Take Me Where The Lights Are

Prologue

Northern lights
across the skies
make a dream
of a future time
Thunders
will rule the day
Lightening
will rule the night
Lips to lips embraced
Under the sky full of stars
-Afrodita Nestor

~~~

The Aurora Borealis. The one natural wonder I couldn't bring myself to face. The purple green curtains across the sky unfurled a strange emotion that my heart could not decipher. Although I have only seen it in pictures yet,I was unsure of how I would react on seeing it first hand.

My parents met in Finland. They were on their respective solo trips and had adjacent hotel rooms. One night they both returned from their day's adventure at the same time.

They instantly hit it off. They spent the entire night talking and..eww okay let's not go there. They travelled the rest of their trip together. They were lucky enough to watch the Northern Lights. That was the moment when, according to my dad, he fell in love with her.

That day was so monumental in their lives that when I was born, my green eyes reminded my father of that day in Finland and so fittingly named me Aurora. Fate had clearly played it's magic on them and really set the the bar high on love.

So here I was in the eighteenth year of my existence and had just moved out of my parents' home and had rented a tiny apartment near my University campus and 3 hours away from my home. My mom had been against the idea initially because you see they had this plan that as soon as I graduated and got in a uni , they would set out on an adventure of their own , travelling through Europe. So my mom figured that I could live in the house, but the idea of living in the huge house alone was frickin scary and really defeated the purpose of me trying to be independent.

The shrill doorbell of my apartment brought me back from my reverie, with a sigh I trudged to get the door and swung it open. And there she was, dressed in the most ridiculous tee that said 'wish you were beer' my best friend Kaia. She was carrying a carton with great difficulty , her long brown locks were tied up messily at the top of head and her pale face was glistening with sweat. I helped her put the box in my bedroom floor and made my way to the kitchen and threw her a bottle of water, she chugged down the contents and proceeded to fall on on the sofa with the most dramatic sound and closed her eyes. Chuckling I jumped on the bean bag and threw a pillow at her.

"It's almost a thousand degrees outside, I'm exhausted", she whined.

"Oh come on crybaby, I've still got to unpack and you've got to help me or else this is never going to get over."

About 3 hours later, the overbearing sun had set and we were nowhere close to finishing up. Kaia was on the bed, flipping through the photo album filled with our adventures and school memories. She shut the album and lay on her back sighing as she looked up at the glowing stars on the ceiling.

"Spill", I said.

"I swear you're like a fricking mind-reader."

"I'm surprised that you're surprised. I know you too well."

Taking a deep breath she said," Ror, I've been thinking..."

"So now you think?"

"Shut up and let me speak."

"Sorry."

"So...I've been thinking of taking a gap year."

"I'm sorry what?" I asked dumbfounded.

"I said I'm..."

"I heard you the first time." I snapped. We settled in a painful silence as the reality of what she told me sunk in.

"Why didn't you tell me before. I could've taken a gap year with you and we could go traveling together just as we planned in high school." We had made a bucket list in school enlisting all the things we would do together after school, I swear it was the craziest. We made blood oaths to do it no matter what.

"We both know your parents would be against the idea and mine surprisingly were pretty pleased."

"So what now?" I asked.

"I have signed up for a cultural exchange program and I'm still in the process of finalizing it. It's in Austria."

"Wow." I was too stunned to say anything else.

"Yeah. That's for 5 months after that I might join an NGO which undertakes housing projects for the underprivileged."

I was incredibly proud of her and hugged her with a force.

"Wait, so you're okay with all of this,"she asked.

"Of course! Who am I to hold you back."

She visibly relaxed as if a weight was lifted off her shoulders.

"So when do you leave?"

"In 15 days."

"Holy shit! And you're telling me this today? We should make the most of these days then."

"That is if my mother stops with the shopping and shoving heaps of food into my bag. She thinks I'll starve there. I swear the food weighs more than all my clothes combined. I chuckled at that. Kaia's mother was the perfect example of an overprotective mother. I was surprised that she even agreed to Kaia's decision.

Kaia's shoulders sagged and I could tell she was relieved after getting this off her chest. We quickly fell into a comfortable silence each consumed by our thoughts. Beside me Kaia yawned loudly and drifted off to sleep. Not being a huge fan of change I could not shake off the uneasy feeling in my head as I fell asleep.