Part Two
270 Words
The Beginning of Us
After that night, Serena and Adrian somehow became inseparable without either of them planning it. Their conversations started with simple messages asking how the other person’s day had been, but soon those messages turned into late-night calls that lasted until sunrise. Adrian became the first person Serena wanted to tell whenever something good happened, and somehow, he also became the person she searched for whenever life hurt too much. They discovered pieces of each other slowly, like learning the pages of a favorite book. Serena learned that Adrian loved old music because it reminded him of his mother singing while cooking dinner when he was younger. Adrian learned that Serena wrote stories in hidden notebooks whenever she felt overwhelmed because writing was the only place she felt truly understood. They spent evenings sitting beside each other at small cafes, sharing fries, stealing drinks from each other’s cups, and talking about dreams that once felt impossible to say out loud. Sometimes they would walk through crowded streets without speaking at all because silence between them never felt uncomfortable. One evening, while sitting on the rooftop of Adrian’s apartment building and watching the city lights glow beneath the dark sky, Serena asked him what he feared the most. Adrian stayed quiet for a while before answering honestly. “Losing people I love.” Serena looked at him carefully, noticing the sadness hidden behind his calm expression. Then he turned toward her and whispered, “But when I’m with you, I feel like maybe not everything beautiful has to end.” Her heart had never beaten so hard before.
- Writer
