Like Hurricanes

40. Worlds apart

    I cleared my throat and put my hands on my guitar. She was still at the door, with her eyes glued on me. The wind was soft and the street lamps blinked. They were nervous just like me. I cleared my throat again and sang.

''Worlds apart

Or two inches away.

One day

You won't remember my name.

One day

You won't remember my face,

Or the sound of my voice,

Or the taste of our kiss.''

    The strings trembled to my touch and my voice was raspy. The words came wobbling out of my mouth, tuned to the pumps of my fast beating heart. And she was just standing there, with her eyes twinkling in the dark. I couldn't tell if it was the excitement or tears that made them sparkle. I just kept playing and singing and I hoped it was a little bit of both.

''One day

You'll look at the sky

And while you fall for the sun,

A part of me...

Will always...

Fall in love with you.''

    My fingers plucked the wrong strings and my voice cracked. Something in my eyes blurred my vision, something suffocated me.

    ''Worlds apa – ''

    Silence. My fingers froze and I exhaled a long sigh. My heart tore itself apart. Come on, not now. I couldn't cry now. This was supposed to be romantically cheesy, not pathetic. Of course it wasn't perfect, but I couldn't break down like this. I had to be grinning, like in those stupid movies. I wasn't supposed to feel half drunk and play all the wrong notes because my hands were shaking. I shouldn't have looked like a complete mess, with dirty, ripped pants and bitter cheeks. And it shouldn't have been 1 a.m., and the lights shouldn't have been blinking. Noemi shouldn't have had bags beneath her eyes and tremble in her pyjama. Our souls shouldn't have felt like earthquakes. 

    I was trying to make it better, to make it right. But everything in me cracked and broke and my bones felt too heavy. I looked up, meeting Noemi's gaze from afar. My face was the definition of ugliness, grimaced with sadness and distress. She stepped closer. She had the same look on her face. We were at the outburst of tears, the silence so acute and deafening. But then she ran to me and fell into my arms. She had been holding her breath for awhile, and now her chest was free of that heaviness.  Somehow the moment when I finally held her was the moment I burst out crying. Icebergs could melt in the warmness of that hug. 

    ''I'm sorry,'' I whispered,'' I'm so, so sorry.''

    Our breathing was ragged, our hug a mix of sincere happiness and heartbreak. It lasted an eternity, but not long enough. From now on, it would never be long enough. When our bodies disconnected, she looked at me and smiled softly. 

    ''You look horrible,'' she said. Laughing, she wiped off her tears. ''Come on, I'll make you some tea.''

    And of course I followed her. When we were upstairs, we completely forgot about the tea and scrawled into her room. As we lay on her bed, she carefully examined me.

    ''Are you okay?'' she asked. 

    I glanced at her and shook my head. I told her about my friends, and with every word her eyebrows became more furrowed. Then a long silence followed. I closed my eyes and tried to focus on the smell of this room, the smell of her. I wanted it to penetrate under my skin and stay with me forever, even when she would be gone. I wanted to breathe her in. I wanted her in my bloodstream, for pieces of her to become pieces of me. We had other five months and in those months I would study the curves of her lips and the fire in her eyes and all the books she'd read and all the things she'd paint. 

     "Tell me about it," I said. "The Physics project, the engineering school. I didn't really listen the first time you explained."

    "Are you sure?" 

    There was doubt in her eyes, but there was also a sparkle of excitement. I nodded my head and reassured her with a smile. As soon as I did that, she started talking and talking like a little child. Quantum mechanics, astrophysics, the first steps to become an astronaut. She showed me pictures of the school, a map of the city she would be living in. There was already a Swedish dictionary on her desk and a notebook dedicated to advancing her English. As I watched her, so busy and excited and a little anxious, I realized she had never been more beautiful than in that moment. She babbled like a burbling stream of spring and breathed of morning air in the middle of night.  

    "My mum is really happy," she said. "She already contacted the local hospital and they might offer her a job and now we're just looking for a flat that is near the –"

    Her phone rang and she stood up, making the heat of her body next to mine suddenly vanish. She looked at the screen of phone and then glanced at me. "It's Virginia."

    I wondered why Virginia had Noemi's number and vice versa, but then I realized that the idea of them potentially being friends wasn't that crazy. As the memory of today's events activated in my brain, Noemi had already put the phone in my hand. 

    "Hello?"

    "Pit? Oh thank God. We've been trying to call you for like an hour."

    It was Virginia's voice and although she didn't say much, she said a lot. First of all, she wasn't crying, which was the most important thing since her sobs behind the door made me think that she had lost all hope. She also said we, which meant that she finally left her room and wasn't alone anymore. All of this should have been reliving, but the fact that she'd been trying to call me for an hour meant that something was going on. 

    "Yeah, my phone's dead, I uhm... are you okay?"

    She let out a sigh and a moment of silence followed.

    ''You should – you, uhm, you should come to the hospital.''

    I cocked my brows and sat up. It took me awhile to process all the information she was giving me. All I knew is that it was about Dario. And all I felt was numbness.

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So, let's all appreciate the amazing cover that @layla_El made. She did it for fun, but I really liked it so I put it as the cover of the book.

And, the lovely @WonderingWildChild made a picture book for Like Hurricanes. That is so cute and lovely and it filled my heart with joy. Seriously guys, thank you so much for the support. It means the world to me.