THG - One Shot

forever

forEVER

"Everything fades like starlight, but nothing truly ends."
- krazydiamond, Dear Death.

The sky melts into a point between grey and blue, giving the false pretense of oncoming rain. My heart falls into a beat that matches the first raindrop as it hits the pavement beneath me. I lift my head from the position where they watched my feet and focus on the world around me.

A mother pushes her baby's stroller into an open ice cream shop, some teenage boys and girls abandon their loud conversation and seek refuge in a nearby truck, an artist hurriedly folds his paintings under shelter, away from the now falling rain. Everybody wants to get away from the rain.

My shoulders adjust to the weight of my drenched jacket and I make my way to the Central Park, blinking the rain off my eyelashes. The park, like the road I'd been walking on, is deserted. No single soul around. I only think how better it is for me, and how I could have the whole place to myself.

I stand, wet in the downpour and spread my arms towards the sky. I try to recall the last time I'd been this carefree, innocent and curious to bask in the calm of the rain. I don't remember. Time had flown, and moments had gone. I'd grown up and become a woman, which was a blessing and a curse.

Unknown to me, was the reality that I'd missed how I used to be and how my childhood was nothing but sunny days. I twirl around, my feet moving in circles after each other, drinking in the rain and basking the feeling of familiarity. I felt lost everytime I was out with my friends, and couldn't show my real self. The real me, who'd jump at any opportunity to glow in the rain, to dance in it, to splash and cast aside all my worries. I became an unrecognizable shadow over time - hard, cold and unreal, like everybody.

My head starts to get dizzy but I don't stop turning. This could be the last time I'd twirl in the rain. Who knew when next I would have this sense of peace? Or when next the sun would decide to give the rain a parade of its own?

My heart beats faster and my knees drop to the ground. I feel somebody's presence, someone near and familiar? My pulse quickens as I catch the sight of a boy sitting across me on a bench. His brown hair cascades over his face, with his head bowed down, looking at the wet green grass. His fingers come up to his face and brush the rain out of his eyes.

I try to pull my gaze away, to stop staring at him and appearing to be a creep. I don't know why but I can't do it. His face, fair and svelte, attracts my attention. I sit on the grass, my knees tucked into each other and under my dress. He looks up and lets some fat drops land in his palm. He squeezes his palm and smiles.

Then, he raise his head and meets my eyes. We look at each other, our stares unwavering and focused on each other. The rain lessens its speed and I catch his features more clearly. He keeps looking at me, eye to eye. And I am stuck in the awe that I've never felt this intense and deep connection with anyone, a connection that felt so native. Like he could see my soul bare and with all the depths within.

I don't move when he stands up from the bench. I don't move when he takes steps towards me, or when he gets to me and sits opposite me cross-legged, his gaze still fixed on me. It's not weird, it's not alien. What happens now, just feels like something that could only happen to both of us in the rain.

His soul, just like mine, lost and lonely.

He breaks our stare, looks down at my hands and smiles. He meets my eyes again, with a hand extended. "Hi, I'm Mason."

The name stays unregistered till I look him in the eye again, and remember why sea green became my favourite colour. The scattered brown spots on the tip of his nose and the one birth mark at the nape of his hair, they all come rushing. Memories of days in the rain, days of dancing and twirling with him as my partner. Memories of picnics at this same park and my first kiss under one of the park's trees.

The rain comes to slow, he reaches out to place his palm on my cheek. "Ever." My name comes out as a soft whisper from his lips. My heart crumbles and a tear comes out of my eye. My fingers automatically reach out to touch the friendship bracelet on my wrist - the one he'd given to me when we were eight, before his dad decided that they'd move away.

"Mason." I say, partly in disbelief, unable to shake his hand. Waiting for the moment he'd vanish into thin air and I'd never see him again.

He smiles, I smile. He says, "It's been ten years. I missed you."

Our arms go around each other, grasping and holding on tight. I laugh, he laughs. The moment feels like a dream, long overdue. He pulls back and touches my forehead with his lips. "I found you now. I won't lose you ever. I'll never lose you, Ever."

My heart becomes whole, his words breaking a dam free within me. He is my ray of hope, my reminder of childhood and the freedom to be me, he is the friend I'd been missing in my life.

My soul remembers why the connection was as such, pure and fierce. I'd loved him and I couldn't forget how not to. But I would wait till it was perfect to remind his soul.

He stands up and pulls me with him. Our clothes stick to our bodies, and faces peer out the large shop windows to look at the craziest people in the world. He grabs my hand and locks it in an embrace with his.

"How about we talk over coffee. I remember your favourite place." I nod my head.

He says, "C'mon, we have a lot to catch up on."

The sun comes out to claim its stake again. Our story had just begun.