When Forever Ended // h.s

i.

I knocked on the door and peered through the open window, everything was pitch black. I shivered as a frosty breeze picked up, tugging my trench coat around me while juggling the two filled paper cups in my other hand.

“Hello?” I yelled through the darkness. Strange, she should be home by now. I walked around to the side of the house to find the gate unlocked.

“Trust Val to keep the back-gate open,” I muttered to myself, preparing the future-lecture in my mind. I walked in, pushing the gate open with my side in the process, and stepped down onto the pebbled pathway.

“Valerie? Where are you?” I shouted, words bouncing off the side of the house. I reached the yard after a near catastrophe of dropping the scalding hot drinks on myself. Phew! I thought, adjusting the dark gray beanie on my head. I saw Valerie lying on the grass in her fluffy baby blue night gown, hands behind her head, appearing to be asleep. I walked closer to realize her eyes were wide open and gazing at the stars as she wore the white ear buds, its tangled wires travelled to the iPod in her hand. She hummed absentmindedly to the tune playing as she stared at the glittering stars. Only after I had laid myself beside her and tapped her shoulder did she turn to me.

“Harry?” she gasped with wide eyes. I half expected her to sit up and hug me and the other half expected that she was going to cry in happiness, but as usual, I was wrong. “W-when did you arrive?” she stutters, failing to comprehend that I was actually there.

“Well if you actually read my texts, you would’ve known we finished tour a few days ago,” I replied, eyebrows raised and a smirk painted on my lips. “Oh,” she responds, awkwardly staring at the sky or the house, everywhere but my face.

“So why exactly are you doing this?” I asked, genuinely curious to why someone would even consider lying on their lawn on a freezing March night. “What do you mean? Oh, right, this,” she says, “erm, you know, um, chasing cars.” I took a few seconds to realize before I burst into laughter. “You, haha, lay here, haha oh my god, haha, that’s so funny.” I managed to spit out between fits of laughter.

“Hey!” she exclaims pouting, “it’s not funny you, you...” She hollered crossing her arms, sitting up and turning her back to me. “Val, sorry,” I managed to voice between pants before I burst into another row of fits. “Hey, Val. C'mon, I’ll make it up to you.” I finally say, placing the now not-so-hot chocolate paper cup on the grass before her. She gasped instantly picking up the cup and examining its contents. “Freshly brewed hot chocolate with white marshmallows, shaved chocolate and a squirt of whipped cream, just the way you like it,” I tell her with a grin knowing that the perfect hot chocolate made with exactly what she liked would obviously make her give in. She chanted words of gratitude after taking a sip of the heaven-in-a-cup. I lifted my own paper mug to my lips as the sweetness of the beverage coated my taste buds.

We finished our drinks and continued to lie admiring the magnificent full moon and gazillion stars. The edges of the sky were starting to cloud over yet it was still all the more magnificent. The stars were just sitting there and sparkling as if they were created to be admired. I was starting to get restless, shifting my eyes to the girl beside me. Her eyes shone in the moonlight, you could no longer see the blue but, instead, a cool silvery obscurity. Her hair was mussed with frost and dead leaves. She looked like an ice queen. Her lips were moving and curiosity won out as I not-so-stealthily stole an ear bud, much to her disappointment, and listened to the song only to realize it was the song of the night: Chasing Cars, and on repeat might I add.

Those three words
Are said too much
They're not enough

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?