Someone Like You

I turned off my car’s engine and stopped in front of the blue-colored house. Its high gates seem to tell me that I am not welcomed here. I closed my eyes, still seated in the driver seat, took a deep breath and hold it for a while until I feel like my chest was going to explode, and then exhaled slowly.

“That, one day, will be our house. We shall believe and pray. Amen.” He pointed to the glass covered apartment buildings that lies a few meters from us, so gigantic that they still seem near from where we were standing; at an old housing estate on the city side. My eyes widened, looking at the glittering reflections from the building, feeling his heat beside me under the scorching sun that’s burning. Still, he made me feel comfortable. He made me wanted to believe in him. I was hopeful, I was happy.

It was the time when we both just graduated. We were young and silly. All we wanted to be was being together. I did not mind going around this metropolitan city to accompany him find the cheap and comfortable housing to live in because we had plans, big plans, for our future. We used to live in the suburb and now that he got a job in town, he wanted to save up on accommodation and so we went for the adventure to look for the perfect place for him to live in. The sun was never too hot when he was around, the dust seemed like a breeze in the hot afternoon air when we were together. We were happy.

And things in between was blurry. We were a pair of fine porcelain who were slowly cracking from the inside. Somehow laughter turned to shouting, smile turned to tears. Everything else that matter doesn’t seem to have any importance anymore. Finally, we were strangers again.

Suddenly I feel my hands were hurting. I was gripping the wheels too hard, tears were dripping down from my eyes to my black pleated skirt. The air in my car felt so still and heavy. It was that flashback that made me drove to his house today. I did not know why, or how, I ended up here.

“We worked so hard. Sometimes it pays, sometimes you’ll end up in disappointment.” He said one day after a long day of work.

Sometimes it lasts, sometimes it hurts. I murmured to myself.

I wiped my tears dry. The house seemed empty that afternoon. I gathered myself and took one last good look at those iron gates, perhaps hoping that he would appear from behind those bars and smile at me. Perhaps, I wanted him to give back the promises and dreams he took away from me. But one thing I was sure of, I wanted him to be happy now. He gave me the bittersweet memory nobody else could give. We were a past and a lesson for the future.

I drove off thanking God for someone like him.

*This short story is inspired from my boring afternoon at work while listening to Adele's Someone Like You. So I ended up neglecting work and writing this short story. Tee hee!