The Absence
She stops going. The excuse is final exams, but really it's fear of her growing dependence on his smile.
Summer begins, and she has her own gray cubicle on the opposite coast. She gets a peek of a skyline and the hum of an espresso machine to comfort her. It's not enough.
It turns cool, and she returns to the bustling, howling city. But still she delays, just to prove she can. And she thinks he will have forgotten. Worse, he might remember, and keep the smile from her.
It's much later that she realizes: she could never forget him.
The Wait
She stops coming. He thinks he might go mad, his mind spinning a wheel sinking deeper into a dustier, colder, grayer world.
He imagines she's found new people, places, a life – out there among the bustling, whirling multitudes. Sometimes, though, it's easier instead to believe in a horrible, fatal accident; there is comfort in its tragedy, a wish unfulfilled – quashed by Fate, but not her.
Then she's back, framed by the first rays of sunlight he's seen in too long. He has dreaded this moment – has longed for it.
A thousand words flood his brain, but only one escapes.
"Hello."
A/N: The End! I leave the rest up to your imagination.
Thanks to everyone who encouraged me on Tumblr, starting from that first standalone "drabble" that quickly turned into a pair of actual drabbles.