dark corners

II

i remember how we met.

it was an awfully rainy day and the second the first thunderclap hit in the crowded park, everyone fled for shelter.

i found it funny how a noise scared everyone.

it was raining heavily before, why weren't they scared of that? a noise cannot hurt you.

in the middle of everyone running around chaotically, i saw someone standing still and looking up.

i saw you standing still and looking up.

it made no sense to me, at first. i thought you were crazy. i thought you'd get sick and it was useless getting raindrops in your eyes.

but back then, i was trying to be less judgmental. so  i stopped mentally scolding you, and i looked up as well.

sometimes i wish i didn't. because if i didn't, i wouldn't have walked over to you and started saying how the rain hit the lenses of my glasses and how it'd be amazing to have a picture from where my eyes were. because if i didn't, you'd never tell me you'd never have told me a beautiful picture wouldn't be of raindrops on lenses, but of a girl wearing glasses glaring up at a thunderstorm while everyone else ran away. i'd never have replied with it would only be beautiful to you. if i never stopped to try to understand some tall blonde guy, we never would have spoken, you'd never have constantly insisted i was beautiful, we'd never become us, and everyone would've been spared a whole lot of heartbreak.

that would've been a lot easier.

but on the contrary, if i ran from the rain, i would never have had any remarkable story to tell, i'd never have a sob story- a love story- a tragedy- and the best thing that's ever happened to me all in one. i'd never have had reason to write such pretty words.

a lot of things happened because i decided to take a risk and attempt to see the world through someone else's eyes. despite all the bullshit it caused, i don't regret it.

i don't wish i never met you, because even if it may not have been true in the end, you were, at one point, the best person i've ever encountered, and no matter what, i wouldn't - i don't want to lose that.

anyway, later that day was when i knew you'd become someone worth something to me.

there was still torrential downpour, and for a while it was fine. you were okay with it, as was i. but there was another thunderclap and your words slowed down and you looked up once again. i thought you were distracted so i coughed gently, i had been holding in that cough for quite some time. and of course, as you later proved, you have supersonic hearing and you noticed the cough. when your head snapped back down to my face, i could only imagine how red my cheeks were.

this is the part where i think i knew you were special,

you practically ripped off your jacket and threw it on me. i was baffled, but you placed your on the small of my back and led me to a gazebo where people had just left.

it sure as hell was dry in there and slightly warmer.

you said we'd stay there until the rain slowed down enough for us to make a mad dash to Maggie's Café.

i had assumed we'd be there for five, ten minutes maximum. you probably did too. but, oh boy, we were wrong.

if anything, the rain had gotten worse and we were still in that damn gazebo. i think it's still there, i'll have to look another time. anyway, we both lost track of time.

i only noticed we had been outside for much too long was when the sky dimmed and you shivered. i felt guilty, i tried giving your jacket back to you but you wouldn't have it. do you remember what you said?

"have something to remember me by."

i tired not to break into hysterical laughter, it was the most dramatic thing ever said to me on the first day of meeting someone. do you remember what I said?

"you say that like we'll never see each other again!"

you had to go home almost the minute after i said that. but i did see you again, two days later. and you had a cold because you stood out in the freezing rain.

thank you for that, i never forgot it. it was a small and simple gesture, but it meant a lot. knowing you how i know you now, i assume you were just trying to be a gentleman and impress me. at the time, i thought you were absentmindedly doing it . . . i thought you were a sweetheart. i'm not sure which is true, and i'm not sure which hypothetical i'd like to believe. 

i still have your jacket, by the way. you can swing by whenever you're back in town if you want it, even after all these years.