DarkFictionJude

Nia - drabble

Added 2025-02-25 22:32:39 +0000 UTC

It was late, the golden hour was fading into dusk as you sat on the porch. The soft hum of the breeze moved the leaves above you. The world outside felt still, like an old photograph. You always thought time moved differently in this place. Which knowing this town, that wouldn't be a wrong assumption to make.

Nia stands by the open door, leaning against the frame of it. Her silhouette a perfect contrast to the warm light spilling on you. Her presence was always like that; quiet, almost as if she existed in a world entirely in her command, never bending to the sounds you mere mortals make. You never ask what she's thinking, you don't need to.

She had been like this for as long as you could remember. Distant, enigmatic, a storm held inside a calm sea. You will never fully understand her, but that's part of the draw.

"Do you remember when we would sit on the big oak tree sometimes after school? The one on the south side of town?" Nia's voice broke the silence, low like the breeze, like she was somewhere else when she said it.

You nod, unsure of where this was going.

She steps forward, her gaze lifting to the dusk. "The sunset reminds me of you," she says.

The way she spoke left you with a strange, inexplicable pang in your chest. It wasn’t an explanation or a confession. Just the kind of thing she would say. Out of the blue, disconnected, but somehow it made everything feel as though you were tied together by threads you couldn't see.

"Are you calling me pretty?" you ask, half in jest.

Nia's eyes squint as the sun slides down her face. "That and then some."

Nia sighs, and before you can respond, she was already walking away. Disappearing into the fading artificial brightness of the house. Leaving you with that lingering sense of something unspoken, just out of reach.