She's got a smile that makes you want to be her friend. Something about it makes you feel confident, safe, fun and happy. Her smile brings you visions of bright summer days, you both running barefoot on a beach (even though you live nowhere near one). You can clearly see her smile burst into laughter as you race her to the waves, she's smiling bright as the sunshine above when you whisper secrets in each other's ears. You can see her face light up as she bends down to pick up a brilliantly fabricated piece of sea glass that you never saw because you couldn't look away from that tiny grin she wears when she speaks. Foolishly, you begin to believe that she, with a smile so perfect and genuine, never cries. It’s a discomfort to think of her in pain, for that smile to be turned on its head as salty tears play at the corners of a frown, so you just don’t think of it at all.
In all reality, she’s not your best friend, simply an acquaintance you chat with from time to time. Oh, but when you’re together you absorb that smile like a sponge to save for when you’re feeling lonely. Sometimes you even strive to make her laugh just to catch a glimpse of what you love so very much. When you get your rise and etch that dazzling curvature of the mouth into your mind, you cling to it all day until your eyes grow heavy and you fall into a content slumber. Maybe if you’re lucky she’ll even be in your dreams smiling the way you always wished you could. That smile, the way her tongue pokes slightly through her impossibly white teeth, has become your entire world, and as you gaze out of the asylum window, the same one you've seen the world through for the past six years, all you can see is her: standing on a sandy beach, holding that perfect piece of sea glass in one hand, waving to you with the other...and smiling.
