City Lights

Chapter 15

To say that I was in awe of what was before me would be an understatement.

I was practically lost in the sight.
The beauty of the stars glazed up above in the enchantedly dark sky, somehow clouding away the ever rustling new York city's noise from my senses.

It was, perhaps a no moon day.
And although the stars did outshine all beauty, they were in no comparison as beautiful as the moon.

I heard Arthur clear his throat behind me but I just couldn't take my eyes off the view.

His hands were enveloping mine again, gently brushing my fingers at first and then tracing them with his thumb but my mind was set elsewhere.

I remember all those nights whenever April and I fought, all those times when I'd escape away for a while, drive in mom's old beat up car and stray away to wherever I could.

The city was what I dreamt of but at that time the only place I had to myself were the isolated rooftops a few miles away from home.

They weren't much special to the busy working people of the world but to me, it seemed to be the perfect place to clear my mind. I remember spending hours and hours of my day, just staring into oblivion and the daylight would turn into darkness and hours would turn into an entire day but somehow the place was still the same.

"I didn't really knew what else to do, uhh I mean y'no coffee dates are usual but I uhh yea." he was stumbling upon his words and it was honestly quite adorable.

I just turned back to look at him , my eyes connecting to his.
It was quite amusing to see how the tables had turned and now Arthur was the one feeling uncomfortable under my gaze.
His one hand was still holding my hand whilst he was rubbing his neck with his other hand.

"It's perfect." I said and gave him the best smile I could muster up and then surprising both of us, I hugged him.
He was obviously surprised and his body was also very tense.
Almost feeling very stupid and embarrassed of my actions , I quickly proceeded to step away when he immediately tightened his arms around me, holding me captive and making me unable to move, his breath fanning my ears as he buried his face into my neck, almost as if breathing me in.

We stayed in the embrace for a few seconds when he looses his hold and looked back to smile at me, his mouth stretched up in the widest grin and then he pulled my hand, ushering me towards the field.

He was probably the first person who'd ever made me feel special, and even thou I couldn't give him what he expected, I really do hope that we'd still be friends.

Several minutes had gone by and both Arthur and I were just laying on the ground, our backs pressed against the cool grass.

I just couldn't seem to make my mind wander off the memories.
Somehow, it seemed to me that missing someone is more painful than actually loving them and if there were anyone that I've ever loved, it was them and look where it got me.

I rolled my head to see what Arthur was doing and he was looking at me.
His eyes glazed over as if he was elsewhere and I was just but a picture of his memory.
"You look so much like her" his voice barely above a whisper and then he closed his eyes and turned away.

"Like who?" I asked, my voice barely audible as well.

He shook his head and started to get up.

"C'mon lets head back. It's 11:30 already and we do have classes tomorrow." he said and offered me a hand.

The car ride home was silent except for the old songs playing on the radio.
Arthur was lost in his own melancholy and even thou his mind seemed to have drifted off to elsewhere , his hand was still interlaced with mine.

I did not really understand how holding hands made him feel anything different but I didn't mind.

We had almost reached when Arthur brought his lips down on my hand, the warmth of it spreading on my cold hands and then he smiled at me " I know you don't feel anything for me and I get it , I really do but all I'm-"
His voice was cut off by my phone's loud ringtone. I quickly took it out of my purse and saw it was Anna calling me.
I gave him a sympathetic look and the disappointment was clear on his face but he passed me a smile and nodded, turning his head away.

"Heeeey Reneeeee" I heard Anna say loudly and someone then a crash in the background.

From what I could tell , she was drunk right now, her words slurry and her voice thicker than usual.
"Babes" she hiccuped. "I'll be coming back tomorrow annnnd we'll go shopppping andddd you know how much of a bastard he is, I'll show hiiiim" and with that she cut the phone off, leaving me all worried about her state.

I had no fucking idea who she was talking about and it was pretty unnerving so I called her back but reached to her voicemail.

Arthur must've noticed my state of distress and without asking any questions he just drove as fast as he could and held my hand tightly, as if ensuring me that everything was going to fine.

The evening was going so smoothly but something or the other always had to ruin it.

I was seriously worried about Anna.
I really really hoped that she reached home tomorrow all safe and sound.

Arthur has asked me if he wanted me to stay but I didn't.

I just really really wanted to be alone.

I knew all along something messed up was going around in Anna's life but I had no idea that it would've been so messed up.

After changing into my sweats, I made sure to leave Anna a voicemail, telling her to call me back ASAP.
It read 1:36 in my bedside clock and sleep seemed to be the farthest thing in my mind.

I couldn't help but look back at all of today's events wondering if there ever was a day in my life that I'd thought that I would actually go on a date.

April and mason used to continuously tease me about how unsocial I was.
They used to say that I was unapproachable considering I was always so lost in my books and how much of a nerd I was.

Both of them knew it that I absolutely loathed being called that.
I was by no means a nerd.
Nope.
Far from it actually.

I was average all my life whether it be sports or studies.

There was by far nothing that interested me more than music and arts and when I say I'm interested in them , I do not mean the classical music or Leonardo DaVinci or some other artist.

Other than these, I also liked to write poetry seeing as I had loads of random thoughts jumbled up in my mind which I had no other way of expressing other than jotting them down on paper.

I remember how April used to say that she wished she was as 'mysterious' as me and I used to roll my eyes at that.

People used to look at us in disbelief, considering we both looked the same and yet we were worlds apart.
The only way people could set us apart was by the fact that I had almost dark green eyes with a orange ring around my pupil and she had dark green eyes with a yellow ring.
It wasn't really much difference and one could only judge by being in close proximity.

My phone beeped in the background making me almost jump out of my skin.
I frowned, wondering who would be messaging this late and opened my phone to see it.

"Goodnight beautiful. Today was amazing. I look forward to see you tomorrow xx" - Arthur.

If possible, my frown turned deeper.
I'd almost forgotten that Arthur had my number.

I put my phone back on the table, putting it on the charger and went to lie on my bed.
I closed my eyes and sleep consumed me after a while.

I hope Anna is safe.

So I uploaded earlier because well, I was happy and I just did :3
Yay
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