Solemn Whisper
by moonlight butterfly

"What is her favorite color then?" a soft-spoken lad asked and his mint eyes widened in amusement.
"And just when all of this gonna end." Sara sighed. The cold breeze of the wind blew her gold locks of hair and it swayed with the rhythms of serenity. Her dazzling blue eyes gazed beneath her looping eyelashes.
"Red" she added and she stared thwart the soft sunset.

She walked back a couple of steps then she pushed herself forth and the swing began its pendulum movement.
"Aha! Just as I suspected when she showed adoration to those crimson tulips I sent for her last summer" he grinned and, too, swayed his seat on the swing beside the girl and enjoyed the tranquil humid of autumn as the wind gently touches his cheeks with each sway.

They endured the beauty of the late sunset as they converse about each other's most intimate details.
"Do you think she has that something for me? I mean."
"I can't really say." she murmured.
"How come you don't know, you're her most trusted confidant!" he exclaimed.
The swing slowed down and Sara rose from her seat.
"Because I really can't tell! How come you ask me of such things, aren't you sure yourself?" she stormed and she hurried toward the gate of a vast building.
Arthur, perplexed and amused, stood to follow her. Then he saw her looked back.
"Hurry up! Break time's over you namby-pamby!" she cried and he hastened his pace to catch up to her.

It was a sunny morning. The two souls met at the same place where they used to see each other. The subtle approach of the weather made them feel at ease with each other despite the growing tension between them.
"Sorry about yesterday" she faltered, seated on the swing steadily standing.
"It's alright. I'm just surprised on how you acted yesterday. Why are you incensed the last time anyway?" he stated and he turned to meet her eyes.

She looked at him with her azure eyes and was held spell bound for a moment. His warm features struck her. His ebony hair dances with the wind's kiss on his head. His lips which utter no word rose such a sensation to her making the palpitation of her heart almost audible echoing the silence of their gazes.

He felt her heart reached out for her. Suddenly he felt different. He's somebody else each time they're close to each other's breathing, like as if her air was his, her heartbeat was his too and that there's a strong connection between them that none could ever recognize, even break. But it's wrong.
"Irene was great. We had a lot of fun last time watching the new movie by Steven Spielberg" he faltered.
With that hint, she blinked, breaking the string that connects their stares and she turned away from him.
"Good for you. I know you'd been happy" she smirked. And she swayed her seat and the swing moved swiftly.
"You know, it always makes me laugh--"
"What?"
"How our classmates always make a fuzz about our closeness. If they didn't know I am courting Irene, they would mistake I am courting you instead of her" said Arthur and Sara turned to him as the color rose on her cheeks.
"Maybe because we are so close to each other that they think there's something going on besides our friendship..." she gazed at him mischievously searching for that simple clue that will clear up all things for her. What does she really mean to him? They've been together for so long and it will be doubtful that he, not even at some point in his life, never falls for her. But there's no lying in the look of his eyes as he turned to her. There is so much passion in them, so much gentleness in them making her feel as if he's only like that when it comes to her, not even with Irene, like there's so much more. but she keeps telling herself that it is just her thought. It can never be loves someone else.
"Nah, just don't bother wasting your time thinking about those silly people" and he chuckled.
She doesn't know but that made her feel the emptiness back again.
"What do you say I get my hair cut?" he inquired and she startled to get back from her musings to their conversation.
"I don't think that nice. Your hair looks fine. And besides, she loves your tresses", she replied.
"She said that?" he exclaimed and he grinned.

The wind started to blow colder. The heat of the sun leveled up and it met the steel foundation of their hanging seats.

The two decided to sit under a sturdy tree that seemed to have not shed off its leaves yet. They squatted under the cool shed and watched the doves on its fleet, forming a v-shaped pattern in the vast welkin.
Sara looked at her companion and hesitantly began:
"Arthur", she uttered. The boy looked straight into her direction then she continued.
"Do you see me as a friend? Or just somebody to talk with when problems arise or stuffs concerning Irene? Would I be your friend if I hadn't been her friend? And do I have to thank serendipity for all of this?" and she searched for an honest reply in his eyes.
"Of course you are my friend. And you just don't know how grateful I am to have you in my life" he answered in a tone she never before heard.
She didn't know but she found herself smiling with his remark and she watched him closely as he smiled back at her.

Somehow she was glad. That she was the one whom he could turn to when he's got a problem. That they know almost everything about each other and that it was her shoulder where he cries on and her hand he searches for whenever he gets lost. She was so thankful that even if she doesn't mean that very special for might just as well be his second special.
"Hey how about some music?" she spoke and she pulled the collection of mellow songs they both loved. She wore one of the earpiece and the other she gave to him to place on his ear. They sat right next to each other, their head carefully nodding, sipping the sweet music in their ears. Suddenly, the earpiece pulled away from his ear and he heard her singing voice.

How can you give your heart to someone else and share your dreams with me. He was all of a sudden mesmerized by her sweet, gentle voice that brought the hasty rhythms in his heart as she sang his favorite part of the song "Save the Best for Last". He didn't even bother to pick up the earpiece and put it back to his ear for his very soul leaps out for what he hears. She turned to him, smiling as she sing and there was suddenly that feeling of I-don't-want-to-lose-her and I-can't-imagine-life-without-her inside him.

Late afternoon when they were walking home bound, it rained. A sudden perplexity of nature. But instead of being afraid to get home all soaking wet, they decided to play a little rain and danced along the streets empty of passenger cars and vehicles. Arthur, for the sake of fun, began again his investigator whatnot interrogation session with her.
"Do you think she would like it if I wear an earring?" as he hops and runs here and there with his arms in an eagle-spread posture as if catching all the rain he could.
"Nope" she answered giggling as if every drop of rain tickles her. Their clothes dripping wet but they enjoy what they do.
"How about a tattoo?" he asked.
"Definitely not" she exclaimed.
"Hair color?"
"No"
"How about a mustache?"
"I can't tell," she said.
Laughter filled the surrounding. But the gaiety didn't take long enough when Arthur stated:
"I don't know she likes a music box until I gave her one as a gift last month. She was so delighted!" he grinned as he splashes the small lake of water on an uneven ground.
"You.d-didn't..tell m-me..that." she replied and there was a sudden change of mood in her as she gazed at him mischievously and her mind obscured.
"Oh, didn't I? I must've forgotten" he remarked. 'How could he do this to me? He knows just how much I love collecting music boxes. How could he give one to her? And I know Irene could have not even fancy getting one yet.' she thought and that brought her that feeling of agony, a state of depression like when a business tycoon lost his money in a game of poker.
"Do you think she would love to have another one on Christmas?" he inquired. 'Yeah, that is so you. How come you never give me gifts? You never even care greeting me on special occasions and even on my birthday! While Irene has all your time and gifts and phone calls and. You only see me as someone to ask about what Irene likes, what Irene doesn't like, what Irene..! No other words matter to you more but Irene! She has hurt you and lets you wait I am always caring and waiting, just , she has always won your heart,' Sara thought.
"No!" she cried and started her heavy steps toward her house.
"B-but how can you say so? If you only saw how she adored that gift I bought her." he spoke, running after her, bewildered about the sudden metamorphosis of her from one joyful caterpillar to an ill-tempered butterfly.
"Well I think she didn't really like that! You know a mere act of pretending. She doesn't like gifts at all" her forehead creased as Arthur finally reached her and was walking beside her in the pouring rain.
"Then what does she like?" he inquired.
"As far as I know, she likes a man who knows how to handle himself, trustworthy, always sincere and concern, gentleman, loving."
"Are those what she likes or what 'you' like in a man?" there was that obvious emphasis as he had spoken the phrase "you like".

She froze for a moment. She was stoned into her place. Their eyes burning at each other's stares. A couple of blocks away from her house and there were a delay. Yet a reasonable delay. She felt him moved closer to her and she felt his heart toward her. She could feel his breathing on his face. Then he spoke in a very gentle note.
"Do you love me?"
"I can't", and it was so much like a whisper. Tears flowed down her eyes. Finally, she ran away from him and headed toward her house without even taking a last glimpse of him under the rain.

A couple of months passed of no communication between them and the shattered Sara spent most of her vacant hours in her room after school, ignoring the hundred of times their paths met and just do nothing to change what had occurred that separated them. The more she sees him, the more painful it is and yet there's no more hope for them.

Graduation Day. The sorrowful scent of farewell is in the air. Everyone is trying to make their very last day in school worth the while by dancing the night away in the evening graduation ball arranged exclusively for the graduates of that year. Sara, dressed in long, strapless apparel bleached in blue extending to the soles of her feet, found herself talking with friends and a couple of invisible companions making her night accommodating. Then, unconscious of the hand that led her to the dance floor, she found herself swaying with the romantic rhythms of waltz, and her hands clasped around a tall lad's neck and below her waist were a pair of strong hands gripping it. She looked up and found herself dancing with Arthur.
"I love you" he whispered as he stared down at her with those exquisite green eyes saying that a hundred percent of what he'd said was true. Tears rushed down her cheeks and she hugged him tight.
"I love you too" she wept and his shoulder soaked in tears.

Suddenly, he jerked and burst into laughter.
"Ha! Got ya' there! I never thought you'd fall for that" he laughed almost teary-eyed. Her arms loosened around her neck.

Sara froze at the moment. Her thought couldn't coincide with the reality of what was dreams suddenly turned into a nightmare. Her knees shaking, her breast rising tumultuously breathing heavily, beyond is her heart struck by a million of barbed shaft. There was a lump in her throat and she feels like crying.
But she composed herself. She doesn't want to cry. No, not now. Not in front of him.
"Oh..w-well, I.I'm just kid-dding too when I replied with "I love you", she giggled bitterly, hardly breathed the last words "..didn't realize you'd fall f..for t-that either" she mocked but tears get in her way and there's no way she can prevent it. It was just .

The mood changed into a sudden stillness of the surrounding and with a straight look that passed on his face he whispered.
"Hey, I missed and I are getting along well now. In fact, she's my girlfriend now" he looked straight into her eyes and her hands turned as cold as ice, her face lost its color and turned livid and blunt.
" then.I knew this is all you'd ever wished for.." she stated bitterly.
"Friends?"
"Y-yeah. Sure."

The dance turned into an end and he had to leave her then. Sara was left there, at the center, . She was astonished on how the sequence of the events had occurred.

"Now.I had lost him should have figured out that when I told him that I love was no joke at all" she .

As the tormented soul stood there, another soul turned to see the other, twice as broken.

Sara's eyes desiccated with the last teardrop that fell down on her cheeks. The scent of solitude enveloped her desolated soul. The irony of life.

-The End-