Thousand Paper Cuts

Ten : vastness of the universe

Mark :

His heart was filled with feelings warmer than a Sunday coffee.

When he woke up, all he could think about was how he'd slept so peacefully, without any nightmares. He didn't even realize he'd fallen asleep, and maybe Skye had went back home after watching the film. He didn't know.
All he knew was how much he felt.....and how all those feelings were for her, and as much he wanted to, he couldn't defy it.
He stood up from the couch and saw that all curtains were open. Not just that, but the outside world was filled with deep white snow. It all felt so normal to him, until he saw her, with her stupid cap and gloves, playing in the snow alone. And within a moment, everything became magical.
When she saw him seeing her, she waved and he slowly waved back. For some reason, he blushed. Literally blushed.
Wait...
He shook his head.
Did he really fall asleep with a redhead just three feet away?
That same redhead he didn't notice the first time?

Outside, she said something.
The windows were closed, so he couldn't hear her, but she gestured towards the snow.
"Come out!!!", she mouthed.
When he shook his head, she threw a snowball on his window, and he smiled.
Jesus.
No matter how much he wanted to go out, he just couldn't, because everything was happening so fast. About yesterday, he was a gloomy self-absorbed guy, but today he couldn't stop smiling so weirdly. It was embarrassing to see himself smile that much.
He kept looking at her from inside, while she danced under the falling snow. The white of the snow looked like confetti in her red bright hair, and her nose crinkled adorably in the cold.
Within few minutes, she walked towards the city, as she couldn't ride the bicycle provided the fact that snow was deeper than his dimple.
When she was gone, he didn't close the curtains and just laid on the couch.

Back when Lucas and Mark were sophomores, they'd dated many girls; all of them being the hottest and richest girls in the school. But all ended up in huge breakups...(but not heartbreaks, as none of them made him feel anything).
Once, after dumping the tenth girl, Lucas had said to him,
"I don't think that's how it works."
"What do you mean?" Mark had asked.
Lucas had thought for a while, and said,
"Like, In great movies, how the girls are magical with inner beauty and have a great definition of love. I believe true love happens once and lasts forever. I believe that there still are people struggling for love, and the girls who value it...making life worth-living."
"I don't think that's true", Mark had said, "I guess love just exists in great films watched by lonely people."
Lucas had shrugged, saying,
"Dude, it exists. Love is everywhere. It's just that at some point someone will walk into your life and make it worth a shot."

Mark thought whether Lucas was referring to girls like Skye, and wondered if that stupid beautiful redhead believed in love.
And even though things are mostly unpredictable, he was sure of one thing :
He was going to fall for her.
Or maybe he already did.

Skye :

Her heart was caught up in a conviction, that her whole life before she met him was just an illusion.

The February snow in wretched New York was beautiful, yet she was so ignorant. All she could think was why that stupid boy who was just her neighbour, started to feel special. She had never felt like that before, for anyone....not even Adam, which was a brutal truth.
She brushed off the stupid thought and reminded herself, " you love Adam, dork."
But then, thoughts are spirals, so she questioned herself why, after all those years, Adam didn't make her "feel" anything as rapid as a fire? And now, being with Mark was the most strangest thing she'd ever witnessed, and she couldn't brook how she'd gone this far with Adam without the actual feeling.
Then she realized maybe there were all kinds of love in this world, and Adam's one was way too "we're-perfect-together-but-hey-i-don't-feel-anything" kind of love.
She didn't know. Everything was messed up.