I'm cold, I spark up the lighter and gently roll my fingers over the flame. It would be one helluva show for anyone watching, a fire Jesus walking on flames. But the street is busy at 2.23 AM, groups of teens stroll by, loud and invincible, holding their paper-covered-cans as swords and chipped skateboards as shields. A car stops at the light, music coating the inside, reverberating trough the closed windows. I can't quite make up the lyrics of a very familiar song but before my mind knows it, my body is up, the almost dead joint fizzing on the damp sidewalk at my feet. The light is green now and slowly the Mitsubishi starts pulling away, me after it. I know that damn song but for the life of me, I can't figure out its name.
A vivid memory floods my mind - a night out in the park, walking alone by the treeline with my eyes closed, only thing keeping me aware being the same rhythm now fading in the distance along with the purple car.
I turn a sharp corner and smash full speed into a kissing couple, his hands, just a moment ago running wild trough her ginger hair, are now fastly coming towards my face. I spin around him, he grabs the shoulder of my wet jacket (thank God rain is a thing) and stumbles a few feet along with me before I finally slip away from his grasp. I turn a corner again and I see it, there, to my left a purple Mitsubishi Eclipse is pulling to another stop.
I look at the driver. She's turned over to the back seat, laughing at what must've been a good joke cracked by a girl with an astonishing smile. The friend wears an oversized yellow hoodie, but not the brutal Billie Eilish yellow, this one's more of a warm, mango yellow and my God, she could be a droplet from the sun with that smile. The driver wears a plain black t-shirt with the words "dispose after using" typed across the chest, and she's now turning back to face the steering wheel.
The light is still red and there's no way I'm not finding out the name of that song today, now. I run to her window and gesture pleadingly to lower it. Just then I realize how peculiar my approach must've been, the one person in the whole city not minding their own business, now gasping for air trough the lowered glass. They both give an awkward smile and I know the time to make my case is short, so I open my mouth and...
"TOMMY!" the shout of my name makes me flinch, I look up to Rosie. "Jesus you'll give me a headache with all these phasing out episodes, I think this shit might be bad for you..."."Oh bite me", I reply, snatching the bottle from her raised hand. We fall back to silence and gaze at the purple horizon. It's cold up here, on the cliffs, I take out my lighter and roll it around my fingers. I whisper "it felt so real" as the sun pierces the sky over a city already bustling with light.
