The Gray Case

fourteen

He looks beautiful.

And that's not new. Around him there's the evergreen mystic aura that never fails to appear. Like he was brought from a different dimension.

He looks like what stardust should be and tastes like the divine mixture of sugar and gold.

He stands with his shoulder relaxing on the cold, grey locker behind him.

His usual brightness is close to gone, it's like the winter has suddenly fallen on him.

And it's weird, rare and bizarre. Like a snowflake that falls down on the ground in the midst of a boiling hot July.

He smiles, though. And as if it's possible, his smile is even more gorgeous than him. It's ethereal, celestial. She can almost take a glimpse of what heaven's like.

She can hear him laugh sonorously; he laughs like the first time she heard him do so.

She listens to it from a distance, taking in every single note of the orchestra his voice is playing. She hears trumpets and saxophones, the sound of violins and violas so she twists, she turns and tiptoes lightly, gently listening to the melodious masterpiece not even he knows he is giving.

It looks like his mind has gone blank, because he doesn't seem to remember anything. He doesn't seem to remember what happened two days ago, nor what happened yesterday, between the two of them only.

It seems he has forgotten about the way he opened up, about how they ate Chinese food together until the only light that shone was the one within them both.

Maya tries to get close to him, he calls for him and follows him, but sees him laughing and smiling with people that are not her. She just wants to say hi, does he not hear him?

But how can he not?

It's like the world trembles at the sound of her voice, windstorms come to an end and she unmasks the world from its lies. She induces the serenity that is so ardently craved and unravels the mysteries of the soul.

The world hears her, when she comes around. So why doesn't he? Why doesn't he anymore?There's suddenly a chasm between them, an illusion of something that seemed way too perfect.

"Alexander!" She calls behind him, but he doesn't turn, instead he keeps walking with his group of friends that have a puzzled expression on their face, asking themselves why he isn't answering.

"Alexander," she calls him again, taking a hold of his arm, finally able to nullify the physical barrier between them. But it still isn't enough, because there's still something that stands in between them.

For a split second he stops and turns, her hand still holding unto his jean jacket. She finally sees his eyes and discovers new shades of the green in them when he stares, but doesn't speak. He looks at her with a hint of disappointment in the green of his eyes and parts his mouth almost as if he were about to say something.

Anything would be sufficient to Maya, but he says nothing at all. He just leaves, letting go of her touch.

Her hand falls back next to her waist and she watches him exit the school with his friends, followed by Sofia who is, as well, trying to talk to him.

She is left there, in the middle of the hallway, like a mere dot in the crowd. And suddenly feels alienated from a world she thought she was welcomed in.

"I told you he is an ass, but obviously you never listen to me," Maya hears Marcus's voice next to her.

The pain that makes its way in her it's close to excruciating. It eats her up deep inside and erodes every single particle of her, from the ones that were out in the open for everyone to see to the ones that were buried in the depths of her soul.