Walk in the light: Legend novella

June (4)

June

1907 hours, July 11

Batalla sector, Los Angeles

75°F

The subway ride to Ruby was well.....quiet. Almost too quiet, most people were already where they want to be by now and there was no one but us and a man in his early thirties engrossed in a book he was reading.

The silence gave me too much room to think. And I wasn't really happy with the thoughts floating around in my mind. They were mostly about my year with Day. More specifically, the day I left him.

Before I knew it I was having a flashback, but it was more like I had traveled back in time. Everything, every detail about that morning was so clear, so exact. I saw him again. I saw the confused look in his eyes and I felt the same stab of emptiness. The thoughts that floated around in my head were the exact same things and in my mind I saw myself make the choice to leave him. It hurt as much as it did when I was a teenager, breaking my own heart. I saw the sorrow it would bring me for ten unbearable years. Ten years I had dreaded that I made the right choice; but I did. I stepped back and let some sort of fate pass like a wall between us. I waited for time to heal the wounds we had, and it might not have even worked. I know it didn't for me.

But, he was here with me right now, and there has to be a reason- not Tess- but something bigger than her. Tess didn't tell him about me, she knew I didn't want her to and she was enough of a friend that she didn't. Tess was irreplaceable but she wasn't the one to bring us together tonight. I think.....I think it was destiny. I scoffed at my naïve thinking. I thought I had left my teenage years behind. Chances are it was the exact opposite, chances are the fates are being cruel to me again. That they'll give me a taste of Day, of what we could of had- only to have it taken away from my grasp.

I was studying all the possibilities, and each one was more heartbreaking than the last. Eventually I closed my eyes and leaned my head back. Day lit up my world like a torch, even through all my thoughts a part of my mind was keeping track of every move he was making. And now he nudged me. My heart sped up. God, how did he still have that effect on me?

"Hey, its time to get off." He whispered after I didn't open my eyes.

"Oh, okay." I felt like I was off my game, considering it was only five stops we had to ride and I knew we had already passed four.

The night air helped me clear my mind, and I was grateful. Day seemed to want to talk because he would turn to me slightly, open his mouth then shut it again. He kept glancing at me, then furrowing his brows, as if he was puzzled. I pretended that I didn't notice.

***********

We stopped in front of Tess's apartment door.

He put a hand up to knock on the polished oak, but then hesitated. Then he glanced at me again and narrowed his eyes. It was as if he was afraid to change the fact that we were alone. As if he didn't want to.

But right now, I couldn't take being alone with him.

So I knocked on the door and the sounds of talking in the room stopped.

"Well, I wonder who that could be." I could tell Tess was smiling from the tone she used.

The door flew open, before us stood Tess, she was wearing a navy colored blouse and pencil skirt. I immediately felt underdressed. But it didn't matter when I saw the mischievous gleam in her eye as she took in the two of us standing in the door way. Day's face lit up as he hugged his old friend.

"Hey cousin." He greeted, a cheerful smile spreading along his lips. He seemed completely at ease as he used the old slang.

Then he stepped aside to let me hug her too. Tess took a step back, surveying her work.