Lost & Found but Never the Same Again
For years they had been inseparable. Then something tore them apart. Was it meant to happen? Sylph had asked herself that question a million times, but couldn’t grasp the reality of it. Why wouldn’t anyone answer her? He reached out to her, she knew that. She knew it, and yet she denied him any right of knowing what she was up to, where she had gone and why, to begin with, she had left at all. The suspense was insufferable, but she was convinced she had made the right call.. at least part of her did. The other part of her, this small voice inside her head, kept telling her it was the biggest mistake she had ever made and that things would never be normal again, no matter how hard she tried.
That amazing friend, the boy she had loved so dearly, might not even remember her anymore. He was older, they both were, and maybe someone had taken her place a long time ago. Did he miss her? No, probably not. Sylph couldn’t have been that special to him, or anyone. She was an orphan. Unloved in general. This had been her prior thought throughout most of her life, a thought implied and enforced by someone else, and no one had proven her wrong so far, except for that boy.. but he wasn’t here to remind her. It was not this idea that had brought her to that fated conclusion. Something, or rather someone, had made that decision for her, and even now Sylph was not ready to think about it. It wasn’t important anymore. The threat was gone. Still, the pressure hadn’t left her side.
Not a day went by when the young woman didn’t want to go back, but with every passing year she begun to think it was too late.
An hour had passed. Countless people had walked through these halls. Sylph’s eyes skimmed every male that moved about from lecture hall to lecture hall, but without result. Yesterday, she had still been many miles removed from this place, and now.. here she stood.. nervously leaning against a locker.. heart skipping too many beats in a row. He lived here, in this town. He studied at this university. Newt.
Another wave of people moved about, leaving behind university, their minds set on going home. The girl was about to lose her patience, though it was already a miracle she had been capable of standing still, or even remotely still, for that long, when she found the one she had been looking for. It couldn’t be anyone but him. His eyes, though altered with age, had the same glow she had once been so absorbed by. Immediately, Sylph became oblivious as to what she should do. Sure, she was used to getting attention from men by now, but that was unimportant to her. None of them mattered. Sylph only had eyes for her childhood companion.
A faint blush showed on her otherwise pale cheeks, but there was no warm smile to accompany it. Nerves wrecked her enthusiasm, and it made her wonder whether she had done right by her decision this time. Fear struck her, immobilised her every limb. Instead of taking on an active stance, Sylph remained passive, watching Newt as he was, hopefully, on his way to his locker. Would he even recognise her?
