Love and the Sea and Everything in Between

chapter four

I skip classes Thursday and stay in my room all day. I don't bother to shower. I don't even leave my bed except to use the restroom. Liz texts me, asking why I skipped classes and I tell her that I wasn't feeling well.

The rest of the day is empty and before I know it daylight turns to night. But before the darkness comes, I pull myself from my bed long enough to leave the dorm and climb onto the roof. It's cold and I didn't bring my jacket out with me. I face the sunset, watching the light fade from me. I can feel it, too. I try to hold onto it, the warmth and the brilliance, but it leaves me. Isn't that the way it goes? The light always leaves no matter how much you don't want it to.

But... I suppose that's all the more reason to enjoy the light while it's here. I do just that and then, I notice that, even though I'm in the center of the city and I'm surrounded by artificial light and the sun is gone, the stars seem especially bright tonight.

It's a funny thing. Even the darkness seems brighter since I met her.

* * *

Friday.

I abandon my room in time to make it to my classes, where I see Liz. She walks over and sits beside me this time and my heart beats a little faster. "Feeling better?" she asks.

"Much," I say with a nod.

"Good." She plops her backpack down on the table in front of us and proceeds to pull her laptop out. "How about we walk the track after classes?"

I look up at her. "That sounds perfect." She smiles just as the professor walks to his podium and begins roll call.

After class, we take our things to our rooms and meet outside the dorms. Following the sidewalk, we come to the track that circles the field and step onto the gravel.

It's overcast, so I ask, "What do you see in the clouds?"

We watch them on the horizon and above us, finding the pictures and shapes in them and calling them out by name.

"That one looks like a Unigator."

"A Unigator?" I chuckle.

"Yeah! It's a cross between a unicorn and an alligator."

"That doesn't count."

"Sure it does," she protests.

I just laugh and we go on like this. After a while, though, she has to leave for an appointment with her academic advisor. I walk her back to the sidewalk and as she walks away, she turns her head and gives me a smile. "Bye. Thanks for the walk."

I smile and give a short wave. "No. Thank you."

With that, she leaves.

I don't think I could ever forget her smile.

* * *

Saturday, Sunday, Monday all pass in a blur, fragments in my head until they all jumble together and I can't tell one from the other. I haven't seen Liz since our walk Friday. Finally, I get to see her again in class on Tuesday morning. She's a little late, so we don't get to talk before the professor starts roll call. But she smiles and waves and I do too. I avoid Jeremiah like the plague and I don't look at him, even though, out of the corner of my eye, I can see his head turned me. I've no room for his judgment. Not today.

When class is over, Liz and I meet just outside the classroom door and I walk her back to the dorms.

"So what do you do in all your free time? You seem to spend a lot of time in your room."