'You are confined only by the walls you build around yourself.'
"Ayla,"
the girl said again, the name on her lips sounding foreign.
The boy eyed her nervously.
"You don't like it?"
he asked.
She chewed on her lip.
"I do, but it's just that. . . it's pretty — too pretty. Like the name of some princess."
she said skeptically.
He only laughed.
"Then it suits you perfectly."
he said.
She frowned, and he started speaking again.
"I chose 'Ayla' not because it sounded pretty, but because of its meaning. 'Ayla', means 'pure light'. The day I first saw you, you were glowing, shining with this faint, white light, but dazzling with — with. . . something, I just can't put my finger on it."
He fell silent with thought, his eyes gazing away into the distance.
She stared at him for a moment, before smiling.
"Well, then I like it just fine, thank you very much."
she said.
"So what's mine?"
he asked anxiously.
"Hunter."
she announced.
He raised his eyebrows.
"Hunter."
he mouthed.
"Why. . . Hunter?
She only gave him a knowing smile.
"Because, you're always looking for something."
she said.
"It's like everything around you are magnets, and they're pulling you towards them, until you realise that they aren't what you're looking for and you repel backwards."
she explained.
He gazed at her, speechless.
"I'm not saying that you're extremely perspective or wary of everything,"
she blurted out.
"I'm saying that you always try to find something in everything, like you're trying to see the glow in everyone's hearts."
she said, softly.
"Like you can find the right one and bury yourself within all the layers. . . and never come out."
Her words hit him like a stab.
"Well,"
he struggled to speak.
"maybe I've finally found the right one."
He stared straight into her.
"You should start."
he said firmly.
"Start?"
she asked.
"The goals that we have to complete. Let's start this pact of ours with one of your goals."
he said.
She flushed, taken aback, and wondered deep in her mind if she had any.
There was one, but. . .
Her eyes lit up a second later.
Something that she'd always wanted to do that wasn't the one.
She smiled brightly at him, her lips spread into a wide grin.
"Let's go river rafting."
YOU ARE READING
When The Stars Fall
Cerita PendekOnce upon a time there was a girl and a boy. The two of them had always been immersed in their own lives, having pulled in too deep in reality, and have never known the world beneath their small city. But when tragic events strike them, they realise...
