Clad in Dying Petals
By: William Baliton
Staff Writer
Published April 25, 2018
Coated in heaven’s tears, the scent of petrichor glided on the breath of spring. There was an unusual warmth in the air, the kind only found in early summer.
Light, unpredictable tapping resonated from the onyx asphalt and outstretched branches, accompanied by the quiet splashing of two pairs of footsteps. Beneath the shade of a soaking umbrella, two childhood friends strode in almost perfect sync down a street filled with nostalgia. The girl glowed with smiles and giggles as she spoke about her day and the boy held tightly to the umbrella; hanging on every word with a mask of nervous laughter, hoping to conceal the sweat in his palms and the lightning bolts in his chest.
“Remember when we were in elementary school and we used to climb these trees and act like Tarzan on the way home?” the girl’s velvet voice asked as she gazed up at the blooming trees.
“Yeah, remember when you slipped on a branch and had to get stitches in your head?” the boy teased nervously.
“That’s because you didn’t catch me like I asked you to,” the girl justified.
“I didn’t need to catch you. You were like three feet off the ground!”
“If you were chivalrous, you would’ve caught me regardless.”
“So, carrying you home after that wasn’t chivalrous?”
“Well…” the girl argued in vain as her cheeks grew pink. “Okay, you got me there.”
“God, how many years has it been since then?” the boy wondered out loud.
“That was second grade and we’re in high school now so about nine years. I think. I’m so bad at math,” the girl laughed as she counted her fingers.
How many of those have I spent hiding my feelings? The boy wondered to himself quietly.
He let out a short sigh when he recalled the promise he made that morning. In the reflection of a foggy mirror, within the walls of a muggy bathroom, the boy stared himself down. His eyes were filled with flaming resolve as he spoke to his image, “No matter what it takes, no matter what happens, today, we’re going to tell her how we feel!” What followed was an entire day of nerve-racking anxiety which was now bottled up in the small space between him and the girl who unknowingly held his heart.
“Hey! You in there? Hello?” the girl spoke waving her hand in front of the boy’s face.
Quickly, the boy’s mind fell into his skull as he replied with a laugh, “Oh, sorry. I zoned out for a moment.”
“Where’d you go? You looked like a zombie,” the girl asked with concern.
“I was thinking about asking you something,” responded the boy as his heart exploded.
“Okay, what is it?” the girl inquired with an intrigued look.
Seconds evolved into what felt like hours as the boy tried to find the right words to say. Memories of their years together, the smiles they shared, the dreams they had, it all flooded into his mind as he searched desperately for something to say until his lips moved on their own.
“What kind of boy would you fall in love with?” the boy asked without thinking. Inside his head, chaos ensued as he asked himself repeatedly: What kind of confession was that!? The fires in his head were snuffed out when the girl began to speak.
She thought for a moment before speaking, her bubbly expression turned to seriousness, “Well, if I loved a boy…” The girl suddenly ran into the rain before continuing, “I’d want him to love me the way spring loves the sun and rain.”
“What do you mean?” the boy pried.
“I want someone to love me, not just for the pretty part of me, but for ugly part of me too,” the girl responded, grinning warmly. A moment passed before she asked timidly, “What about you? What kind of girl would you fall in love with?”
In that moment, the boy could only stare at her in helpless awe. This is it, the boy thought. When he saw her eyes shine like sapphires and her walnut hair sway in the gust of sighing blossoms; he lowered the umbrella, allowing the sky to baptize him. Anxiety inundated the space between them while the sun slowly flickered through the pale smears that coated the azure canvas above. Radiance struck the mirrors around them and the whole world looked like it was caught in a golden haze.
With certainty, the boy poured all he was worth into a single word: “You.”
The girl’s eyes widened and her cheeks grew red before the boy nervously continued, “I can’t think of a better girl in the world than you.”
A gentle tempest whispered, stirring the towering blossoms into the air as the boy waited for her response. Anxious seconds passed before the girl stepped towards the boy. He froze, watching her approach with what looked like tears welling in her eyes. The boy tried to speak, but before words could escape, he found himself caught inside her arms. Reverently, the boy wrapped his arms around her as the light, unpredictable tapping of the rain had ceased.
The two stood beneath the shade of towering magnolias and cherry blossoms and the flowered specks that fell from them. There was a familiar warmth between them, the kind only found at home. As the two slowly pulled away, the girl asked as lightning bolts struck inside her chest, “Do you really mean that?”
The boy returned a shrug and a sarcastic response, “Maybe, maybe not.”
Narrowing her eyes, the girl replied, “Come on, don’t tease me, do you mean it?”
With a warm grin, the boy responded honestly, “I do.”
Laughter followed as neither of them could wipe the smiles from their faces. There, the two childhood friends fell in love with each other’s sun and rain. They walked in perfect sync, hand in hand, down a street filled with nostalgia and vanished into rose-gold hues, clad in dying petals.
