nnaylih
The crowds cheered as he went through the tunnel of the mass that came to support him. The faces blurred together, a riot of colors and smiles.
Yet, amidst the sea of adoring gazes, he couldn't take his mind of what he did not see, the eyes that didn't meet his. He wanted her to be there, he needed her to be there. How could victory hold meaning if she wasn't there to celebrate it with him?
Coach Hamil's arm settled on his shoulder, as his voice rang through the jubilant roar. "Do you hear that, son? That's the sound of unity."
Unity. It seemed insane. To be surrounded by so many who had gathered in solidarity, yet yearn desperately for a single glance from her. Crazy how one could drown in the faces of admiration, yet suffocate in the absence of the one he needed to see the most...
She was never one prone to completely lose her senses. She was known to be composed, calm, collected. Yet, when there was no way to see what was coming for her, it was hard not to expect that she would run the other way. There she stood, exposed to her deepest buried secrets, grasping to the defense mechanism that was always her trusted refugee. “Have some control, Lex”, she said to herself. Once, she had a plethora of those, in fact, at one point in her life it was all she really had. Yet, there she stood, exposed to her deepest buried secrets.
As Nora stepped out of the airport doors she felt the first signs of homesickness hitting her harder than a truck on the Miami highways.
As similar to home as Florida was, Nora couldn't help but recall how dissimilar home was to Florida. Home was summer - real summer.
Home had sun, and sure, so did Florida, but home had a gentle wind to go with it.
As Nora kissed the sultry Florida air hello, she couldn't keep herself from remembering the way she had just kissed the summer breeze of home goodbye.
It wasn't in the way she always smiled at everyone, or in the way she always seemed to be nice to everyone.
It wasn't in the way she arrived in a room, and immediately made sure that everyone knew she was there.
Nor was it in the way she sometimes chose to turn up quietly in a room, just to know who was aware that she was there.
It wasn't that she wanted to be noticed, or remembered, for all it mattered, had she not been anymore.
It was more in the way she desperately wanted people to be reminded that she was.
The way his eyes slipped right past me, as our paths crossed down the hall, shattered me.
It made the void inside me only emptier.
It is hard to believe I could be barer than I was a couple of days ago, when his mere words destroyed every little particle of what seemed to be my frail mind.
But words don't hurt as much as being nonexistent in ones life.
Words are merely collateral damage to the way not being acknowledged could desolate you.
She stared blankly at the empty space where the plane used to be. Couldn't believe this was happening to her. She had it in her hands! She was minutes away from it all. In an instant, every little hope she had in her was gone. How she longed her mother's arms around her, telling her over and over again that everything is going to be ok. Her last phone conversation with her mother was on repeat in her head. "Don't worry mama. I'll be home soon."
She opened her eyes and accepted the fact that she was ready. She was ready for this life. Ready to receive and embrace the beauties that it brings. She was not afraid anymore. Little did she know, that it was not her life that was about to change. What truly shifted in this very moment, was the way she saw the world. To him, this was all that matters.
Sometimes it seems as if people are never satisfied. They get everything they ever wanted, yet not even days later there's this other thing that they want more that anything in the world. I can't help but wonder if people were given the world, would they still be satisfied?
As I opened the old wooden box that my grandma left me, I took in all the jewelry that was so precious to her. I couldn't help but thinking: why me? Was I always her favorite?