Below the Sky

Chapter 14: Lila

Chapter 14: Lila

I was laying on a stack of hay, hay! After our house had burned down, we'd been forced to move into the barn. It was crowded, but there was space, and until the house was rebuilt, we had to make do.
Riana sat beside me, playing with some straw. Her hair was messed up, and her clothes rumpled. She looked beautiful though, as always. She jumped slightly, when she noticed me sitting up.
"How'd you sleep?" She asked, playing with my hair.
"Good," I said, reaching for her hand. We sat in silence for a moment, enjoying each other's company.
Slowly, I sat up completely. Once I was up, I combed through my messy hair with my fingers. Riana cupped my chin in her hand, and pulled me in for a soft kiss. Our lips met, but fireworks didn't explode. No, this was soft, like a warm blanket enveloping you on a cold and rainy day. The emotion that I felt through wasn't anything electrifying, and honestly, there isn't much way to describe it. It was wonderful though, beautiful, and wonderful.
We pulled away after a moment, and got up from the haystack we'd been laying on. It was the middle of the day, I noticed, so we must have been laying for hours.
"Do you want to go get something to eat?" Riana asked me.
"Sure," I said. We walked over to where all our food was being stored, since the kitchen had been reduced to ruins.
It had been a few weeks from the fire, and since everyone was released from the hospital. Oliver took the longest to get the all okay from his doctors, me falling slightly before him, but eventually, everyone could go home. Oliver had spent a total of ten days, being treated by doctors. I had spent about a week.
When we both arrived home, we found that there was no home waiting for us. Just the rolling pastures of farmland, the barn, and our small lake. We'd also found that Mama and Papa had turned the small building mainly used for storage into a house for us. They'd somehow gotten a fridge, oven, and table into it. Our beds were made out of hay, and the blankets and pillows store bought. Still, it was better than nothing, and the barn was only temporary.
Now, Riana dragged me across the floor, to our makeshift kitchen. She opened the fridge, grabbed two bright red apples, and handed me one. She then pulled me to a seat, and we sat down with our snacks.
The apple was sweet, but also kind of sour. I enjoyed it though, thinking that it still tasted good. "So," I said to Riana as she also bit into her apple, "we should go do something after this."
"Ya, but there isn't much to do around here, there's just fields, a road, and a lake."
"We could go swimming," I said. Ever since I'd been home I hadn't been in our tiny lake yet, mainly because my swim trunks, and the rest of my families', had perished in the fire that also destroyed our house. Still, it would be nice to take a refreshing dip in the water.
"Ya, maybe," Riana said. She didn't sound that enthusiastic about my idea.
"Or, we could go find Maya and Oliver and play a game with them," I suggested. Really, I kind of just wanted to get out of this cramped barn.
"Ya, sure."
"Or," I said, "we could go canoeing."
"It doesn't matter Lila, we can do whatever you want." I drew away from her after she said that. It was harsh, and I didn't understand why Riana was acting like this.
"What's wrong Riana? You've been acting weird all day," I asked.
Riana turned to look at me, her face full of emotion, not all of it positive. "I don't know Lila, I was just thinking..."
"What were you thinking," I pressured her, eager to know what was on Riana's mind.
"I was just thinking, that in short of a month I'm going to be leaving. I'll be going back home, and I probably won't see you again for a long time, or even ever!" Tears sprung to Riana's eyes.
I sat back, feeling the onset of sadness creeping into my mind. Riana was right, she was leaving in just short of a month. Then I would be going off to school, and she would go back home, to continue studying law from there. Either way, this blissful summer would come to an end, and the end was coming much too quickly.
"Look," I said, grabbing Riana's hand, "you're right, summer will be over soon, and then you will have to go back home. But it's not over yet, so instead of stressing about the inevitable, we should just try and make some memories while we're at it."
"Ya, you're right," Riana wiped her face. "You're so smart Lila," she said. Then she leaned across the table and kissed me. We pulled away after a moment or so, and stood up to throw our apple cores in the garbage.
"Okay, do you want to come swimming now?" I asked her.
"Ya sure, we can just wear our underclothes as swim trunks," then we ran back to our little section of the barn, and got ready to go swimming.
We grabbed blankets to be used as towels, and peeled off our shirts and shorts, revealing simple under clothes that would work fine.

Fifteen minutes later, we arrived at the lake. Not really to our surprise, we saw Oliver and Maya already splashing around in the water, and Mama and Papa sitting on the bank watching them. Me and Riana were slightly disappointed by this, but we were still excited to go swimming.
I approached the water, and set down my towel on the shore. Then I dipped in a toe, and pulled it back out, squealing. "Oh, the water's kinda cold," I exclaimed.
Riana stuck her entire foot in, then smirking, walked in the entire way, and dove under.
"It's not even that bad Lila, come on," she called to me.
"Ugh, fine." I began to inch my way into the water. It was very, very cold, but I eventually started to get used to the temperature, and it didn't feel quite as bad.
Somehow I made it to the point where the water was up to my collarbone. Then I dove under, completely submerging myself. Riana was close by me, smiling. When I broke the surface, I saw her watching Maya and Oliver. They were chasing each other around the lake, giggling like fools.
"They're so carefree," Riana said, dripping beside me.
"Ya, I sometimes wish my life was like that."
"It was once, right?" Riana asked.
"When I was young I acted like them I guess, but now...it's just not that simple anymore, you know?"
"Ya, I get that." We stood side by side, watching Maya and Oliver play. Suddenly they swam really close to us, dowsing us with water.
"Hey," I yelled out. Next thing I knew, me and Riana were participating in there game, chasing them around the lake. I swam as fast as I could, sometimes catching up to Maya or Oliver, and splashing them whenever I did. Riana swam close to me too, helping in our pursuit.
Mama and Papa were laughing like fools on the shore, watching us play like little kids. We paddled as hard as we could, and when everyone had know fight left in them, we swam over to the shore. We collapsed on our towels, laying the sand, resting.
"That was fun," Riana said, laying beside me.
"Ya."

Eventually, everyone but me and Riana left the lake. Mama and Papa walked away first, followed by Maya, then Oliver. They must be going to dry off, I assumed.
All that was left was just me and Riana, laying together in the sand. Riana rolled over so she was staring right at me, a playful look adorning her face. "The water's empty, just you and me," she said.
I caught on to what she was implying, and grabbed her hand. We raced into the water, giggling at the cold but not stopping. We swam over to the dock, holding onto the posts.
Riana grabbed my face in her hand, pulling me in for a kiss. Once our lips met, I had a temporary flashback, to another kiss not that long ago. This one I remembered was special, but also not. It was with Luke, before I realized I wasn't remotely attracted to him. I recalled hating that kiss, being disgusted with how his lips felt on mine. There were no fireworks, no excitement. Just me desperately wanting to leave, not enjoying it at all.
This was different now though. There were fireworks, there was excitement. The desire I felt for Riana was unimaginable. I wanted to stay like this for the rest of my life, wrapped up in her arms, feeling her lips against mine. Here was when I knew, with my entire heart, that I would never feel this way ever again. Yes, I might grow affections for another person that won't be Riana sometime in the distant future, but the feelings that person will give me will be nothing like Riana's.
In the freezing cold lake, Riana my source of heat, I knew, that I loved her. It was undeniable, and I couldn't imagine anything else. Yes, we would have to separate soon, and yes, we probably wouldn't be present in each other's lives for much longer. But once you realize that you love someone, there's nothing else standing in the way of you, and that person.
So me and Riana kissed each other, holding tight to the dock to stay afloat. At one point simple kissing became not just that, but time blurred together, and the only thing that was relevant in my mind was me, and Riana.