Spark

“They said the world is ending soon,” you say, eyes fixated on the ever-still sky, your hands gripping the windowsill as if you wanted to… fly away.

My eyes find their way to you, watching your profile, “Huh?” It caught me off guard, honestly. The sky looks normal, and we had just finished eating our PB and J sandwiches.

“Says who?”

“The news.”

“...Oh.”

A pause.

And then you finally turn to me, “Is that it? Don’t you have anything else to say? Anything you wanna do?” I watch your eyes look into mine, searching my features for… something. Whatever it was, I don’t think you found a hint of it. Your frown was apparent on your face.

You were always like that. You never knew how to hide your feelings.

And I was always like this. Always been a blank slate.

I shrugged. “I don’t know. What do you wanna do?” I watch you turn around, finally leaning on the windowsill you were just holding on to. I didn’t think it was a big deal— the whole end of the world thing. The whole “find your purpose in life” thing.

“I wanna see the world,” you say, and even I could see the stars in your eyes sparkle. Was it planes? Did you want to fly on planes, or did you prefer ships? Would you have liked to just walk around aimlessly, feeling the need to get lost? Where would you even go first? Are you gonna send me postcards, or will you bring me along?

I wonder why I never asked any of these that day.

You must’ve noticed me go silent— more silent than I usually am. “Cool, huh?” I felt the soft nudge of your elbow on mine. It was enough to knock me out of my thoughts.

“...I guess,” I muster. It really was cool, I just wasn’t sure what else to say.

“Now it’s your turn! Come on!”

I simply scrunched my nose.

“It’s not that hard!”

...It was quite difficult. My mind drew a blank, thinking of the things I wanted to do in my life. I never really thought I’d get this far, so thinking further just felt… weird.

Well. I guess there was one thing.

“I… I wanna sing.”

Even now, I could still remember your face as you tried to hold back your laughter. “Sing? Can’t you do that now?”

I shook my head. I wondered what was so funny. I still do.

“Okay, okay. When you do, you’ll let me listen, right?”

I still don’t know if you felt how suffocating the silence was after that. At least it was, for me.

“Okay.”

I didn’t have the heart to tell you it would never happen.