Love, Your One and Only

𝙼𝚊𝚐𝚗𝚞𝚖 𝙾𝚙𝚞𝚜 {𝙰𝚛𝚝𝚒𝚜𝚝}

You would take blistering heat that would scorch and burn people, or the numbingly cold snow that would trap people inside their houses. It would be nice to experience one of those besides this weather over and over and over again.

After living in the city for the majority of your life, you had hundreds of memories dedicated to the storms that would come every year. Even if you wanted to get rid of them, you knew that more would fill up the empty space left behind. Everytime you thought of the cracks of thunder, you swore that you were able to hear it echoing inside your head and bouncing off the walls of your skull. When you closed your eyes, you could see the flashing images of lightning so vividly that you thought it was right in front of you.

Yet, when you opened your eyes, there was nothing there. It was just your mind spoon feeding you such pictures, since they were the ones that were the most prominent. Your younger self had been scared of them before, so much so that you almost always used to duck under the piece of furniture closest to you when you heard the rumbling of thunder outside your home.

Unluckily, you never really had grown to overcome that fear. Time went on, but it never really seemed to leave that terror behind. You thought you would've gotten used to it when you grew older, since you had to expose yourself to it more and more. Yet, with every storm that came, the terror you felt before returned every time.

Nothing beats sitting inside and waiting for the storm to pass. To be completely honest, you would rather be holed up inside your apartment right now instead of walking outside in these kinds of conditions. Curling up, smothered inside your blankets on a rainy night as you watched the droplets hit the window, the rhythmic pounding against the glass as you slowly fell asleep to the sound of the rain. As soon as you got home, you knew that you would immediately collapse on your bed. Letting the warmth of the mattress embrace you completely.

Why were you subjecting yourself to this again? Oh, yeah. Because of an art exhibition you had agreed to go to with your friend. To be honest, you made the decision on an impulse. It's not like you didn't like art galleries, it was the opposite in fact. It was just the rain that was getting on your nerves, although it hadn't started yet. Before all of this, your friend agreed to pick you up, but she said something came up and had to cancel. While you would usually have your car, it was still in the shop getting prepared after it had broken down.

The place the exhibition was being held at wasn't that far, so you figured you could toughen it out and walk there. Boy, you were sure as hell regretting that decision right about now. If only your one brain cell could have been working better then. Maybe you would've been able to avoid this. Sadly, you had to deal with the consequences of your choice. On the bright side, the exhibition shouldn't be too far now.

You'd been walking for a while now, having passed several familiar shops and stores near your home. Most of them getting ready to shut down for the night, with restaurants putting the chairs up and flipping the 'Open' signs to 'Closed' on the doors. Displaying the word clearly for anybody who would be rude enough to try to barge in after closing. Yet, for a few of them, they were just getting started with the night. Employees frantically trying to catch up with the rush of customers who came in at night, attempting to hold on long enough until they finally got to leave at 6 AM. Internally, you wished those poor workers good luck as you walked past.

You heard the low grumble of thunder in the distance, creeping closer overhead. It's low growl threatening to turn into a deafening roar. On instinct, you began to pick up speed, hurriedly walking along the sidewalk. You tried to get as much distance as possible with every step, carelessly splashing your shoes into puddles. The water leapt up and sunk inside, soaking your socks as you cringed at the feeling. But that didn't matter, what mattered right now was getting to the museum in time to hide from the oncoming storm. The last thing you wanted was to be caught up inside that mess.