Daylight and Starlight

“An afternoon.” The tall boy murmured, his words falling softer than snows embrace on a moonlit night, its cool touch kissing the blades of grass, entwining with the frozen dew that clung to its green tuffs.

“Pardon?” The petite girl blinked, her cheeks flushed from winters icy caress, her faintly pink lips slightly agape as wondrous eyes marvelled up at him. 

“Spend an afternoon with me.” His rich voice so uncharacteristically quiet, like each word bracing for the tender throb and sting of glass shards. Yet, his piercing gaze was unwavering– unrelenting to the diffident whisper. 

Her breath hitched, her doe eyes widening under his longing stare. Her porcelain hands trembling as they became clenched, her chipped nails digging into old wounds drawing blood with their uneven gasps. Waves of blonde rippling over the precipice of her face, allowing anxiety to wade beneath her loose curls. 

Inching closer to her quivering frame, his sinewy arm and calloused hand circling the scarred knuckles of her tiny fist, his slow rub easing her palmed hand apart. Lifting her hidden face from ashen hair, she was confronted with a prospect that she had yet to see on this earth.

The small girl found herself completely stricken by his eyes.

“Please Alexis. Just one afternoon, I just…” The remnants of his words turning to ash in his mouth, the dull gnawing of his chest begging to fade into memory, begging him to not relapse.

Yes, she had noticed before how tantalising his forest green eyes were– as well as how a ring of hazel held onto his iris and bloomed into the flourishing foliage– like dark wood to the vibrance of its leaves. But the quiet– and almost aching–torrent of anguish eroding away the light that day brought, that washed away the brightness of that deep forest, left her feeling the same.

“I watch you.” The tall boy spurt out, his reddening face intensifying as the weird–and somewhat stalker-ish– words fell from his mouth. Alexis’ hands slowly retracting from his own, her feet scuffling against the hard cement as she backed away.

“No!-I mean, I see you come up here.” The tall boy gestured to the still apartment rooftop that overlooked an otherwise bustling city below, the fragments of the lightening sky bouncing off the glass windows. 

“Sometimes it’s to watch the sun rise, and other times it’s to watch the night fall and the stars.” The tall boy breathlessly whispered, his own silhouette enhanced by the slow dawning of a new era, his dark hair illuminated by the melange of fiery oranges and pastel pinks, the warmth of daylight conquering the earlier coolness, fighting away the bitter winds and deep purples until the night would awaken. 

“And you just sit there– in complete an utter silence. Like the world is hushed by you, like it can’t help but be in awe of you.” The boy whispered to no one at all, muttering all too himself words that he’d never say– not to her at least. 

“And you watch and stare so closely, in fear that if you look away–even for a moment– the lights of the heavens will sputter and be snuffed out by nights darkness.” The tall boy mumbled, reminiscing the memories that seemed to gain a deeper hold on his splintered heart. 

The soft whimpers and concealed sobs played on loop, a thundering crescendo of pained wails and bellows arising again and again in his silence. Her quiet prayers to the skies above– not a word of it was forgotten. He’d remember each word like the melody of an intense symphony, peaks of song that just rose and rose and rose– until she’d just stop. No fading tune to present a finale, just silence. 

“Luke-“ and she stopped– an abrupt start and sudden finish. 

Turning around to face her, Luke pulled Alexis into the carven of his chest, wrapping his arms around her waist. The tall boy lulled by the quiet thrum of her quickening heartbeat and small sighs that escaped her pink lips. 

“I just want to be your friend and make you happy. So give me an afternoon, just one. And if you still don’t want to open up and be friends then I’ll respect your decision.” He softly spoke, a tired and defeated look staining the green of his eyes, turning all life murky and dark.

Entranced and flustered over the sincerity of his words, her tense body melted into his touch, her slack arms hesitantly moving upward his torso, a scarlet flush traveling further down her neck.  

For so long was loneliness her only companion, beckoning to have her attention and time, needing her to feed into its insatiable appetite. Such a parasitic thing, to protect herself by denying her soul of what it truly yearned for, to torment her with such pain and longing–that she brushed all away. Alexis never found friendship and connection to be something feared, she was aware of the beauty and colour and life that erupted in such spontaneous movements, like paint to a canvas. She just couldn’t handle another person she loved leaving her, hurting her– and that’s all they ever seemed to do. Shapeshifters was what they were, changing as often as the seasons, loving and adoring summer nights that had burned with such affectionate warmth only to decay and fall like browned leaves and cold rain.

And yet– here he was. His tanned arms wrapped so tightly around her small frame offering a protection she’d never known, cocooning her from the crisp air and the worlds trauma as if their touch couldn’t grasp her. The rich scent of sandalwood that clung so faintly to his light shirt, easing the rapidness of her breathing. Whilst she knew his touch to be so gentle and sweet, she felt herself just shattering as if she were porcelain.

For all her efforts to shake him off, Alexis found herself never wanting to leave his embrace.

Too long had they bared the wounds of bleeding hearts and broken spirits, too long had they been denied of such wonderful things, too long had they been isolated in such maddening darkness. 

Never had she had felt such warmth than in his arms, nor such tenderness in another’s eyes. To touch him was to touch daylight herself, to bask and dance in her dripping lustre wherever their skin seemed to touch.

She muttered into his shirt, “you scare me.” 

Her confession dousing him in numbing water, smothering the warmth of their embrace, until he retracted from her flame. His face contorted with such alarm and fright that his caramel complexion was no longer glowing with effortless gleam, but wrinkled in a panic that drained all the colour from his expression. The hardened skin of his hands tearing into the slight waves of his dark hair, mouthing silent curses that was noiseless to all but the wind.

“Because you stay, despite me giving you every reason not to. Because you listen and make me smile, make me want to feel things that I don’t want to feel anymore.”

His eyes snapped back to hers, diving and floating into her orbs. The dark blue that lingered along her outer pupil, motionless against the opal that illuminated, setting her thick forest of lashes aglow with a single glance. But what once shone with an effervescent glimmer, now dulled– turning those two opalescent pools sombre. Where she once held a star-filled sky, she was now left with the plague of ominous clouds, leaving the boy to witness the balls of light to disappear into the dark. 

“It makes you dangerous, Luke.”  

And in the dark, you tend to get lost, as what is more alluring that the unknown? Darkness is a longing; a journey into the unknown to find something that you’re not sure exists. And in spite of his mindless wanders and lonely nights, he’d finally found the clearing, he’d finally found his stars. 

“It’s because of your wonder that I wake up to see the sunrise, it’s because of how you look up at the sky and find so much beauty in a world that is so dark, that makes me want more of it– more of life.” 

And world and fate be damned, if he’d ever go back to those starless nights.

“And that makes you just as dangerous, Alexis.”

For a second, his eyes lingered to her lips. And just as quickly did his eyes meet her own. 

“Well, then maybe we should be reckless together.” A small smile gracing her lips, revealing two dimples to peak through her cheeks, only to awaken a deep blush that rippled along the freckles of her nose. 

“So… is that a yes on the afternoon?” The boy smirked, a teasing haze running joyfully through the fields of his eyes, his arms crossed over one another accentuating the bulging muscle that resided beneath the thin cotton of his shirt.

“Didn’t I just answer that?” She laughed, her eyes playfully narrowing at his teasing.

Feigning a serious expression, he spoke, “it’s kinda, a yes or no deal–“ 

“Seriously? You’re unbelievable, you know that right?” She shook her head, mirroring his own ludicrousness with a knowing look. 

“All part of the package deal Lex,” he nodded solemnly, a faint smile suppressed under his facade. 

“Yes, I’ll spend an afternoon with you.” 

“along with your added bonus of charm and absurdity.”

“What did I just sign up for?” 

“And you can’t cancel your subscription.” The boy winked, flashing her a true smile that sent waves of heat to her chest, leaving its tingling touch to spread like wildfire. 

And she wouldn’t. She’d truly doubt that she’d ever let that daylight go, not when she had been starved of such comforting warmth and feeling. The boy had shown her lights caress in his embrace, just as her starlight illuminated his world.