meet me at twilight

ii

Sapnap was back out skating, running right over the time that those broods of teenagers were reeled into work or school. He himself worked online, through a laptop he'd had since he met Dream in high school. Sapnap liked designing websites, though it wouldn't be fulfilling without being able to jog, propel, and escape with nothing but a skateboard and his earbuds in between quotas from owners.

It was cloudy that day, with the bitter taste of impending rain and the greedy grip of greenish gray on the horizon. Was it tornado season? Sapnap didn't really know. He just kept gliding like he'd grown wings on the checkered deck of his board. The cacophony of the wheels on cracked concrete was drowned in the music plunged in his ears, taking his vast thoughts and turning them into nothing more than the color gray- the same as the sky.

Everything looked dreary except Sapnap, boredly doing simple ollies and flashy kickflips as he moved down beside the asphalt road. Dented and dull cars with cracked headlights groaned as he went past, the neighborhood was far from affluent. It wasn't as if he cared, though. It wasn't as if Sapnap pick and chose where he'd go before leaving the apartment he shared with Dream and George. He just went, just did. He swam through grand currents of wind that rushed the same direction as him with no regrets or thoughts.

A couple dozen minutes went by, the point where Sapnap knew he was doing damage to the type of skateboard he had from the distances he traveled. Seconds rapidly reproduced until he was out for an hour, going one direction and barely stopping to glance at where he was. That was when he found the flower field. Poppies, with their raging red and orange petals framing stunning black centers caught his eye. Sapnap turned the board and skidded to a stop at the shore of this gorgeous, scorching sea. A stomp on the nose later, the board was hooked under his arm.

They weren't planted, the poppies, their order was random and their small green bases like a quilt on brown dirt. Patches looked bare in some spots, others so crowded with flowers that it looked like living bouquets. The clouds still hung low and grim in the sky, but Sapnap thought the poppies looked better that way than in arrogant sunlight. He always thought things were better when they were just a sly away from perfect.

The boy pulled up the hood of his deep blue hoodie up and took a step into the field, preparing for an angry owner of the land to come storming at him with bolts of lightning flashing from their expression. Nothing happened other than a single drop of rain falling on Sapnap's bangs that weren't covered by the hoodie. He took another step, keeping his feet low to the ground so the most pain he caused was a bend in a stem, not the crumpling of a flower.

That's where Sapnap stopped, gazing out into the horizon and aching to go further into that lagoon of crimson and sunset. The boy had no clue how long he stood in that exact spot, as poppies began to sway from rancorous wind and raindrops pelting his face.

Sapnap stuck there until well past noon, until a truck drove bar recklessly on the abandoned road behind him, until mud and foul water splashed across his shoulders and the back of his hoodie. Only then did Sapnap put down his board and go home, eyes upset from how badly they wanted to gaze upon that clearing again and his demeanor stiff to keep his feet from turning himself around. With concise, measured movements, he made his way home. Sapnap didn't look back, but he didn't have to. That field and the exact way to get there had branded itself in his blood, nerves, heart, and brain.

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Karl stood in the shower that same night- well, the next morning. He wasn't sure of the time, just knew Rhett had left him on the bed with the sheets all rucked and pillows in disarray. Some part of him thought it was about 2 in the morning. He knew it was relatively believable, after how long Rhett's skin had touched his and then how he'd slipped into uneasy dreams afterwards. The boy pursed his lips and shrugged.