“Come watch the rest of the movie with me. At least until the sun goes down,” he said, a note of pleading in his tone.
“It’s already dark,” I pointed out. The day was long gone.
“We can pretend it’s still sunset, can’t we?” he asked.
Sunset.
It had meant so much to the kids we used to be.
The soft light at the end of the day had been the only time we could feel hope.
Yoss would look at me and smile as the sun became shadow and I would feel a stirring in my broken heart. Because no matter how bad things had become, at least we had survived another day.
After the world had thrown us away, we could hold onto that. To each other. And feel something close to happy.
So I would imagine it was sunset. For Yoss. For me.
I slowly walked to his bed.
He patted the space beside him again.
I didn’t overthink it. I carefully sat down beside him. I was rigid at first, not sure what I was supposed to do.
I felt his hands on my shoulders, pulling me back. Into him.
Anyone could walk in and see us. I should use my head. Not my heart.
But this was Yoss.
And I was Imi.
So I gently molded into his side, my head resting on his shoulder as we pressed together on the small hospital bed.
“Patti really is the smartest one in this whole movie,” Yoss said and I felt his voice rumble beneath my ear.
“Kelso’s not so bad,” I added, letting my palm rest on his stomach. I felt the muscles clench and then relax underneath my touch.
Yoss laid his check against the top of my head, his hand on my back. “Well, it took him long enough to figure out where Mrs. Miller was. He seems pretty inept to me.”
“He found her in the end. That’s all that matters really,” I murmured, my eyes feeling heavy. It would be so easy to fall asleep.
Just.
Like.
This.
“I would do it all differently if I could.” Yoss let out a long pent up breath. “I wouldn’t be stupid enough to think that what Ithoughtwas the right thing actuallywasthe right thing.”
“You were young, Yoss. You did the best you could,” I excused. Maybe I shouldn’t. Perhaps he should be held to task for the choices he had made. But I couldn’t do that to him. Because what would be the point? I couldn’t stomach the thought of making him feel any worse.
“I don’t think that’s true, Imi.” I felt him rest his head against the top of my head. “At least with you, I got something right.”
I wasn’t sure exactly what he was referring to. Was he talking about being with me?
Or leaving me?
But they were questions for another day.
