AUTHOR'S NOTE: This story came to me in a dream, believe it or not.
This story is that night during Aeris' date with Cloud during the gondola ride, right after she tells him those five fatal words: "I want…to meet you."
And now, for the…DISCLAIMER!!! I don't own Final Fantasy, I don't own Aeris, or Cloud, or any thing else of that sort. No matter how much I may wish to…
Look, please read and review! I will write more stories with more reviews, lol…
You can e-mail me at: sm_scales (at) yahoo.com
(At) = "@" sign
This story is dedicated to my friend Samantha.
*****
"I want…to meet you."
The words finally escaped my mouth, escaping into the air that carries them to his ears.
I look away slightly, beginning to blush. Out of the corner of my eye, I can see the night spinning away, swaying gently with every twist and turn of the gondola. The fireworks have just started, cracking and fizzing above our heads in splashes of red, yellow, blue, all the colors of the rainbow.
Finally…I told him how I felt, I finally put my heart on the line, finally put myself out there.
Tonight was so perfect…first, the play, where my precious knight in shining armor saved me from the "dragon", then the various carnival games…and then this, this moonlight gondola ride…
The gondola twists through the nighttime sky, and outside the glass window, the other rides at the Golden Saucer lighting up in a huge array of colors, twirling and twisting around their axis as the people inside are laughing and having a good time.
I smile inwardly.
Yes…I had definitely picked the right moment…the right time…the right place…
Still looking away, I wait for him to say something…anything back to me…to tell me that…
Nothing.
I turn my head towards him and look back into those beautiful eyes that I had come to fall in love with.
He looks into my eyes for just a moment…then turns away, and looks away to outside the window.
Away…
…From me…
Away?
Please…Cloud…don't do this to me. Please, don't turn away…please…just say something to me. I know that this was the right moment, that this was the moment where you would turn to me, smile softly, then tell me that, underneath the glow of the fireworks…that you love me, and that I am the only girl you would ever want to be with…
Cloud…don't do this to me, not here, not now.
Please…
Outside our gondola, the world goes on as before, with the nameless hundreds of couples laughing joyfully, smiling, enjoying the night and all the pleasure that lies within it. Those happy couples…
The gondola is beginning to slow down, and he still has not told me that he loves me, he has not yet looked back at me.
Did I…did I do something wrong? Did I say something wrong? Did I choose the wrong words? I must have done something wrong…I must have messed up this fairy tale romance somehow.
Stupid, Stupid, STUPID AERIS!!! You messed everything up, you managed to mess up this story of happiness and of love, you managed to screw things up, to muddle things up, just like you always do, just like you did with Zack, just like you now did with Clo-
The gondola stops with a slight shudder.
…I must have messed up. This is not supposed to happen like it is, he is supposed to take me into his arms and tell me softly that he loves me, then kiss me as the fireworks just start to burst into a radiant storm overhead…
That is how it is supposed to happen, it is supposed to happen like it does in all the stories, all the true romances…not like this. Not him just turning away, and not saying anything to me. He is supposed to love me…that is how things are supposed to be.
Pull it together girl, you got to hold the tears in. Got to hold them back, got to not let him think that it truly bothers me that he is not talking to me, got to…
Wait…
Maybe…just maybe he is waiting to tell me. Yes, he is just waiting until we are walking away from the gondola. Then, when we are walking away, he will put his arm around me, and gently whisper those three words into my ear. Yes, he is waiting for that
…He has to be waiting for that…
"I had fun tonight. Let's go together again…"
He does not even look at me when I say those words, and does not even bother to respond to me. My heart quickens as the truth slowly begins to fall into me, begins to rip into my chest and then dumping ice water into it, the sort of ice water that trickles into my soul, awakening it to reality.
"…You don't like being with me?"
The world freezes, reality slows down with those words, as I begin to dread the truth, that I know what is about to happen, what he is about to say. The fireworks seem to pause in a mid-air, stopping as blue fallout of sparks that frame the Golden Saucer against a background of eternal black. Even though I know what he is going to say, I don't want to believe it, I don't want to think it, I don't wa-
"Yeah."
God…please…take me away now.
Just…
Let me die…