts, shining straight through the beautifully brown windows to her soul. I know from the way she licks her lips and eyes mine like 'please don't stop me' that she's been waiting all night too. But we don't have forever. I look back like 'just kiss me already'. Do it.
Before they turn the lights out.
Before the reset button is pushed.
Before the fireworks.
Before the end.
Before the beginning.
Let this be the beginning.
She leans in.
Two…
I feel like a shaken bottle of champagne, ready to explode. Her mouth is a hair away and a hair close and I see fireworks behind my eyelids. All sound tunnels out like a DJ played with the EQ knobs, drowned out as my racing heart counts us down...
One.
Lights out.
A/N: Enjoy 2014, world. Beyonce's XO already made my year.