Artifice

Chicken Tenders

"The sun is going down." Harry pointed out. You could tell by how the trees around us slowly casted shadows on the ground and by the clouds turning into a shade of yellow.

We spent most of the morning and the entirety of the afternoon in Central Park, aimlessly wandering around the large strip of land. We recently climbed these large rocks that other than us, only kids were playing on, we crossed a bridge I've seen in almost every movie that was set in New York and mostly just talked. Harry has a lot to say about everything, our conversations were never dull or meaningless.

"We've been here all day." I stated what was already apparent to the both of us.

A month ago I would've never thought I could spend this much time with him without cussing him out repeatedly or just flat out taking a cab home.

If it was up to me, I wouldn't leave. The past few weeks weren't the best, with being mildly upset about how Harry and I ended Halloween, school and bills making me regret even coming out of my mother's womb, and spending thanksgiving back home. The past 24 hours made me forget about all of that.

"We should do one last thing before leaving." Harry said and he guided me back from where we walking from.

I spotted the large boulders that we climbed in the distance.

My aching feet made it to the boulders and Harry began climbing them again.

"You're joking?" I practically panted. "Are you like invincible or something?" I watched him climbing with my hands at my waste. "This boy," I groaned and followed behind him.

By now the amount of people around was very little, no one was as crazy as us to stay out at nearly dusk with this weather.

"Hurry." Harry said above me, I looked up to find him already standing at the top.

"Dammit Harry, I'm not a spider monkey like you are!"

When I reached the top Harry mocked me by giving me a round of applause. Once he was finished being an ass, he took a seat on a flat part and patted the space beside him so I could join him.

"You can see a perfect view of the sunset and the buildings here." He pointed to the sky and the buildings towering over the trees and landscape ahead of us.

"Do you just roam around New York City looking for the best views?" I asked jokingly.

"How do you think I found you?" He said and I could feel a lump forming in my throat.

"That was good." I tried to play off how flushed I became.

I sat with my arms wrapped around my knees watching the sky.

"When I first met you I would've never thought you'd be the type of guy to sit around with a girl and watch the sunset." I admitted. "You've proven to be completely opposite of what I thought you were."

Harry remained silent.

The sun slowly set and we watched as different shades of yellow and pink faded into a navy blue.

I tried enjoying it as much as I could but my mind would settle with the thought of the boy next to me.

He was one of the most intriguing human beings I have yet to meet. There was so many things I still wanted to know and find out about him but I was relishing these hours with him more than I have with any other person.

When it was over Harry and I both made our ways down again.

Central Park was illuminated by light polls as we walked back to where we entered from.