Waves || Christian Yu

25: Blurry

He's not exactly sure when he booked his ticket.

It's all a blur.

He had been hammering through his work, blindly doing side projects to keep his mind occupied for the past 2 months between minimal calls and texts, just to check up on each other.

He felt numb.

Peering out the window, he could see the ground clearly through the clouds as the plane began to land. One headphone hanging out his ear, his eyes slightly red and glazed over from being in a trans-like stupor for so long.

She had no idea he was coming, and he had no intention of telling her since she might've declined him popping up for a visit. It was 2:13 pm and he only had a little over 2 hrs until she got off work.

He rented a car and drove around to kill time and tried to formulate some type of plan. His body practically moved on its own and he had just acted without thinking. The only idea he managed to conjure up was to wait on her doorstep so she'd have no choice but to say something. She'd have to at least ask him to move so she could open the door, after all.

But that would have a 50/50 chance of going bad.

Really bad.

But, it was the only shot he had... and he took it. She wasn't prepared to see the tussled black-brown hair appear over the flat surface of the last step as she slowly made her way up.

The end of the stair revealing more of the downtrodden figure with his forehead resting on his forearms, covering his face, "...Christian."

It wasn't a question; she knew it was him and why he was here. His hair had grown, covering his face as he looked up and gave her a weak smile due to being happy to see her, but also scared of how she'd react from seeing him.

"Hey..."

"When did you get here?" She took her last step, meeting the level corridor, peering over at his backpack against the wall.

"...a few hours ago." He leaned on his arm, pushing his weight to stand up, her eyes following his every move as he dusted off the back of his pants.

"So you've been waiting that long?"

"No... I'd say about an hour or so." He stepped to the side as she went to unlock the door, surprisingly without any contest as he followed behind her.

She hung her keys on the rack, sat her lunchbox in the kitchen, and put her purse away in her room, all without a sound.

She sat down on the sofa and he followed suit. They were silent for a moment, neither able to completely process their thoughts.

"So..."

"...so."

"Christian, I-"

"I'm sorry for just showing up."

"No, don't be. I kinda figured you would at some point. I just.."

"Can we stop this?"

"Ian-"

"No. I've been dying to see you and now that you're finally here in front of me... It's awkward." Ni'kiya's eyes stayed fixated on her fingers as she nervously fidgeted while he continued, "What do I need to do? I can't stand this."

"It's not you..." her voice was weak, she could feel herself dwindling by the second, "It's me. I hoped that I could bury my old way of thinking, but-"

"Then let me help you. Don't shut me out." he tugged her chin up to meet his eyes, both were red with irritation from lack of sleep and crying, matching his own.