She Lives.

"How the-" I pause, catching my breath, huffing erratically, "How did you make me run?!" I complete, laughing, falling onto my knees on the field. I lay back, my back against the cool grass as the sun shines brightly above me, making me squint my eyes. My heart beats loudly in my ears, my lungs inflating and deflating rapidly.

"What?" she asks, crouching near me, "Are you — dare I say— tired already?" she chuckles, patting my shoulder. "Poor you," she fakes her sympathy, but she lays on the grass beside me, her long, brown hair splaying beside my head and tickling the skin of my ears. I shiver sarcastically, shifting farther. "Your hair tickles!" I say, laughing.

"You would be lucky to have hair like me," she says, raising her upper body by resting on her elbow on her side, frowning.

"Of course, I would," I say, nodding with a big grin on my face. She laughs once and chides me with her squinted eyes. "I am not lying!" I say, chuckling. She shakes her head, opting not to say anything as she sweeps her hair over her shoulder and lays beside me. A moment of comfortable silence envelops us, the only sound of my deep breaths and the distant chirping of a bird on a tree.

A happy bird, chirping away, in love with where it was.

I breathe deeply, the scent of dewy grass invading my senses, and I close my eyes. The warmth of the sun on my skin, the coolness of the ground against my back, the happiness of where I am. Every emotion, every touch, every savoring moment flooding my senses with overwhelming joy. 

"You know it, don't you?" I say quietly, shattering the silence around. She hums in question against me. "You know that you saved me?" I ask, turning my head to face her.

"Did I?" she asks, smiling with her eyes still closed.

"You did. I never imagined being this happy before I met you," I say, grasping her hand. "I promise." She smiled, opening her hazel eyes that gleamed golden in the sunlight, leaning forward and kissing my forehead.

"Y-you just didn't know how to be happy. I did nothing," she squeezes my hand, retreating to her position, disparaging her importance.

"No!" I affirm, sitting up, my shirt sticking to my back with sweat from my faux-marathon and the dew on the grass underneath me. "You made me happy," I turn my head around and tell her, and she smiles ruefully.

"If you say so," she says quietly, closing her eyes again.

"I do," I say, crossing my arms and turning around, huffing like a child who was throwing a tantrum.

She grabs the back of my shirt, pulling herself up to sit. "I didn't save you," she says, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear. "You saved yourself," she completes, crossing her legs and plucking grass from the ground.

I raise my eyes in question, rising on my knees and waddling to sit in front of her, "How?" I ask, still unbelieving that she wasn't the one who made me happy.

She smiles, shaking her head, "You are a child, aren't you?" she asks, giggling and putting a finger on my nose.

"Tell me!" I emphasize, making her remove and her finger and look at the ground.

"You really think that I could make you happy? Your love for me made you happy. Your dedication to our friendship gave you joy. It wasn't me. The world gave you so much pain, so many hurdles, but you made through it. You persisted. You jumped, ducked, ran your way through narrow, narrow paths. You made yourself. You became the person you are today," she says, cupping my cheek momentarily.

"But, in that race to being better, you forgot to be happy. When I met you, I saw the joy in you, waiting to be unleashed like a thousand birds confined in a cage. I wanted to see her. The real you. The girl who just ran through the field to catch a kite. That is you," she pauses, her wide eyes looking at me expectantly. "You know it, don't you?"

I tilt my head, questioning her.

"You saved yourself," she completes.

"Did I?" I ask, smiling as I look at the sky, my eyes not squinting at the light anymore.

"You did."