Wet tracks already marked his face before the sky made the rest of him match. He looked up as he stepped off her porch for the last time. The sky spit in his eye with fat glops who possessed both summer’s lingering stick and autumn’s volume. As he tilted his head back down, he looked at the cedar tree.
“It’s gorgeous out,” she complained. “If you’re just going to be boring and write those irritating college apps all day, can we at least be outside?”
“Fine,” he sighed, closing his laptop. The summer sun laid a blanket of relaxation over him as she dragged him under the massive tree. It upset the straight path of the street by being too old to uproot. He sat against its impossibly grand trunk and opened his laptop. Her head was already on his lap, grinning up at him and turning what should have been his passcode into an ever-elongating string of dots. He tried with all his might to scowl at her, but his treacherous face formed a loving smile.
As the memory faded, so too did the sun’s warmth on his skin. His chest complained at the sudden cold and cried out for heat. He lowered his gaze further and approached his car alone.
“Goodnight,” he said, reaching towards the frozen handle.
“Absolutely not.” He stopped and stared blankly at her for a moment. Her eyelashes were almost white with snow. “You’re forgetting something,” she offered.
He patted his pockets. Phone. Keys. AirPods.
“Ugh, you idiot,” she sighed with an exasperated smile, and leaned in. Molten gold started in his lips and spread within him. Snowflakes fell onto his face and transformed into drips that rolled off of his nose and onto her cheek. The cold only enhanced her heat.
He shut his eyes and only the wet beads remained. His head tilted up again. Drops splattered down randomly on his face but followed the paths his skin created before falling.
His eyes opened and he got into his car. He paused and rolled down his window. Raindrops continued to speckle his skin as he drove around the great tree.
