Nightfall ✓

Chapter 19

I looked up. The sky looked bright and clean because it had rained the night before. It was a reddish- orangish- yellowish blue.

In a corner, away from the crowd, we sat under a tree. There were red and brown leaves all over the grass; they crunched under our weight. We were facing the party. The music and chatter were at a distance now, just a hum in the background. He looked at me. I looked at him. A breeze was ruffling his hair.

"Did you know that a group of crows is called a murder of crows?" he asked. "Because crows are thought to be an omen of death."

"And a group of parrots is called a pandemonium of parrots."

"And a group of giraffes is called a 'tower'," he said.

"A group of lions is called a pride of lions," I replied. He said nothing. "Hah! I know more than you do."

He smiled and sat quietly for a while. I noticed that he was drumming his fingers on his knees nervously, like he wanted to say something. I gently took his hand in mine and moved closer to him, and rested my head on his shoulder. He cleared his throat. "I've...um...got something for you." He fished out something silvery from his pocket. It reflected the fading orange sunlight into my eyes. "A locket?" I asked, taking the delicate chain into my hands. There was a heart-shaped pendant, in which was framed the photo of us that Zack took on Prom night: the one in which Liam was kissing the side of my head. There were little stones on the silver frame. It was stunning.

I started to say something, but then I realized why he'd been so nervous. I remembered what he'd said to me on my birthday: of course your locket annoys me. It's weird to see that you're half mine and half his.

Oh.

I took off Ryan's locket and turned my back to Liam. Maybe it was time to let go. I couldn't hold on to Ryan forever.

Missing something is part of what makes it a good memory, someone had told me.

He clasped his own locket behind my neck. His fingers were so gentle on my skin, it tickled.

He was smiling really big when I looked at him again. "I love you," I said.

"I love you, too." He pulled me to him and was about to kiss me when he remembered something. I still had my eyes closed, waiting for the kiss. He pushed my eyelids open with his thumbs to make me look at him. "I got accepted at New York University."

"WHAT!?" I shouted.

"Yeah. The letter came today in the morning."

"Finally!" This news was what I'd been waiting for. We were going to New York. There was nothing that could stop us now. We both had got accepted, we both were going together, we would live in the same apartment, I would do a part-time job, and Sharon was coming to New York too. It was unbelievable. I hugged him with enough force to strangle someone to death, and he fell backwards with me on top of him, laughing.

Then we just lied down on the grass under the tree among the red and brown autumn leaves, and chatted about the most random stuff in the world, like how it is illegal to be fat in Japan, and although we were doing nothing but looking at the darkening sky, it was probably one of the best moments of my life. The party was still going on in the distance; people were still dancing. How could anyone dance so much?

A while later the fancy lamps came on, casting a yellowish glow on the grass.

All the talking had made my throat dry. I sat up. My hair was full of the brown leaves. I plucked them out lazily.

My gaze fell upon a guy who was drinking coke. There had to be about five ice-cubes in his glass, and there were little, condensed droplets on the outer surface. It made me even more thirsty. I turned to Liam. "I need a drink or I'll die."