Lover | (Ningselle)

We were lying on your couch, I remember

It was the night before graduation.

It's funny because Aeri and I aren't even in the same faculties, but for some reasons, we both got the same graduation date. The same venue, the same timing, even. Maybe it's because the school of linguistics and the school of biological sciences didn't have many students to begin with, and maybe this is the school way of cutting costs as if they didn't milk us out of funds for the last 4 years.

But, whatever, at least we've finally reached at the end.

Most people have moved out of the dorm a week prior in preparation of graduation. For some reason,  Aeri and I decided to stay in this dorm we've called home for the last 4 years, savouring the last few moments before we go back home tomorrow afternoon.

"I'm going to miss this,"Aeri suddenly said.

I was sitting on one of our seats in the kitchen, going over the list we need to handover back to the school. Dorm keys, that crap mattress they gave me on our first yearthat I keep in the storage all the time, and also that poor excuse for a fridge that could only hold four bottles of water and an apple that Aeri and I chucked in one of the cabinet under the sink.

I looked up from what I was doing, a little surprised that Aeri was staring at me from the living room couch. Aeri loves that couch,she has spent most of her time just sitting here, either just lying down and staring at the ceiling or heavily immersed in one of her games. I always used to say that there is only two places you can find Giselle in: either at a computer shop that operates 24/7 and has the las test high tech gaming equipment and games to match; or at our living room couch.

More often than not, I would come home to find Giselle just there: sitting on that couch, on the same exact side, I would often joked that her butt has an imprint on that side of the couch, always making her roll her eyes at me in return as she laughs at my rather corny attempt at a joke.

"Miss what? That couch?" I joked, making her cracked a smile at me in return as she shook her head.

"Well, yes, but also this," she began. "You and I living together under one roof"

"Giselle, you talk as if you're never going to see me again," I said chuckling. "You do remember that we live two blocks away from each other, right?"

"You know it's not the same," she said in a tone so gentle I almost didn't catch what she said. There was an expression on Aeri's face that I had a difficult time trying to decipher. Was that expression of sadness? I can't tell. Al I know is she's right: I do it isn't the same.

Aeri and I just ended up looking at each other, before she broke off our staring contest by smiling gently at me. "Come here," she said.

I immediately got up from my seat to walk over to the couch, Aeri patting the empty space next to her. As soon as I sat down, I turned by body to face Aeri, who now had her arms wide open, inviting me for a hug, I complied by leaning my body against her front, her arms are now encircling me.

There was a sense of comfort that engulfed me the moment my body crashed into Aeri's, a sense of warmth that surge through my entire system the moment I found myself caught in her arms. It's strange, I thought, one would think that this is one-sided, unrequited love would have somehow dissipated or at least lessened throughout the years, but as I sit her in her arms, I can only feel my heart growing in size of her.

How naive it was for me to think that would have disappeared at all when all she ever give me is more reason to fall deeply into her.