How we meet

Chapter 16

    You tugged on N's sleeve when you left the meeting. "You were the champion?"
    "Only for a short while."
    "You're full of surprises."
    "I'd say the same about you." he retorted.
    He walked beside you leading you out of the gym and into a park. The walk was quiet but much more comfortable than that meeting room. You sat together in peace as the grass pricked your legs.
    N handed you a bag, inside a small sandwich and juice box. "Eat with me?"
    "Thank you," you meant it. It was such a small gesture, even if it wasn't very much food you were glad that he had gotten you something. "Let me return the favor?" you asked, "I can make you a meal sometime?"
    He thought about it for a moment with a smile. "What kind of food were you thinking?"
    Good question, off of what you had now a sauteed selection of goods with something fried would be nice, and paired with a fresh salad to bring out those flavors.
    "Something much better than a sandwich, and home-cooked."
    Time seemed to slow down when you were together. A moment was stretched into an hour of pure joy. The world seemed brighter after you spent time with him. Even if it wasn't much you loved to sit beside him, to talk to him was heaven. You hadn't had this with many people in your life. You always seemed to mess it up just enough that people didn't like you, or maybe you just didn't like them? You couldn't say, all you knew was that you needed this. You needed someone that you could talk to, N had needed the same thing.
    Your red strings were tied together with a bow. They looped around your fingers and wrists. After so many times of running into each other and not realizing you had a pure sense of understanding. You plucked some flowers from the ground. You carried them to N's side and asked him to turn.
Without a question or doubt, he was facing away in a moment.
    You gently weaved his hair together, braiding in flowers and buds. Petals got tangled in his hair. He looked pretty with them you thought. With the stack of flowers leftover, you taught him something. You showed him how to make flower crowns. Looping the stems around and then adding another. Loop and add, loop and add, over and over, until it fits around his head. Then you finished it.
    With his rainbow crown of daisies and dandelions, you walked home together. N left you alone with Venipede at your home yet he never went far. This was the longest he had stayed at one spot for years. He was so used to traveling that he almost missed staying in the same place.
You felt similar. Everything was so new for the both of you. Each of you had found things that you didn't think would happen. You each had things from your past you wanted to run away from, everyone does. Mistakes, rude words, bad family members, or old friends, it's normal to want to leave things behind.
You enjoyed this as you slipped to sleep. You were met with that stranger from your earlier dreams. You still couldn't make out the face. It was blurred and muddy, hidden by a thin layer of fog you wished you could blow away. This time there was no dancing, no magical mystical waltz surrounded by dancing trees.
    You sat across from each other, fancy flower crowns atop your heads. A tea set with chipped cups and a cracked saucer. You poured each other tea, as butterflies and roses surrounded the gazebo you sat under. You loved the fields of poppies and the bushes of hydrangeas. Remembering dreams was hard while not impossible, you had never been good at it. These dreams though, you hoped that some star would take pity on you and grant your wish to keep them.
    N's dreams weren't like yours. He could see your face perfectly clearly. It was the same one too. You are sitting outside your cottage, a book in hand. You talked quietly to yourself or maybe someone N, can't see. He can't hear the words. As you smile the flowers seem brighter and seem to grow faster, but every time your expression changes the flowers wither. They crumble to dust and you scream. It echoes across the trees, no matter how close or fast N runs he can never quite reach you, then he wakes up.
    All alone in the same woods, not too far from your home. He always debates checking on you. His dreams leave him with the fear of something having happened. It's a logical fear but he always shakes away wanting to check on you or walking by your cottage. Instead, he lays there counting the stars and fighting to stay awake.