Too Much Time (LGBTQ Fiction) ✓

love knows best.

Satvik had recovered from the cold. He came over on a Tuesday. Bright sunny, Tuesday. An encouraging Tuesday. An empowering Tuesday. 

Satvik sat on my bed, like he usually did. I was rotating on the revolving chair, barrelling an origami swan in the air. 

"Should we go out today?" A new arcade had been inaugurated in the neighborhood next to ours. Satvik shrugged, probably, not very interested. "Come on. We can get some food later." I took his hands and lifted him off the bed, Satvik chuckled. And I stopped. 

"What's that sound? Did you smile?" 

"Yeah. Why are you surprised?"

I spent two and half months, trying to do everything to catch this smile on his face, and he has no qualms about what went on inside my mind this whole time! I couldn't dwell on it much. Satvik's smile was like a lit lantern in the dark nightly sky. His handsome face had projecting disco lights.

"Are you in a good mood?" I asked him skeptically, as if it'll be in a few seconds before everything comes crashing.

"I still go up on my roof." Satvik said nonchalantly. I knew it. No one can come waltzing into your life and rid you of a void that has sustained a lifetime.

"But only to enjoy the view up there."

"What?" I asked him. I could imagine the same frustration that runs through someone when they struggle to bring the thread inside the needle ring. Too annoying.

"Do you know why I never jumped?" Satvik's voice had lowered, "I never knew the view up there would be so beautiful. I never noticed because I always climbed up there in the night. My driveling thoughts were intense one afternoon and I climbed up- that's when I realized, this was a beautiful neighborhood. Trees, sidewalk cafes, flowers, interlocked tiles, heck- even pedestrian crosswalks are pretty. And you're here." He looked at me, glazy ebony enameled irises upon the sclera , fixed on my deep amber brown eyes. "There are two times I don't want to die, one, when I'm with you..." a teasing glint emerged in his eyes but his face stayed complacent, "...second, when I'm up on that rooftop."

I laughed. Because I was happy, in that moment. Maybe all my emotions were incomplete and superficial but it was okay. Because all emotions are just as valid. "You're still not climbing up the rooftop without supervision. And definitely not in the rains!" My voice bolstering mock stern and light humor.

Satvik took my hand, intertwining his fingers into mine, he said, "Let's go to that arcade. Finally something's happening in this town huh."

~ ~ ~ 

A/N: Okay, I wrote this in a frenzy induced impulse that creeped into my brain at around 1 AM last night. So the whole story is one big, "idek". Thank you for reading. I'm really hoping, it was a decent reading experience. A lot in this story are personal feelings lol. Only, I've never really had interesting neighbors, I'll probably never find out either because I am a big homebody type of a person. Thank you!