She softly traced her fingers on the screen, caressing absentmindedly
his hands through it. The only light in the bedroom was coming from
that photo she has been staring at for the past who knows how many
hours. She remembers that day clearly. Everyone decided to take a
trip to the beach for the weekend, taking advantage of the fact that
Samuel's house there was big enough to accomodate them all. It was
Saturday morning when she woke up before everyone else and decided
to watch the sunrise by the seashore. He was already there, taking
pictures of the landscape. As she approached, he commenced taking her
photograph, making her blush and look away bashfully. They sat on the
sand and listened to the soft roar of the seagulls flying around, and
as the ruddy sun began to make its appearance, Ellie slowly turned to
face Derec only to find him staring back, his lips supporting a
slight smile. She frowned her eyebrows at him in a silent question.
His answer came in the form of Derec grabbing his camera and standing
up to place it a few feet in front of them. She realised he had set
the timer ready as he came back to her side in a rush and wrapped an
arm around her. “You look so stunning in this lighting”, he
whispered right after the camera click sound. “I wanted to register
this moment forever.” Ellie found herself searching for his lips in
a hesitant but bold kiss. All of her irresolution melted away as soon
as she felt Derec responding. They had spent the rest of the morning
being silly and getting covered in sand and salty water and taking
even sillier pictures of themselves until their bellies complained
about the lack of food. This particular photo, the one that has
always been her favourite, was one of the few she had snapped
herself. Derec had his head tilted up towards the sun that had
already set its place in the sky. His eyes were closed and the
corners of his mouth were slightly tilted up. He had his hands around
himself as if he were hugging the sun back. He looked absolutely
beautiful. Ellie simply couldn't help but admiring every trace of
him, from his wet dark hair to the bottom of his stomach where the
picture ended. She recalls perfectly the way her own stomach did
backflips when she put the camera down and waited for him to wake up
from his zen state of mind. He blinked slowly and turned to her. His
smile got wider. "I love you", he mouthed. She had never
felt happier.
She traced her fingers one last time on the spot over his heart
before shutting her laptop with a quiet thump. She waited for her
eyes to get accustomed to the lack of light in the room and then
placed the computer on the bedside table. Blinking back the tears,
she looked at the spot by her side at the heavy sleeping figure of
Garreth. Nestling under the covers, she did the one thing she would
do every night: try to let her mind wander away from thoughts of that
morning three years ago.
“I'm so sorry..”, she
mouthed. Derec's sweet and full-of-love smile was the last thing she
saw before sleep took over.
