The Person Who Makes My Days Brighter

CHAPTER 11: SUNSET LOVER

Yannis got off school at two. He left campus. Got on a bus ride to the station and then on another at the terminal which began his transit back to his brother's house. The bus ride usually takes up the rest of the afternoon on most days—when the traffic is heavy. Sometimes he's fortunate enough to spend no more than an hour making his way back. He hoped that would be the case on that day.

He had reached into his pocket to grab his wallet out and pay his fare before plugging in his earphones and putting on some music, while he sat in his seat reading a poem.

"If the sunset brings me closer to you, and allows me to once again relive the little time I spent with you, Then let me be surrounded by darkness; with the only light being in my heart, which was lit by you"

While on the bus, at probably an estimated halfway-away-from-his-home, he decided to make a call. The call connected and after they exchanged greetings, their conversation went on. "Hey Raina, can I see you later?" he asked, in a slightly hesitated tone.

"Yes, please. I can see you at four, will you be back by then?" She asked.

"Yes, I will." And they said goodbye to each other and he took a peep at the time before he went back to listening to 'Frank Ocean's nostalgia ultra' and rereading that piece.

When he got home; he took a shower almost immediately, that is after putting some food in his belly and a few minutes or so of procrastination, He put on some clean clothes—he always wore a jumper or a sweater to be comfortable. Yannis and Raina hadn't exactly met in person before. At least not when they had planned to. A year prior, while Raina was at the mall, she ran into Yannis and their mutual friend Anna. She knew about his existence, but never at the time thought she'd see the day where they were planning to meet up with each other, and neither did she expect him to send her a friend request on Facebook, and seeing as to how they had them become 'friends', they spent the remainder of the time leading up to that day getting to know each other better.

As they walked in each other's direction with the help of 'live location' to find each other. Soon they were within sight of each other, Raina was wearing grey sweats and a maroon t-shirt with little black stripes and even littler white outlines running down. Yannis thought she looked amazing.

They walked around the neighbourhood painting the streets with laughter and conversations that seemed to last forever. But sometimes forever isn't always enough because in next to no time it was dusk. And when Raina got home that day, she sat down and she began to think. She thought about her day. She thought about Yannis. She thought about how she would readily drown in the eyes of this boy she couldn't believe she was falling for and be completely immersed in him.

"I met Yannis today," she said to her brother. "I don't know what it is with you and that boy honestly," he replied with discontent. But honestly neither did she.

Two days later, he asked if he could see her again and she agreed to meet him. This time her outfit was less relaxed, more intentional and purposeful like she was trying to get him to notice her a little more than he already had.

"You look lovely today."

"Thank you," she said dropping her head downwards and smiling at the ground. Her reaction made Yannis laugh and Raina didn't understand why. "What's so funny?" She asked. "I just think that you suck at taking compliments that's all." And he was right, she did. "So do you not know what to say back or what?"

She glanced at him. He wasn't looking at her. "Knowing what to say is not hard," she began to explain, "a simple 'thank you' is enough. Ninety-nine percent of the time I don't believe them—the compliments." So in-turn he asked what about that one percent. "Well, that's when I believe them." And they both burst into laughter.

After the day they just had the thoughts of how it wouldn't last forever began to slowly creep in from the back of their minds. They both knew the time they had with each other would be short-lived; Raina would soon be about 8319 kilometres away from home and away from him. This wouldn't be the first time either one of them would be in a situation like this one, absence makes the heart grow fonder, but it sure makes the rest of you lonely, and this was a feeling they were both too familiar with but even so, they did the best they could to make it count. So after another two days went by, he asked if he could see her again and once more she agreed to do so.

"I'm going to miss you when you leave," He had been holding that in for a while. "Stop it Yannis! You're going to make this sad," Raina interrupted him and with good cause. She didn't want the last time she saw him for a long time to be sad and filled with tears because she didn't want that to be the last thing she saw before she left. So they did their best to keep their minds off of the sad things by talking about everything else. Soon the sun began to set and daylight around them was slowly fading away—but that was the least of their worries, because it was time to say goodbye for a really long time.

"I think this is far enough. You have a long way back."

"Are you sure you don't want me to walk you all the way to your house?" He asked.

"That's sweet, but it's fine." They stood in the middle of one of the feeder roads, right at the junction, in front of a stop sign. She hugged him very tightly but even as she let go and said bye to him, he didn't move, not even after she took a step back. The look in his eyes said everything. Raina then took that step forward again, and was up against Yannis' body once more. Then he asked her a question, "Do you want me to kiss you?"
Him asking the question, only prompted the realisation that Raina indeed wanted him to do that. "Yes," she replied. She still had her glasses on and was probably distracted by the thought of kissing this boy she had now fallen for to realise that.

"You have to take your glasses off first don't you?" He laughed and Raina was laughing too as she clipped her glasses on the neck of her t-shirt. He pulled her close as he leaned forward, she put her arms around his neck and he kissed her gently at first but then not so much because she kisses him back harder and for a while it felt like time had just stopped. He put his hands on her face and her skin was soft and felt warm in his palms. They forgot where they both were in that moment before she pulled back.

"I have to go now," she said. He watched her as she walked away. Standing there at that junction, next to a stop sign, now surrounded by darkness, watching her walk away, his skin was on fire like he was about to combust and his heart—was ignited...