the light in my darkness

the light in her darkness

"What's something you've always wanted to do?" She asked him.

"To have one of my paintings put up in an art gallery," he replied. "What about you?" He asked and she smiled, shaking her head slightly.

"It's stupid."

The two teenagers were sitting on the hood of the boy's jeep, stargazing.

"Come on! I want to know," he insisted and she spoke after a long pause,

"to have a normal day out in the sun -- maybe in a park."

He looked at her for a while before returning his gaze to the stars above them.

A month later, it was her birthday.

He had already told her that he was taking her to a party that he had organized for her. She wore the dress he got for her as a gift -- a knee-length pastel blue frilly dress. It had seemed like a daywear to her but she kept mum about it since the boy looked very happy with the gift.

It was 11 pm when he came to pick her up. They had been seeing each other for four months but her father trusted the boy and besides, 11 in the night was like almost noon to her. She had a reversed sleeping schedule because of her sun allergy.

The boy drove her to his place. She had expected a ton of people considering how popular the boy was in town but it seemed like there was no one there and she was secretly thankful. She was never a people person because growing up, she never really had many people around her.

She had been to his place twice before but never this late -- this normal worldly late.

He parked the car in his driveway and got out before opening her door. He bent down and extended his free hand towards her and she giggled before accepting it.

They walked into his house. All the lights were very dimly lit.

"Come on," he said, walking towards the staircase.

Once they reached the top floor, he stood in front of his art room; his hand on the handle of the closed door.

"I hope you like it," he said with a smile before opening the door. Just as it opened, a bright light filled the corridor they stood in.

She looked inside the room and almost couldn't believe what she saw. Hyper-realistically painted on the walls was a scene of a park -- grass, trees, benches, children playing. The top of the walls and the entire ceiling was painted sky blue. The floor was carpeted with artificial turf and a cane picnic basket was placed in one corner of the room. And the room was lit up like she had imagined the perfect sunny day to look like.

"Happy birthday," he whispered from behind in her ear. She turned to face him.

"I love you," he added, smiling genuinely.

At that moment, she realized that she loved him; that he was the light in her darkness.