Nothing Gold Can Stay
As I noticed the thick dark sky started to lighten up from black to lighter shades of yellow and pink I put down the book I was reading, rubbed my sleepy eyes and got ready to enjoy the beautiful view that was yet to come. I looked up at the valley that was covered in mist, including my hair that was already matted to my face and clothes. Some of it broke away and floated away in the small clouds to make way for the beautiful, golden piece of this earth ready to rise up. The sky gradually got lighter in the east with shades of yellow and pink and there was a thick gold line streaming across the horizon. Damn, that looked amazing & pretty, and golden. I checked my watch; it was 6:40am. Almost time. I yawned and rubbed my eyes again, trying desperately to keep myself awake since I was awake since 5am. It was early, but it was worth it. Sleepiness was catching up to me and I knew any second now I would pass out and fall asleep in the open field.
As I closed my eyes and laid back I felt something sharp point my shoulder, It stung like a bee, I looked over my shoulder and saw a brown, lean, sharp pointing stick jabbing my shoulder. I looked up to see who it was.
"Carlos. Buddy, I see you got my text"
He blinked and rubbed his eyes. He was paler than usual and he yawned, immediately taking a seat right next to me. He looked exhausted.
"Yeah Logan, I did. And why did you drag me out here to the middle of nowhere at 7 in the morning?" he asked sleepily. I could tell this was the last place he wanted to be right now.
"You'll see." I said with a smile.
We sat there in silence. There was a special reason why I wanted to bring Carlos out here, I could've chosen Kendall or James to tag along with me but there was something about Carlos that made me bring him here. He wasn't the brightest crayon in the box and he came from a rough family. A dad who he barely sees and spends time with, and a mom who yells at him constantly and disrespects him all the time. He was the oldest of six crazy/loud kids & it seemed like nobody had the time to care about him. I live across the street from him; I know his family very well. I see him roaming the street a lot, having nowhere to go & constantly getting in trouble with the cops. Maybe he does that to get his parents to pay attention to him? Who knows, but his family doesn't care if he's home or not, they wouldn't even care if he was dead. He recently started smoking. He told me that he didn't care if it would kill him, he wishes he was dead. His life was like a dark rain cloud. He felt like nobody in the world would care about him. He doesn't see any good in the world and life. I'm going to change that for him. I'm doing him a favor, a favor for a kid whom I loved since we first met, at age 4, 12 years ago.
Carlos was relaxed next to me with his legs crossed, arms folded behind his head and he was chewing on the end of a small toothpick he had in his mouth.
"So, what's the deal? You're wasting my time." Carlos snapped at me. Wow, he was getting mouthier every day.
I sighed. "Just wait a few more minutes Carlos." I looked over at him and saw he was lighting a cigarette. I wished that this sunset would make him see some good in the world.
Carlos snapped at me again. "I need to get new friends; this is wasting my-"He was cut off by a bright gold circle slowly rising up from the meadow. The whole sky lit up, the mist had turned golden along with the trees. It was beautiful. As the sun rose, we were both silent. We watched the sun rise for a few minutes. Carlos broke the silence as the sunset ended.
"Wow, Logan. That sure was pretty, especially the mist. It was all golden and silver"
I nodded. "Yep, I sat up and looked at Carlos with the image still stuck clear in my head. Carlos threw away his cigarette.
"Too bad it couldn't stay like this forever."
"Nothing gold can stay"
"What?" Carlos tilted his head and looked at me.
Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold,
Her early leaf's a flower,
But only so an hour,
Then leaf subsides to leaf,
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to dry,
Nothing gold can stay.
Carlos had on the biggest smile I have ever seen from him in my life. He gleamed with joy.
"Where'd you learn that?"
"Robert Frost wrote it. He meant more to it than I'm getting, though. "I always remembered it because I never quite got what he meant by it."
Carlos stared up into the sky, trying to capture an image of the perfect sunset. He looked happier than I've ever seen him before.
"You know," he said slowly as he closed his eyes. "I never noticed colours and clouds and stuff until you reminded me about them. It seems like they were never there before."
He yawned and looked at me straight in the eyes. "That sunset, It gave me a whole different meaning to life. There are still lots of good in the world, and you have plenty of time to make yourself who you want to be."
He flicked the toothpick out of his mouth. "The message was you're gold when you're a kid, like green. When you're a kid, everything is new, like dawn. It's just when you get used to everything that it's day. It's good to be."
My eyes glowed at Carlos. He found out the meaning before I did, surprisingly, but I think that sunset made Carlos see who he really was.
"Sunsets are beautiful, we need to tell Kendall & James about them." I put a finger on his lips. "No, they won't understand. I mean, they wouldn't understand what we both saw. They wouldn't understand the beauty of the sunset."
I gulped and my cheeks turned bright red, I stared into Carlos's chocolate brown eyes.
"And guess what, they wouldn't understand the beauty that you have" I smiled wide at Carlos and stroked his cheek.
He stared at me for a few seconds, he looked startled. Then I saw him smile and stroked my cheek too. He felt loved.
"L-Logan, y-you t-think I'm b-beautiful?" Carlos asked with a surprised voice.
"Yes Carlos, you're beautiful, flawless, amazing, lovable, funny, charming sweet & caring. And I've always cared about you, since we first met."
Without any hesitation, I kissed his lips very lightly, wondering if this was a smart move to make and surprisingly, Carlos kissed back! I laid back down again with Carlos still kissing me and I kissed deeper than before. I pulled Carlos down on top of me & we continued to kiss deeply until the sun was fully out and shining bright down at us.
I looked at Carlos deeply and rubbed his sides carefully, then kissed his forehead.
"Will you be my boyfriend Carlos?"
He nodded.
"I love you so much Carlos and I'll never stop loving you."
"I love you too, baby.
As the poem that Robert Frost wrote says "Nothing Gold Can Stay", I knew he was wrong. Me & Carlos Garcia were golden and I had a good feeling we were going to last forever.