Niko's Gem

Gem

*For a better reading experience, read along with the song attached. (X Ambassadors - Unsteady)*

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« I still remember the first time we met. »

« Every day is a gift but life doesn't have a return policy. »

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G E M

I cupped my coffee between my hands and let the warmth rub off on my cold and fragile fingers.

It was raining cats and dogs outside this late night open diner, and it was way past my curfew, according to the midnight news playing in the old boxed tv above the register.

"Sugar, you want anything else, a pie?" Said Yolanda, the waitress.

She had curly phosphorescent red hair that she dyes every month and a half, and she could easily pass as my mother if she had the same signature freckles as me.

"No, thanks, I'm good." I gave a pleasant smile.

The doorbell rang informing a new customer had walked in.

"SHIT."

It was a girl that seemed to be my age, she was drenched from the rain outside and was clearly in a bad mood. She shook off her raincoat and peeled away the wet hair from her face.

Once she stopped fidgeting her clothing dry, she made eye contact with me.

"Oh, sorry." She became self-conscious, her shoulders hunched, and it was as if she shrunk. I could tell by the slight blush on her chocolate-colored cheeks that she was embarrassed. "It's crazy out there, isn't it?" She said, playing it off casual.

"You don't have to say that twice, honey! I'm surprised at why the two of you are out in this type of weather!" Yolanda said, while I just stared at the girl as she took the stool next to me.

The mystery girl had very curly light brown hair all the way down her lower backside that connected to her doll-like figure, and her uncanny green eyes emitting-

"Nikolai, baby? You ok?" Yolanda stared back at me, and her eyebrows raised, asking a question.

"Uh-h yeah, my bad, I just- I got lost in the moment, I guess." I chuckled uncomfortably, and took another sip of the coffee.

The girl and I locked eyes again, but this time, she laughed at my discomfort.

"You're funny." She said.

"And you have a smile that could cure cancer." I replied.

Her popped open eyes informed me that was not the response she was hoping to get.

"Oh, thanks, I guess." She laughed once more.

"Stop your flirting Nikolai, you're making the girl uncomfortable." Yolanda broke my awkwardness once more.

She placed a cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows in front of the girl. "Here you go hun."

"My name is Gema by the way, and thank you." She said, as if in that moment she could hear what I was thinking.

After that we just talked.

Her name was Gema and she recently moved to Seattle, completely unaware of its famous unpredictable rain showers. She's a student and she was looking for a job.

"Really!? You'll give me a job here?!" She was excited, Yolanda offered her a job as a waitress, and her work hours were flexible so she could study and work.

So I could see her and talk.

I would come by every single Saturday, in between her breaks we would talk, and in between her waitressing we would talk even more.

She said my name was cute, and yet she called me Niko.

I didn't mind it, I liked it. I called her Gem in return. It was our thing. She didn't like it, she said it made her seem like an object. But she was my 'gem', you know?

We had so much in common.

We both loved mythology, history and legends. Our favorite was the 'red string', the story about the two soulmates bound to end up together by the red string tied to the pinky finger.

We would joke about that story a lot and how we would probably end up together, I believed it and I'm sure she did as well.

"Why do you always wear a cap Niko?" She one day suddenly asked.

"Because I don't like my hair." I responded.

"But I do." She smiled.

There it was again, the smile that could cure cancer.

I laughed at her comment, "You've never seen my hair though."

"It doesn't matter, I already like your freckles and your eyes and your nose and your... mouth." I was shocked. I never expected her to say something like that.

It took every fiber in my body to step off my designated stool and cup her face the same way I cup my coffee, letting her warm smile radiate throughout my whole body, bringing me closer to her and kiss her.

Every single time, I kissed her like it was the last time I would.

Our feelings were officially mutual and I was the happiest man alive.

Everything seemed to be perfect by the time we had been together for a month.

"Here." I said the last time I saw her at the dinner. I handed her the box I was holding, a black leathered light-weight box.

"What is it?" She opened the box almost immediately, revealing the infamous hat she would always fight me to take off.

"So you're giving me your old hat now that you have a new one?" She smiled once again, disrupting something inside me that would soon destroy me.

"Thank you." She said, "I'll wear it all the time."

Then, she kissed me.

After that day, I stopped going to the diner.

I'm sure she was confused and desperate to know what had happened to me, but I didn't have the strength I wished I had, and I wasn't the man she wanted me to be. I had no power to face her and tell her the truth.

I knew she cried herself to sleep and still, she woke up and worked hard.

Everyday.

But her smile was gone.

I realised the letter I left her never reached her, and soon I became a distant memory to her.

The red string broke and it hurt as if every part of my mind, body, and heart was taken along with it.

At this point, she was too far gone for me to reach her.

After some time, she finally found my letter, buried under the hat she had promised to always wear.

Her already bloodshot eyes shed tears for me once again as I saw her get in a taxi, which drove her to the cemetery.

She fell before my grave as the rain blended in with her salty tears and both watered the soil above my already forgotten body.

She read the letter I left her over and over again, as if to make sense of it, but I'm sure that the part that struck her the most was my sad mention of her smile.

I wrote, "I'm sorry your smile wasn't enough to cure me."

I loved her, and I died loving her.

A grave keeper walked by Gem and tried to console her.

"Do you know how Niko died?" She asked him, already broken.

"Cancer."