Right Side of Paradise

by Shon

I’m not a child, Rico.” “No, but you are my baby.”

Be with me this summer. Or as long as you want.

“You know you’re ours, right?” My thumb pulled down her bottom lip and her exhales cooled my skin. “You may have left but that never changed. You’ll always belong to us.”

Call me delusional, but I believed this thing with the four of us could last past summer. We just needed a fighting chance.

“Just think about it, baby. We’ve been together all our lives, why not make it forever?”

“I just wanted to look pretty.” “You always look pretty, Harley baby.”

“I can be whatever you want me to be, Harley baby. As long as I get to be yours.”

Everything wasn’t perfect. I’d been alive long enough to know it never would be. But at least I’d landed on the right side of paradise.