Once Upon A Lone Heart | ✔

That was it

He followed her in.

The bookstore was warm. Not because there had been many people, but because it was small and packed with tens of bookshelves filled with hundreds of books.

She picked up books, read the backs, made faces and put them back. He knew she wasn't going to buy any. But he stayed inside still, pretending to pick up books, read the backs.

He thought she was beautiful. He noticed little details within minutes. And she was too focused on the books to even notice that she was noticed. Did she remember where on earth was she? With eager but soft steps, he tailed her from the opposite shelf, until eventually he traced hers.

He noticed her long lashes and her hazel eyes, the way her glasses slowly (and annoyingly) slipped down the bridge of her nose, and how she would adjust them back in place before they fell. Can you save me like that? When I'm falling for you? He noticed her flushed cheeks, little beads of sweat on her wide forehead, and little dimples on the sides of her plump lips when she swallowed saliva or bit her lip. He noticed a long cut on the back of her thumb, a band-aid around her middle finger, and a word written in blue ink on her wrist. "Hello".

He wondered what was the reason behind that.

But he wanted to say it. To her. Hello. As simple as that. As hard as that.

He turned his back on her and debated in his head. Hello. Hello. Hello! She looked at the watch on her wrist and stared at it intently. Sighing, she picked one last book and read the back of it.

He was running out of time. She was running out of patience.

She was waiting for the right moment, too, to say hello.

Only she couldn't. He couldn't. And she had to leave.

She noticed his white, worn-out pair of sneakers, an old bruise near his ankle, and the coffee jogger pants he wore. She noticed how his dark eyes looked confused and awake, how he licked his lips every 5 minutes, how his long fingers gently brushed the pages of the books he touched.

She wondered how would it feel like to be in his touch.

He ran out of time. She ran out of patience. She left the store with him still debating.

As he turned around to see the girl with the hazel eyes and flushed cheeks, she had just stepped through the door to an unknown destination. He sighed in regression. She walked with slight disappointment.

And that was it. That was the story of how a pair of people almost happened, almost crashed, but didn't because they didn't even try, they couldn't even say hello.

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A/n: moral of the story- say hello. Welcome a new chapter, welcome a whole new character in your life.

[20/03/17]