There are reasons for why I shouldn't watch "Perks of Being a Wallflower" twice in a week as well as getting addicted to listening to "If I Lose Myself" By One Republic. This turned out deeper than I intended... so I apologise for that.. But still I hope you enjoy it~
-Mr Alex
It was the feeling of free falling, the feeling of weightlessness, the feeling of infinity before he fell back into the dark seat of rubber that had Alfred's heart racing. His ears drummed loudly with his heart beat, his hands clammy and moist as they gripped tightly onto the chains either side of him. The night sky stretched over the horizon like a black sheet that had been poked with holes allowing the bright sky behind to appear like shining stars. All was silent. Even steal against steal, no creaking, no squeaking. Just the rubber, the chains, a rushing heart beat, clammy hands and free falling.
He was falling backward then up again, facing the grass below him. Then he fell forward his legs straight, hands holding on tight. He swung high and then his weight lifted off the seat.
Free falling.
Weightless.
Infinite.
He thought he was alone. Alone in the darkness with the night sky and his free-falling but another boy stood, just on the other side the swing set. Staring, curiousity burning through large green eyes.
Alfred stared back, losing his momentum before he finally stilled watching the boy through a inquisitive gaze. He didn't think anyone else would be here. Not this late. Not in a park.
"Hello." He said holding onto the chain tightly.
"Hello." The boy said, his face expressionless. He held onto the main pole of the swing set, his long fingers white from the cold.
"I couldn't sleep." Alfred said staring straight into the other's large eyes, he looked around his age. He wasn't sure why he felt the need to explain himself but he was compelled to say something, anything to the boy beside him.
"Me neither…"
Alfred and the boy stood staring at each other before the green eyed boy looked up to the shining sky, the diamond stars reflecting in his eyes. "It's a beautiful night."
Alfred nodded looking up.
"I come here and just watch the sky sometimes…"
"Do you want to touch it?"
Alfred turned to the other raising his eye brow.
"Touch it?"
"You were swinging really high." The boy didn't meet his gaze, only staring at the sky wistfully. "You looked like you could touch the sky."
Alfred chuckled releasing the chain from his firm grip letting his hands rest between his thighs. He shivered in the cold and smiled softly.
"It's impossible. I just like the feeling."
"Of nothing to weigh you down?" The green eyed boy walked over sitting in the swing seat beside Alfred, resting his elbows on his knees, his eyes shone upward. Alfred looked up again a smirk pulling at his lips.
"Y-yeah… The free fall… It just feels like you could do anything, nothing can stop you, you're weightless, you're-"
"Infinite." The boy finally looked at Alfred again, a small smile on his face.
"Y-yeah…"
The boy nodded and turned back to the sky. "I want to touch it, the sky, it looks like clear water. I used to think that if I touched it, it would ripple like a pond." He chuckled shaking his head. "Isn't it funny how everything just feels possible back then? When you're young clueless and naïve… You can do and be what ever you want…"
Alfred watched the other with an innocent curiousity. That chuckle, that smile and those green eyes. It was so familiar and yet so new and fresh to him. The boy looked over at him and smiled sweetly. "You forget that hope, that youth, that positivity… It all goes away…"
"It doesn't have to go away…"
The boy gave Alfred a puzzled stare. Alfred looked down at his cold hands squeezing them between his thighs to warm them up.
"I feel it, all that.. Everything… In that moment…In that moment I'm invincible. I'm that kid again with that spandex Superman outfit, thinking that with that cape on you could really fly."
"Did you try it?"
"My arm was in a cast for two months" Alfred grinned.
The boy smiled.
They both sat in silence staring at the sky, the stars and the full moon that shone like a large lantern making the wet grass look painted in white. The trees rustles and glowed in silver, radiating in the light. Alfred wanted to ask questions, he wanted to know more about the boy beside him, he wanted to know his name.
Slowly he opened his mouth to speak, turning to the green eyed boy beside him but exhaled sharply when he saw the empty seat beside him swinging slightly in the wind. Alfred looked around quickly, his eyes searching, frantic.
He had just left.
Said nothing.
No goodbye.
Nothing…
Alfred stood his sneakers squeaking on the wet grass. Spinning trying to catch a glimpse of the boy with the large and deep green eyes. He was gone.
Alfred thrust his hand deep into his large jacket pockets and turned up the collar a brisk gust of wind chilling the park suddenly. He looked around once more before beginning to head home his brow creased, his mind confused.
Had the boy been there at all?
But he had been so vivid…
Alfred sighed and climbed back in through his window and laid in his bed staring at the cracked and peeling paint on the ceiling. That boy had been there… he wasn't dreaming…
He couldn't have been dreaming…
Alfred didn't sleep that night. His mind filled with the green eyed boy, that wistful look in his eyes, those stars that shone in that brilliant green, that smile, that laugh. Alfred tossed and turned through it all, his memories vivid and so real. He was going to find the green eyed boy again.
It had been almost a few weeks but he knew it was him the moment the sun drenched park came into view. He saw him, on the swing his back faced to him hunched and swinging gently back and forth the tips of his shoes touching the floor. Alfred with silence in each step began to walk closer and closer, the space between them growing smaller and smaller. His fingers gripped onto the chains just above him. Leaning down he spoke softly into the boy's soft pale ear.
"Reach up and touch the sky."
The boy smiled his eyes staring forward.
"Take me there."
Alfred felt the boy's grip on the swing tighten and pulled it backward before releasing it. The boy swung forward, his legs out, his eyes staring up, up toward the clear clue sky. Alfred pushed him higher and higher, each time the amount of time he would stay suspended would increase. He was floating, in the sky, able to touch it and watch as it rippled. The green eyed boy laughed and Alfred found himself floating in the sound. Harder and harder, higher and higher he would go.
"Touch it! Can you touch it yet?"
"Not yet! I'm so close" He laughed throwing his head back staring at Alfred upside down. Alfred chuckled and pushed him harder.
"Fly!"
"I will!" Higher and higher, harder and harder, longer and longer the boy floated above gravity, above worries, about pain. Free falling, weightless, infinite.
Alfred gradually began to slow the swing down the boy looking upside down at him again his hair falling from his face.
"Are you tired?" He asked.
"Yes."
The boy nodded before the swing stopped completely, his head still thrown back staring up at Alfred.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome." Alfred smiled. He then grabbed onto the chains again. He wanted to know the name of his green eyed boy. "What's your name?"
"Arthur." He smiled back.
"You push me Arthur."
The boy slid off his smile vanished. He gave a limp shrug, his expression meek.
"I can't, I have to go home now."
Alfred frowned disappointed and upset.
"Later?"
"Later." The boy echoed nodding before leaning over his lips brushing softly on Alfred's cheek . "I'll be back later." He then turned and ran off his feet making no noise as they touched the wet grass. Alfred ghosted a hand over the lingering tingle of Arthur's lips against his skin. He smiled softly, and sat on the seat, still warm from the heat Arthur left behind.
"Later." He echoed softly, smiling determined. "Later Arthur, it's a promise." He looked around the park at the children playing soccer, running, skipping, laughing, living like the small naïve, hopeful and big dreamers they were… he sighed and tilted his head up to the sky.
Perhaps not all that youth and positivity goes away, sometimes you need to feel that weightlessness, to remember what it was like to not have to think so deeply. You could just be. In those split moments you could be free of thought and just feel. He smiled. Sometimes you just need that push, to remember you can still dream, you can still hope, you can still reach up and touch the sky to see it ripple. Remember that even the simplest things could give you the most joy, whether it be free-falling on a swing or staring deeply into shining green eyes. Those moments when you lose the world around you. In those moments you are just living, just feeling, just being. You just needed that push.
He bit his lip and closed his eyes into the warm of the sun on his skin, the wind ruffling though his mattered hair. You just needed to be pushed, and he just hoped Arthur was the one that would. Push him higher and higher, into the sky where he just was. Perhaps they could go there together, just being free, just being with each other in the rippling sky.
Free falling
Weightless
Infinite.
What was that? I wrote a happy(-ish) ending on a short fic? OMFG! I think thats a new record... _
But Yay for me! XDD
Reviews are my fire to write~ So please give me a few seconds of you time to help make up the emotional trauma I suffered while watching "PoBaW" XDD
Love you all
-Mr Alex