The Space In-Between

Maeve and Elliot have been friends for years. Scratch that, they’ve been best friends for years. Ever since their paths crossed in the middle school library reading nook during lunch. Flickering flames stuttering on their own. Maeve had been sitting there attempting to read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows when Elliot shuffled over and paused. Their eyes met and, for an awkward moment, Maeve thought she might be forced out of the sanctuary that was the reading nook. Instead, Elliot asked, Can I sit here too?

Years of comforting companionship, book discussions, and hushed giggles pass in the blink of an eye. Elliot is drawn to the comfort that Maeve quietly offers, whether that is simply linking pinkies when touch feels like scorching fire or melded together with legs lazily strewn across the other’s lap. Maeve craves the security in knowing that she and Elliot could be doing completely opposite activities, not even talking to each other or completely silent, and still call it “spending time together.”

They are twin candles, sat beside one another with wicks ablaze, melting their wax together. It is a warm day in October when Maeve asks, Will you be my girlfriend? Elliot, thinking that the feeling in her heart is romantic, agrees. So, they exist for some time beyond friendship yet the space between them does not change.

Elliot and Maeve decide together that what they are is not romantic, nor entirely platonic. They exist in a state of love that extends beyond the words they know. Jokingly, they quote Emily Bronte, saying to each other Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same, replace “his” with “hers.” They burn brighter together even when they are no longer “together.”

Even when weeks turn to months of inconsistent discussion, they pick up right where they left off. There is no awkward silence, lack of topics, or pressure to be anything other than just as they’ve always been, Maeve and Elliot. They are content with whatever they are, there is nothing that could change this. This is because Maeve and Elliot are best friends and have been for years.