Winter's Kiss (Summer Rain #2)

VI ~ Familiar

{I Don't Mind- Defeater}

...Let's talk about the summer, and how you wish it wouldn't end, did I forget to tell you, how pretty you looked in that dress? In the first time that I saw you, you cleaned the mess from my head...

----

There was a time when I wished that I could have bottled the chemical reaction that happened between Elliot and me when the world used to blur into a surreal moment of pure bliss, how the shivers and burning heat that once rose in my cheeks with his eyes crashing into me would make me feel. The tangled thoughts and crystal clear sensations like every moment which was stretched out like the vast expanse of the oceans in his crystal blue eyes. The catch in my breath with every single silky touch, like I was porcelain, and he wanted to preserve the perfection he saw. I used to wish that I could have bottled his smile so that on New York days when the sky only knew the colour grey, and there was no sign of a rainbow to dye it back to normal, it wouldn't have mattered so much as I had a pocket full of the sunshine that shone from his porcelain smile, wide and bright like the morning rays.

If there had been a way to keep him with me always, that did not restrict him or bind him like a flightless bird, I would have done it. I would never have spent three years without him beside me, but owning someone isn't love. Love is the sacrifice of ownership and control, trusting that people won't leave.

But I was no longer that girl from long ago. I was looking for something stable, safe, something I never had to feel the pain of losing like I did when he left. We both separated, leaving that Summer in its own bubble of memory as we never could forget it or bundle it in with any other. I let him go. I refused to bottle him into a potion that would eventually cripple me with each frozen memory.

Yet there he was, standing, real and just as he was before, like some dream.

----

16th October

AVA

"Ava, Ava wake up," his voice was soft as my eyes opened, the lights above blinding as Elliot tucked an arm under my back to sit me up slowly.

"Did... Did I?" This was it. This moment would haunt me forever. Fainting?

"Well I've never had that reaction before, I guess," he joked, his body less tense as he saw I was alright.

"I must still be..." I could not say hungover. I could not say hungover. "Dehydrated. Busy day."

"You were only out for a few seconds, don't worry," he said comfortingly before helping me stand back up.

I took the opportunity to sit back down on the piano seat, its plush red leather calling my name. After a few deep breaths, the realisation began to set in, my nerves going haywire as he stood by the piano, his hair still curly but somehow musclier than before, only slightly, but I remember him so precisely from before. Still, I wasn't the same either.

"Is this happening?"

"I don't quite know yet, part of me is still half-convinced I'm in some manic, coherent dream, and the other part of me is trying to process this as reality," he laughed, trying to lighten the mood. I was happy; it just felt insane.

"How are you here?" The words rolled off my tongue quickly.

"I... I got this job. I was hired to be a part of this project for the University. My manager said it was a good opportunity," he shrugged. "God, this is crazy... You're here. Standing... There--"