love&see

sparks

I had completely come to terms with the fact that I'd never see him again. He was like that one stranger you'd imagined a life with. Even though you'd met him only once.
God I hadn't even met him.
I had seen him. From across the room.
But when I saw him again, I grew selfish.
A few weeks had passed, no sight of the beautiful stranger. Several speculations later, it was like he manifested out of nowhere.
A grey hood over his shirt, but it couldn't hide the head of beachy dark curls.
He looked out to the ocean. In the dark, I wondered what he was looking for.
I should've kept walking. Straight home but If I was never going to see him again...
Maybe I should go talk to him.
Just to hear his voice. Just once. For my own sanity. It would complete his portfolio in my mind.
I clutched the bag higher on my shoulder as I contemplated.
But seemed like I had already made a decision, I realised as I felt the sticky vanilla ice-cream drip onto my palm.
My feet worked on their own.
Each step only heightened my own heartbeat. I heard its deafening roar in my head. It beat under my ear.
"You look like you need this.", I said to the sea, holding the ice-cream to his back.
When he didn't move, I reached out.
My hand barely made it to his shoulder when he turned, as if it had been a phantom touch. He looked at me with an intensity that burned.
It burned.
His eyes were devastatingly beautiful and devastated at the same time.
They cleared slightly as he figured out what was happening.
But he didn't take it. He stared at it. And then back at me.
Up close, he was exactly like I had imagined him to be. A brooding image of perfection.
I quickly looked away. I couldn't look at him and not examine the way the moon's borrowed light reflected from his skin.
"Why don't you eat it? I don't want it.", his voice took me by surprise.
It was like the bay personified, cool and depthless. Honest.
Smooth, it seeped into my bones.
"I...", i started even though conversation was beyond me at the moment.
"You should enjoy it, Rush hour shifts are the worst. Might as well get ice-cream out of it."
I blinked. He knew that i worked there?
He knew I worked that shift?
How?
"I don't like vanilla."
His eyes widened. Like he couldn't believe it. Almost like a dream, he cracked a smile at me.
"You're kidding."
"Nope."
He looked at me, really looked at me. He might've noticed me that day but he the way he was looking at me...he hadn't really felt me until right now.
That's what you wanted right? His attention.
"Do you have somewhere to be?", he asked me, looking around us, to the parking lot.
I shook my head, a wave of self-awareness washed over. I wasn't imagining the tone he used. It was an invitation.
"Would it be very terrible to keep me company?"
He asked me. And i sucked a breath in.
"Do you always random strangers to do that?", the question sounded breathless. His hand wrapped around the cone, holding it as I moved to sit down next to him. In the sand.
I had to get back home, right about now. I didn't have a curfew but my mother would like it if i had made it home before dinnertime rush at the theatre where she worked.
I made it a point to not look at him as i examined the ocean. Calm today.
The slow sloshing of the water onto land was music, all by itself.
"I'm Kyan," He told me. Holding his hand out to me, while the other clutched the drooping mess.
"Kaylee. Nice to meet you."
I shook his hand.
It wasn't warm, it was cold. Smooth and cold. So at odds with the rest of him.
"We aren't strangers now, are we?"
I suppose we weren't. So i shook my head again.
"No we aren't, but that doesn't really answer my question."
I hadn't talked to a lot of people in my life. I had always been a person with a very small circle. So i had no idea if i came off too strong.
But I didn't like the anticipation.
"I don't do it at all. But I am having a hard time today. I was ready to weather it all by myself but now that I think about it, I don't want to. You don't seem like you'd judge."
I marvelled at how easily he laid himself bare for me. No bull-shit. All real. No filter.
"I won't. Do you want to talk about it?"
He looked at me sideways and smiled again, a mysterious smile, one that made me feel like I was some story to be read.
"Nope. But you know what would help?"
I raised my eyebrows at the question.
"Taste this."
He handed the cone to me, it had already made a mess. But he wrapped the napkin tighter around it as he handed it to me.
Something warmed in my heart.
I knew it was basic human decency, but I'd think anything from him was special.
I couldn't help the chuckle that bubbled out. I looked at him, a rare look. And it costed me something.
My heart thundered. Looking like him should be illegal.
The intensity of his attention was heavy. Like a hug. Like I was being seen for the first time ever.