The heels of her shoes clacked loudly as she dashed down the corridor. Books held tightly in her arms, she sprinted as well as she could in those uncomfortable black shoes, skidding around corners and stumbling when her balance threatened to fail. "I'm late I'm late I'm -"
And then a soft, uneven pillar sprung up before her. She didn't see it until she crashed into it, her nose squashing against it and her mouth squinching.
"Ouch..." She stumbled backwards and rubbed her face with her sleeve, grimacing as a flash of pain went through her head. "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I - !" She glanced up at the pillar.
Soft eyes, generously lined with thick black eyelashes, stared down at her. Her breath caught in her throat, creating a tight and uncomfortable vacuum that squeezed her insides.
And those same eyes crinkled slightly as their owner spoke. "It's okay. It happens to everyone, right?"
She couldn't speak, she couldn't even absorb his words. For the longest moment, she was simply falling, mesmerized, into golden eyes rimmed with impossibly long and flared eyelashes.
Her mouth slowly opened and her eyebrows slowly rose in a questioning lilt. And her eyes, blue as sapphires, danced with unfathomable emotion. "You - What is your name?" Her voice came out in a cracked hush.
He blinked lightly and tilted his head. Her throat squeezed once more at the familiar gesture. How...
"I'm Reynold."
Her thoughts were shattered, along with the grip that threatened to suffocate her. They came crashing down, and what was left was neither relief nor comfort. "Oh... I'm sorry, I thought you were... someone else." As she spoke, she slowly edged away. That face, that voice... It was impossible. Frightening, even. But even so, it drew her forward and lit her on fire, and she...
She was afraid.
No.
She was hurt.
A tsunami of disappointment and memories and feelings she did not understand drowned her, threatening to rip apart her delicate composure.
His brow furrowed in confusion, but he too began to turn away. "Well, sorry about that. Have a good day."
And then his slender frame was departing down the corridor, with the same gait and gentle footfalls that she had once prayed to see and hear every day.
Her face moved of its own accord in reply to his words, and even though he couldn't see her face now, it drew up into a smile anyways. "Yeah, you too!" And she waved light-heartedly, even as he disappeared around the far corner.
Her hand kept waving.
What had been shattered was no longer around to cage in the thoughts and feelings she had held in for so long.
He'd been gone for several moments, and still her hand continued to wave in a gesture of farewell. Her face crinkled lightly, though the smile fought to remain, and a rattling, loud breath drew up inside her chest.
"Goodbye."
Even if it's just infatuation, even if it was never love, have you ever felt that feeling when you see someone just like that other one - the one that meant so much? When your heart leaps and your eyes widen? Have you felt your chest tighten and your eyes prickle when you realized it was not them?
And have you held back a sob when you realized you still cared for the unattainable one?