2.10 Orbit

LIBRA

It was hard to see through the rain of petals being thrown from upper windows in a shower of pink and red as I picked my way through the dancing people towards the town square. It seemed like only yesterday we had marched down these same streets, shouting of equality and opportunities. Now everyone was celebrating love.

“Find something new to fight for,” my mother told me when I was lost in the aftermath of our victory. “Anything that will make you happy.” That’s when I decided it finally did not matter.

I sat on a bench at the edge of the square, watching as couples twirled and kissed, lost in a crowd yet alone with each other. As for me, I was just alone.

People approached me and held their hand out for a dance. I rejected one hand, then two. The third was the charm.

Because then he was here. My best friend, who was hard to love yet even harder not to. He had not changed a bit, which was expected, I suppose. It was still strange to see, regardless.

He slipped onto the bench next to me. It was something we used to do all the time, where one would quietly take a seat beside the other, neither of us would acknowledge the other’s presence but taking comfort in knowing we were in the same place, seeing the same thing. Like the dancing couples in the square, we were slipping into a half-forgotten, yet familiar routine.

“Why are you here?” he asked some time later.

“I’m waiting for someone,” I said. “Why are you here?”

“I’m here because I was hoping I’m the one you’re waiting for.”

I would have told him he was, but he knew that already. I would have told him that I missed him, but that would have been too obvious. We never spoke of the obvious things. Instead I turned to him and said, “Would you like to come with me? To see the rest of the festival, I mean. I would dance with you, but people would think I’m dancing alone.”

“I didn’t think you would mind,” he said dryly, but his mouth was curved into a wry smile.

I laughed and pulled him up, and we threw ourselves amongst the dancing masses.

What was it like? I thought it would be awkward, but it was anything but. It was exactly what we had been doing for the past few years, after all. Orbiting each other, he physically, me in my thoughts. See, he had kept his promise of staying not too close, not too far.

As another fresh wave of petals fell from above, celebrating love of all shapes and sizes, I wrapped my arms around him and kept them there.

Concluding the orbit.