Autumn Leaves (Snippet)

A snippet from my upcoming novel, Autumn Leaves.

The night was young and there were so many people out on the beach that night. Fireworks lit up the sky and they all stared up in awe; colours with a beauty so vast, time would dissipate. But not me. I was staring at something much more beautiful and much more vast than I could ever learn to comprehend. I could just make her out in the distance. Who was this girl? And then there were cheers and laughs, light shows and unfinished drinks in-hand. And I was fixed on her. Auburn hair and a crown of leaves and twigs intertwined around her head like a crown. Her sundress etched with cherry blossoms all over.

She twirled around and kept her face to the sky but her eyes were closed. The cherry blossoms seemed to be cascading off of her, floating lightly before touching ground. She giggled and it tore my heart in two before I could even know her name. I thought, 'That laugh can recreate the whole world over and all the bad that ever was or ever would be will be no longer.'  And it amazed me. How was it that a laugh like hers could break my heart and mend it all at once? She slowed down, time moving with her as if she demanded it and it listened. And it listened. She opened her eyes and didn't break from smiling. The world was hers and she was life and I wanted to breathe her in and hear that laugh until my heart stopped beating.