THE DREAM CATCHER

8. NICCÒLO

I'm absolutely hypnotised. I know who she is. Ever since our hands met the memories flood my brain like a tsunami. Tsunami I'll gladly let take me away. I've seen many beautiful woman in my life. But she. She is like an angel sent down on the earth. She's so unrealistically gorgeous I can't force myself to look away from her. Even as she gulps her ragweed so greedily like a man of fifty with four children she is stunning. Absolutely breathtaking. She is tall for a girl but still half my hight. Very tanned compared to every inhabitant of the white ray. Her jet black, wavy hair cascades on her arms and face, reaching her waist. I can see a golden ring in her a little bit hooked nose. She has a very thick, black eyebrows. Her eyes are like a grass field sprinkled with a gold nuggets. She is a little bit younger than me. Nineteen. I know it because I touched her, I red her. I've been preparing for this meeting for a long time. I know exactly what will happen. But in my worst nightmares I didn't imagine her to be so heavenly beautiful. It's going to make it a whole lot harder. Something in her gaze pins me to the ground just to look at her. Last time we saw each other she was just a fourteen years old girl. I wasn't much older than her. And we were friends. For a couple of days before the horror erupted. I haven't seen her ever since. She changed so much. Grew older, sharper, more absurdly beautiful. And I don't know how to fight the urge to tell her that we know each other. Her confused face shatters my heart. I wish she knew. I wish she remembered. I wish we didn't have to start all over again. But she can't know. And I can't tell her. So I'll have to make another one, great, first impression. I know my duty is to get to know her. To make her get to know me. To make her trust me. But the way she looks around, the way she swallows every bit of the surrounding world, contemplating each feeling makes me want to get to know her for a very different reason. Good thing she just broke up with her boyfriend because at the sight of his hand around her wrist I felt sucking pain in my stomach barely managing not to stand up and punch him in the face.
,,Hey." Evan's already drunk voice forces me to look away from her. ,,Do you want to go outside?" He asks stretching on the sofa, taking his arms away from Bella. He flashes his drunk smile at me and I don't manage not to wave my head in resignation. I huff out a laugh. ,,You know what I'm talking about Nic." I flinch at the nickname he so generously gave me. I hate it. However, I nod at him. ,,Amazing!" He shouts as he struggles to stand up to his feet. My man doesn't have a head for drinking.
,,Where are we going?" I hear Eden's quiet question directed to Valentina sitting besides her. I steal her friend's opportunity to answer.
,,You'll see." That's not an answer she was hoping for. I can tell by her eyes rolling at me as she faces me. ,,May I?" I say reaching my hand towards her. She looks at it, then at my face, than again on my stretched hand. I swallow down a laugh and she swallows her pride as she offers me her hand. I flash a smile at her. Grimace so forbidden to my muscles I'm surprised it feels so nice.
We stand up to our feet and she takes her hand away from mine. I wish she didn't, I wish she remembered me. But I'm also glad she keeps her eyes open and mind alerted. It's a shame that towards me. We leave the bar walking next to each other at the back of the group. They laugh, joke, drunkly stumble against each other. And I can't think of anything besides her face I roam over with my gaze. She, however, doesn't look at me. Like holding an eye contact bothered her. And, unfortunately, I know it does. We make it to the street, cold air kissing our faces. Evan leads us towards the magical place of his that I don't necessarily find so magical. When the darkness swallows us she lifts her head to look at me. She seems tense as she spots my eyes already pinned on her face.
,,How do you have so light hair, yet black eyebrows?" She asks, her voice slightly blurred by alcohol. She manages a shy smile as I don't bother to hide mine.
,,You'll laugh at me." I say as the answer to that question is indeed, stupid. ,,My mother had albinism and I took the hair colour after her. Genetic mess." I swallow a laugh at the memory of her asking me the same question many years ago. And her reaction was the same. She laughs. The sound is like a honey for my ears. Her voice is pretty low for a girl, yet, like a ballad sang by mermaids, forcing a man to follow her wherever she wants. And I'm afraid I will.
,,I like it. You look like an angel." She says absentmindedly. As soon as she realises what she said, her eyes open widely. I can't fight a loud laugh escaping my mouth.
,,I promise you, I'm nothing but an angel amore." Shit. Why am I doing this? She really must be a mermaid forcing me to leave my brain behind. She smiles as she takes her eyes from me. Jesus...
Evan led us exactly where I knew he will. At the top of the highest skyscraper in the city that is available to get into. We used an elevator that was so suffocating with all of us inside I would probably panic due to my claustrophobia if she wasn't pressed with her back against my chest. Her hair, her body, her everything smell like lavender. I could feel her heart pounding as she was so close. She probably doesn't even know why. She must be confused. She discovered a lot recently. We enter the rooftop and the gentle wind plays with our hair. But hers is the only ones I look at.
,,The whole world." Evan says lifting his arms high in the air, standing backwards to the view ,,At your very hands."
He is right. From this place, the whole city is visible. We can see every towering building, every light, every skyscraper turning into neglected blocks and neglected blocks turning into rubble. I swallow a lump in my throat. I hate the fact that people there, in the city centre live like kings as others, from suburbs or outskirts die out of hunger every day. But the view is indeed breathtaking. Even for me. I can't even imagine how it is for her. She stands beside me, her eyes roaming over everything they catch. Her lips are widely open. She's stunned and stunning. She's living. She devours everything that crosses her sight so greedily. She must have never seen something like that. As some sit down on the ground, talk and gulp down on the alcohol bottles they obviously took with them, some took their places on the edge of the wall, Evan and Bella decided to consume their love against the wall by eating each others faces, she's sitting on he edge, legs tossed over, swinging in the air. She's silent. Admiring. I don't know if she wants me to but I'm too selfish to resist the urge to sit next to her, so I do. I throw my legs over the edge, fighting every single one of my muscles not to sit closer. Her hands lean against the ground.
,,It's..." she says hesitantly, like she didn't know if she should. ,,It's beautiful."
I kill the thought of telling her something highly inappropriate for a ,,first'' meeting.
,,Cigarette?" I say after a long wile of peaceful silence during which she didn't dare to take her eyes of the view. But at my question she looks at me and at the pack I hold in front of her. The city lights reflect from the surface of her eyes. She shines a smile at me as she takes one cigar out of the box.
,,Thanks."she says putting it between her purple from the low temperature lips. I lean closer to her with a lighter in my hand. I lit her cigarette up as she still holds it between her lips, gesture so stupidly intimate I feel like a high school kid. As she blows out a cloud of smoke she continues to stare at the view. I lit mine up as well and try very hard to focus on what's in front of me rather than next to me.
,,I've never seen so many stars before." She says calmly, quietly, lifting her head up, blowing smoke in the air.
,,You just didn't look close enough." I say before I can bite my tongue. The allusion to her ,,state" is so obvious she stares at me with her eyes widely open. But she refuses to believe I know such a personal information. I can't know about that. And yet, I do. She looks so deeply confused I consider jumping of the building. She seems tense.
,,How old are you?" I ask, desperately trying to change a topic, perfectly aware of her age.
,,Nineteen." She says, glad that the troubling subject had been abandoned. She's back to avoiding my gaze. ,,You?" Her question is directed more into the space in front of her, rather than me.
,,Twenty one." I reply truthfully.
,,I can't believe I didn't know about this place." She says after a while, almost whispering. ,,It's like I'm on the top of the world."
I do nothing more but smile, trying to hide my face between my shoulders. This night I smiled more than during my whole life. And the thought makes me embarrassed.
,,You remind me of someone." She says burying my dignity underground. I do absolutely everything to hide the shock flooding my veins. ,,That's stupid." She adds as I don't say a word.
,,It's not." I finally manage to say. ,,You remind me of someone too." That's a lie. She doesn't just remind me of someone.
,,Really?" She asks curious daring to look at me with those eyes of hers. ,,In a good way or bad way?" She says smiling at me, more confidently than before, as if admitting to that thoughts got her rid of the tension. I would kill for that smile to bloom on her face once again.
,,Good. Very good actually." I say honestly. I think I really degrade to a high school kid when I'm around her. She smiles at me again and blows a cloud of smoke at my face. She's wether drunk, insane or comfortable around me. And I don't want to admit that I would want the last one to be true. So I lift my brows with amused question as I blow my own in hers. She waves her hand in front of her face to get rid of smoke with a quiet laugh and I would like to play it over and over in my head again. Until I die a miserable death.
,,What do you do for a living? I assume you graduated school already." That's it. My heart sinks. Because I have no choice but to feed her with lies.
,,Well" I have to swallow a lump growing dangerously big in my throat. ,,Everything and nothing actually." I can't manage to say anything more.
,,I see." She says studying my face.
,,You two seem to like each other." Valentina's face pops out from between our heads wrapping her arms around ours. Even in the darkness I can see Eden's face turning red. 
,,You're drunk Val." I say harshly, angry at her for interrupting.
,,You are." She says turning her face to look at me. Eden laughs slightly and that's all it takes for me to feel better again.
,,I'd like to remind you that I don't drink alcohol." I say fighting my smile.
,,Pussy." She says shrugging at me.
,,At least I can see the view clearly." I say piercing Eden through with my own gaze. She must have realised that the view I'm talking about has nothing to do with the city stretched in front of us as she turns her face away one more time.
,,Ed, we have to get going." Val says turning in her direction, clearly not understanding what I'm talking about. Fortunately. She stumbles away from us to say goodbye to the rest of the group as Eden nods. She throws her legs over the edge to stand to her feet.
,,I'd rather stay here until sunrise." She says, her words so filled up with fascination.
,,Will I see you again? Until you'll be too busy to meet me one more time?" I say as I look behind my shoulder at her. Red suits her so much.
,,I hope so." She says gifting me with a sly smile that makes my bones melt. Since when I don't own a brain?
She rolls her eyes with amusement as she says that, I make sure to memorise not only the words but also the way she said them. As she walks away I really contemplate running after her. For whatever stupid reason. Or throwing myself of the edge at the thought that I can't avoid breaking her heart sooner or later.