FALLING AROUND YOU ➵ DANIEL SEAVEY ➵ SEQUEL

18 ➵ One Piece of the Puzzle Aligned

"My thoughts are taking its sweet time in erasing him, but truthfully, he's still staining my days. Life is a series of choices between wonders, and I guess he's one of the wonders that I'm still stuck in solving."

_

The golden rays of the twirling light touched my skin. Above the clouds, the sun was peaking to its end and the moon was kissing it goodbye. The city didn't get to see the hidden beauty, but it didn't matter. The city was glorious on its own. Lights gleamed the chaos and cars roared across the streets.

"This is my favorite part," the girl left to me muttered looking out the window just as infatuated with the view as I was.

"How so?"

She smiled as the plane was slowly descending, "Between the clouds, it's like we're between two worlds. One in the heavens up above and one in the realities down below. I just think it's an incredible contrast between light and darkness. It's the balance of things that I think is very sentimental."

I was quite shocked at her answer. She didn't look much older than me, but she certainly looked a bit young to understand the principles of the universe. "How old are you?" I asked in curiosity.

"Freshly seventeen," she chuckled. "I look older for my age, don't I?"

It wasn't completely true, but her expressions stood with maturity and wisdom. Her hair was frosted in honey, a sort of brown color, but she it was too light to call her a brunette and too dark to say she was a blonde. Her eyes were coated in a forest green. She wore a simple black sweatshirt draped on top of her small body paired with loose rip jeans.

"Not old," I told her. "Just wise."

For a moment, we just stared out the window once more. Our vision wasn't on each other, but on the beautiful world we had surrounded ourself with. The once noise was the thick air from the plane circulating the guests' hearing.

"I'm Valerie," she spoke softly breaking the silence.

"That's beautiful," I muttered.

There was a sort of comfort in her eyes once I said those words. "Thank you," she grinned widely. "My mother wanted my name along with my sister's to have meaning behind them. Mine means strength and my sister's name means the star of the sea."

"You're mother sounds like a very wise women," I giggled, but her expression faltered.

"She truly was," she whispered. 

Suddenly, the air felt a little thicker as things seemed to become disconnected by me and requited stranger. Her gaze fell past me towards the window once more. I didn't want to impose on her with various questions, but it was easy to read that her mother was in the past — or at least, she wasn't positively present in her life now.

I cut the silence, "I'm Sienna by the way. Sienna Martin." The green vessels squinted at as if we knew each other in a past life, but simply couldn't remember. Her head twisted to the right supporting her intense glance before twisting back.

She looked defeated shrugging her shoulders, "You're name sounds familiar. It's like I can't put my finger on it, but I've still heard of it. Is that odd?"

"Slightly odd," I chuckled. I didn't really want to expose my career to her or recent lack of careers. We just met, being she was still a stranger to me. She was a kind and quite witty stranger, but nevertheless an unknown person in my life.

"Is there a reason your coming to Los Angeles?" she muffled my thoughts. There were a million reasons I came back, but for one purpose.

"I use to live here, and there's things I need to sort out before heading back to London next week." I stuck to a schedule. Last time I was in this grand city, I stayed months overdue playing around with my feelings like a board game between me and the baby blues.