๋࣭ ࣪ ˖❇ ๋࣭ ࣪ ˖⊹ ࣪ ˖
Sugawara sat in front of her, picking up another card from the deck between them.
He looked as he was. Like he was dying.
His clothes were several sizes too big for him, hanging off his frame loosely as if taunting him.
This is what you used to be. This is what your life was like.
His skin was pale, almost as colorless as the room around him. She wondered when it would fit his structure awkwardly, too.
His shoulders were always hunched, like a burden loomed over his head constantly. She had an idea of what it was.
Her favorite mess of gray hair was thinning, and his eyes were sunken in. As much as she tried to ignore it, she couldn't miss the slight tinge of yellow that had taken to his skin and the whites of his eyes. It was a symptom of his disease, she knew that, but it still bugged her.
He didnt look normal, anymore. He looked... Off.
The only thing that didn't change about him was his smile.
She looked at his grinning lips and smiled, too.
"Go fish." He said weakly, but the girl was to focused on his face to move.
His expression looked out of place on him. Like happiness didn't belong on tired features. Like signs of life looked unsettling on dying people.
She immediately bit her tongue, apologizing to the boy in her head for thoughts that weren't spoken.
Her hands reached out, grabbing the top card on the deck.
She had brought over playing cards to pass the time. Or, to make the most of it. She didn't want time to pass anymore.
But with the slow movements of Sugawara, a couple games of Go Fish had turned into over an hour.
She set down the last two cards in her hand, jumping up and grinning. "I win again!" She lightly tapped the top of his head with a card, laughing when she thought of her winning streak. Sugawara hadn't won a single game.
The boy didn't move, or respond with a retort like she thought he would. Instead, he sat, watching her mesmerized.
His eyes were slightly widened, gleaming in the fluorescent lights. His mouth wasn't smiling, but his eyes were. His pupils were dilated, and he didn't seem to blink once.
The girl was reminded of how he looked when he watched the fireworks on the Fourth of July.
She quieted as Sugawara's attention seeped through her, flopping back into her seat.
Leaning forward, she grabbed the cards from his bed, "We should clean up now." She said and collected the cards near his hand, flipping them over to pile them up, but immediately faltering.
He hadn't asked her for any of the numbers in his deck.
She glanced up at him, before quickly shoving them with the rest of the cards.
Was he purposely letting her win?
"Why? Are you leaving already?" He frowned, the crushed look on his face making her heart drop a bit. She looked out the window near his bed, the sun was about to set. She wondered how great his sense of the world was. If he were to get locked in here, with no connections outside, she doubted you could tell what season it was by the view from the glass. The parking lot, concrete, and red bricks looked the same as she remembered.
If only Sugawara were the same.
She sighed and closed her eyes briefly, trying to hold off the empty feeling that seemed to loom around the corner. Life changes. And things filled with it change, too.
She focused her eyes on the boy. "Yeah, I've been coming home pretty late. My parents are starting to get on my tail about it."
"Before you leave, you have to tell me something first." His eyes shone playfully and he leaned back in his bed, the blue and red tie dye blanket swallowing his body.
She blinked. "Tell you what?"
"Anything. It can be a story, a secret, or even just a fun fact. Just has to be about you." He said, his head tilting slightly to the right.
"Okay fine...but only if you tell me something after." She crossed her arms, leaning against the table in his room and not so sneakily grabbed a Hershey kiss from one of the gift bags he hadn't opened. He didn't mind it. She was the only one that touched them, anyway.
Sighing, she unwrapped the chocolate and thought for a minute. She didn't know what to tell him, being put on the spot like that.
"When I was a little kid, maybe five or six, me and my family went to the beach. And I was playing by myself in the ocean when a huge wave came and crashed over me. I got really beat up from it, and I was panicking, thinking I was going to drown. But then I swore I saw a mermaid. I still do." Her face instantly heated up a little, and she flailed her arms in the air.
"Not that I one hundred percent believe in stuff like that, it just seemed so real and...I don't know. I guess I just don't think it was my imagination." She shoved the chocolate in her mouth. Mumbling over her chewing. "You have to tell a story, since I did one."
Sugawara laughed slightly, leaning back. He chose not to comment on what she shared, in case he only made her more embarrassed.
"When I was younger, I think I was nine, I was at the beach house. You already know I practically grew up there. But me and the kids there decided to make bracelets. I made one with my name on it, but it was too big to fit onto my wrist at the time." He shifted his gaze to the ceiling.
"I still wore it anyway. And I still remember exactly what it looks like. It was these blue and green tiny beads, with green cubes for the name part. I had grown really attached to it, and wore it every single day. But then on the last day of our visit, me and the kids went out to the beach and the waves slipped it right off my hand."
They were both silent for a moment. Before the girl spoke softly.
"I guess a part of you will always be in the ocean."
