Tearing Paper

Pink

I should’ve been chasing you

“Stay here with me. I promise, I’ll make your dreams come true. Just… don’t leave me.”

Lucio closed his eyes, trying to forget the things that had been echoing through his head these days. The cloth in his hands felt soft—too soft, because it had not been worn for a long time.

He remembered the very few clothes Dianne had when she first came to town. She was simple—she avoided luxury, even when she knew Lucio could give her everything she wanted. Yet she refused, until Lucio decided to give her the pink night robe he had in his hands now.

“Dianne, when is your birthday?”

“Birthday? I—I don’t know,” the girl replied with a smile as she ran her fingers through her wavy hair. “Back home, we never knew anything. We just picked our favorite time of the year and everybody would wish us happy birthday on that day.”

“What’s yours, then?” Lucio smiled as he stepped closer to her, pulling her hands away from her hair and encircling them round his neck.

“I like Valentine’s,” Dianne said without much thinking. “I like Christmas too, but pink is my favorite color, so I guess I’m more of a Valentine person.”

“I see,” he left a peck on her lips before wishing her good night.

Valentine came just a few weeks after that. He could never forget the look in her eyes when he handed her his gift—and she wore it every single night. He was never good with clothes, but he knew pale pink would match her blonde hair and pale skin perfectly. He started thinking that maybe it was then that he started falling for her—for her beauty, and her smile, and her dreams…

“You know what? You’re the fairest island girl I’ve ever met,” Lucio laughed as he held Dianne close to him, her bare skin touching his.

“Really? How many have you met?” Dianne asked unbelievingly.

“You know me. A lot—I might forget them all. But not you. You’re not easy to give up on,” he kissed her back and closed his eyes. That was the only time in his life that he wished time would stop and he would forever lay there, just holding her close without ever letting go.

He was happy.

She was the first girl who ever made him truly happy.

I should’ve been trying to prove

that you were all that mattered to me