[ IP ] Rainy Night

She traced the crooked lines on the window that the raindrops left behind them, like streets on a road map. The reminded her of days when she was young and pretended they were racing. The coffee beside her had gone cold and everyone who'd been in there when she arrived had left. 
 
 `` Mei, you all right?'' asked a woman on the other side of the coffee shop as she swept the floor. 
 
 `` Yeah, I'm fine.'' 
 
 `` Well, I'm about to close up.'' She nodded, staring out the window for a couple minutes longer before picking up her umbrella from the ground. 
 
 `` I'll see you tomorrow, Maggie,'' she said as she collected her things. An umbrella, a coat on the seat beside her, and the cup of cold coffee. The bell jingled innocently as she left the store, not knowing how sad it made her to hear it again. 
 
 `` I promise, in one year, I will see you again, and then we can be together.'' He said that to her one year and one week ago. 
 
 The two of them had been close and everyone could see that they were `` meant for each other.'' There closest friends would remark to them, `` Why do n't you just ask him/her out?'' Neither of them had the nerve to do it. The idea would come to mind and she'd blush or he start to work up the nerve and she'd do something to catch him off guard. It finally took the intervention of another friend to get the wheels rolling. 
 
 They were like lightning together. It was more than sparks; the two of them left trails of fire where they walked together. It felt like more than just love, sometimes. But, that did n't mean something good would come out of it. 
 
 He did n't tell her why he had to leave, or where he'd be going. He brought it up so suddenly, that she thought he was joking at first. 
 
 `` Why ca n't you tell me?'' she asked at the beginning of every argument before he left. He'd always stay silent while she yelled or cried or begged for an answer. Then he'd make promises in attempt to soothe her, but raging fires were not so easily doused. He told her that it he would n't be gone forever, but that he did have to go. That they would n't be able to talk each other or even send letters to each other, but that he would still love her. It did n't make sense to her. There was no good reason for it. She was n't good at staying in contact with people, but for him she'd try. There was no reason to be cut out. 
 
 But, on the day he left, she stood on her patio crying with his arms around her. He shushed her and told her all sorts of wonderful things to try and calm her. 
 
 `` I promise, in one year, I will see you again, and then we can be together,'' he told her. `` You remember where we first met?'' 
 
 `` Yeah, at Maggie's. You spilled your iced mocha on me. We joked that I was glad it was n't hot or I'd have to sue you,'' she told him through a mixture of laughs and tears. `` You promised me a new dress.'' 
 
 `` And I got you a new dress, did n't I?'' She started crying into his chest more and he held her tighter. `` Wait for me there. I promise I'll be back.'' 
 
 But, he was n't back. She had visited that coffee shop everyday for the past week and sat in the same spot she sat in when they first met. She watched Maggie eye her liking a worrying mother, saw endless relationships budding or growing, and watched several cups of coffee go cold. But every day, she left at nine fifty-four and walked back to her house alone. He was n't back yet. His promise was broken. 
 
 `` He is n't worth getting your hopes up,'' Maggie told her. `` Do n't make yourself suffer.'' She always told Maggie that she was n't suffering. That she did n't know what they had. But maybe she'd been reading too many stories and watched too many movies. Life was n't full of the happy endings that they told you it was. Sometimes things ended sadly, no matter how much you wish for the fantasy ending. 
 
 Her eyes traced cracks on the sidewalk as she walked home. She did n't bother to step around the puddles or even hold her umbrella up. The rain felt good; it was there to extinguish her from the agonizing flames. Cars passed by, a few even stopping her to ask if she needed a ride home, but she kept walking until she could see the road to her house. Her eyes looked up as another person came into view on the sidewalk. Her eyes were blank as she watched him walk towards her then continue past. 
 
 He did n't even recognize her. Or maybe he did n't register that it was her. Maybe he'd get halfway down the road then run back after he realized who she was. Maybe he'd keep walking and never turn back. She did n't know. Was it really worth waiting for, though? She'd waited so long. Another day could n't hurt, could it? But, if he had n't even recognized her maybe it was n't. She stood under the streetlight and took a sip of her cold coffee, wondering whether she should wait.
