𝙽𝚘 𝚂𝚝𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜

STRANGERS

Cierra clutched her straw hat tight as a wind rose, her other hand reaching down to keep her sundress from flying. Her brown coils danced around her face, featherlight steps dragging along her freckled cheeks.

She gazed up at the burning sun when the wind finally calmed, her eyes squinting. She giggled a bit as she ran her toes along the sand, the sensation familiar. Cierra was in her own world as she bathed in the summer sun.

As she stepped forward, she accidentally bumped into someone, her nose scrunching up in pain. All breath escaped her as she looked up, her lips parting in shock. Her jaw worked to form the words racing through her mind but no sound came out.

She pulled away but then paused. Should she hug him? Should she wave? Say hi? Walk away without a word? Jump and wrap her tan legs around his waist as she used to?

When she said nothing, he simply smiled and said, "Hi." She croaked out a hi back. He smiled once more and walked away, leaving her there to process what had just happened.

No, she should not hug him. No, she should not jump on him. Why? Because they were now strangers.

Crazy isn't it? How lovers could turn to strangers?

How the person who once knew every crevice of your body, heart, and soul, the person who held you in the dark of night and soothed your worries like a balm made just for you, who brightened your world and rained kisses along your dewy skin could now simply walk away from you after a mere "hi"?

He looked at Cierra with nothing to say. She looked at him with a dictionary of words to say, but her heart knew better.

In this place, where they met, where they shared all their firsts, she was still Cierra and he was still Sean. Yet they were not the same.

Strangers to friends. Friends into lovers. And yet again, strangers.