Whispers under starry sky [DRABBLE]

“I always watched you from behind,” he said sighing. “All your timid steps when you first came to class, all your failures and success while trying to make friends, all your tears and smiles that you gave to everyone else. Everyone else, except me”

His eyes followed torch bugs, which were flying around them.

“You know, I thought that watching you smiling was enough for me. As time passed by I understood that I wanted way more,“ he became silent for short and then smirked, “heh, I guess greed became my perdition.” Murmuring last sentence under his breath, he covered his face with palms and stopped talking.

She bi t her lip slightly and looked at him. After breathless sigh she started to talk shyly, more like whispering, but loud enough for him to hear “You know, whenever I smiled, I never saw people faces. I mean, I never paid attention to whoever was talking to me. I always imagined that I was speaking with certain someone.” She smiled timidly, unaware that he was watching her every move, listening to her every word like it could save his life from drowning in the depths of despair and greed.

“I could say that I was blind in some way… Didn’t want to see their faces, hear their laughs and flirts. I didn’t even want to acknowledge their effort trying to get to know me. But in the end, I put my plastic and fake smile and went along with everything they wanted to see. “

“So all those smiles were fake ones?” he asked, watching at her from the corner of the eye.

“Only in the beginning. Once I learned how to ignore their appearance… No, their faces and imagine someone else, I finally was able to smile and express my emotions freely. But deep inside I still understood that the entire act was useless because HE wasn’t there,” she smiled sadly, but gave warm look to the starry night sky.

When he saw that expression, he left wandering, who was that ‘HE’. “What would happen if ‘HE’ would notice you?” he asked.

“I’d probably be the happiest person in world”, she said smiling brightly and lovingly. “But, that probably never would happen…” smile disappeared from her face.

“Why?”

“Because…” she gazed at torch bugs, as they started to dance above the lake. “HE will never appear in front of me. I have to imagine HIS face every time I communicate with other people, or else I won’t be able to smile again.”

Losing to his curiosity he frowned and finally got courage to ask one thing that intrigued him the most. “Whose face are you imagining? And who is ‘HE’?”

She kept silent for few minutes, which caused him to grow more impatience. But after she spoke, her words left him stunned and speechless.

“In the end, the only one I wanted to see was you.”