you will find me (in places that we've never been)

chapter 4

It's one of the first days of spring, Lev thinks he should be out right now, somewhere, anywhere, maybe running around in a field or at the beach, maybe even having a picnic at the park, anywhere but in his room, on his bed, next to a sleeping willow, trying to write his English lit essay, he's been sitting in the same position in front of his laptop for about an hour now, and he hasn't written a single word other that the title, he likes to blame it on writer's block, even though he's not sure it's the case, but one thing he's sure about is that he can't do this anymore, not now at least.

So he dramatically shuts the laptop screen, and winces at the clack he hears, gets up from his bed, stretches because apparently, limbs get sore from sitting in the same position for hours, he picks up a pair of faded jeans from the floor and convinces himself they don't smell because he has only worn them once, maybe twice, then goes to his wardrobe and picks out a an oversized yellow shirt that screams spring.

he almost trips on his feet putting on the jeans then shirt, doesn't even attempt to fix his mess of a curly fringe, he pockets his phone then races down the stairs, goes back up because he has managed to forget his camera, how so Lev of him.

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he ends up going to the beach, because hay fields and picnics aren't singular done activities, at least to Lev they aren't, but the beach is.

He's lying on his back on the cool sand trying to think of some pretentious, fake deep quote to caption the pictures he took when a face appears in his line of vision blocking out the sun.

"hi!" its Jude, and he's panicked, so he replies with the first thing his brain thinks of, "are you stalking me?" it earns him a soft laugh from Jude and, yet another, mental slap.

"funny you, if anything I should be the one asking" she's still smiling as she pats the sand before sitting next to him, and lev thinks that's so fucking weird because its sand and she didn't just try to dust of sand from sand but he also finds it so endearing because its Jude and everything she does is somehow so endearing to him.

"so what's up?" he sits and tries to awkwardly dust of the sand from his back and hair.

"was hanging up flyers near here somewhere, as if the beach isn't the last place mira would run off too-she laughs dryly- but at this point im pretty desperate to find her, even if it means hanging up flyers around the whole country," Lev could swear he heard a crack in her voice and he doesn't think he's ever felt this much guilt all at once.

"im sorry, I hope you find her," he doesn't really know why he's sorry, maybe because he knows where 'mira' is, or because he wants to keep her so bad, its probably both reasons.

"yeah". She says, not facing him but the blue sea ahead.

Lev turns to Jude and its only now that he notices her eyes are this rich hazel, if you're close enough, and Lev is, you'll notice they're not only hazel, they're hazel, green even blue and they're the prettiest eyes Lev has ever seen.

He doesn't notice the smile on his lips,

"I can feel you staring you know," Jude turns to face him, "your eyes are really pretty", its out before he can overthink it.

She raises her eyebrows and half-smiles, "you think?"

He nods.

"Thanks, I think yours are pretty too," she goes back to watching the sea, still smiling.

They fall back into silence, not the kind of awkward silence that sits heavy waiting to be broken by words, but a comfortable silence, both staring ahead as the waves clash and race to the shore.

Lev checks his phone after a while and finds no messages or missed calls, not that he's expecting any, Jude looks over to his phone and lets out a panicked, shit under her breath.

She gets up frantically not even bothering to dust the sand off her long floral dress, she tucks her hair behind her ear, her smile now long gone, replaced with the anxious look of worry that clouds her face.

Lev stands up, shocked by her sudden change of mood, she turns to him with a wary look, her breath getting subtly faster, he is about to ask whats wrong when-" hey listen um, ive got to go i- uh- its late really late, I-sorry thanks bye" she says all in one breathe and turns to run away.

she isn't exactly the most graceful runner, and its not like these scenes in romantic movies where the girl runs while the wind blows against her, making her hair fly around and what not, but lev couldn't help but stare as her figure gets smaller and smaller the further away she becomes, standing once again alone, with the same soft feeling he's learned to associate with her, now laced with worry and concern.

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hi ngm here, wrote this one back in 2018? if this gets the tiniest bit of attention i might post the rest