"Pearl, I'm scared..."
Five pops tore through the sky. Hot stars of indigo, emerald, and lilac flickered down and out. They reminded Pearl of shootings stars, but she wondered why humans made wishes on them. Especially since they made their own fake stars. Fireworks. That's what they called them.
But where was the fire?
Pearl looked up at Rose and then her eyes fell onto her large stomach.
"You scared? I think you're just nervous," Pearl sometimes lost the true Rose within her own ideas. And she knew it was a selfish. Yet she couldn't quite help it, "Like before any battle."
"No. I'm terrified," It grew inside of her and she likened being pregnant with vines that grew around her bones.
The humans screamed 'Happy New Year' up and down the beach. Some sprinting into the ocean while others twisted themselves around each other. Three more pops shook the horizon and this time the colors were gold and white.
There was a silence between them. The cheers and vehement claps drowning out their very similar thoughts.
Where was Greg?
Rose was a warrior. Not a flowerbed.
But it's too late now. Too late to do anything else.
"They say you're supposed to kiss someone for the New Year," Peal finally spoke and Rose looked down at her. Her eyes resembling the darkness of the ocean and the sprinkles of light shooting across the tides.
"And I think that sounds silly. What makes a kiss today different from the one yesterday."
"You are terrifying and strange and beautiful, someone not everyone knows how to love." ~ Warsan Shire