A sweet voice.

All too familiar to me.

“Seph.”

It’s her. It’s definitely her.

I turned around, my bones cracking, and my eyes found their way to her grey hues- the gems that once again trapped me into their sweet, sweet clutches.

“Anna...”

Then, I panicked.

The accident that been snapped out of my memory was still buried somewhere far away in the deeps of my mind. Protected. Safe. But is Anna fine?

I began to search her body for any signs of injury, of hurt…that must have been inflicted upon the innocent soul by the indirect result of my actions that day. I could’ve been better with my words, I could’ve explained what I truly felt, what I wanted to feel. I could have stopped her.

I stared deep into those bright eyes, looking for the damage I might have…I had, in fact, caused. But I didn’t find anything. Except for love and light. They held all the warmth in the world, despite everything that had happened so far.

“Seph. Don’t force your head to think more than its capacity~” She chirped, as if all was right with the world.

Maybe, it was. She was in front of me. My beloved.

“You…a day can’t go by without your silly insults, huh?”

“But it did. Months have gone by in moments, Seph…” She spoke with a sombre tone but her smile was genuine.

“Seph…don’t worry too much, ‘kay? I’m alright, there’s nothing wrong with me, see?” Twirling in the same blue dress she had worn that day, she giggled, trying to reassure me about things.

“Okay, fine but you have to tell me someday…say, how is school stuff coming along?”

“You’ll remember. When the time is right. About school, well, it’s the same old, same old. Nothing new has happened. The cafeteria food still sucks, the noodles all gloopy and the sandwiches all greasy.”

“Mhmm…Anna, do you want to talk about…that?” I asked, finally garnering some courage to ask the question that mattered.

“Yeah, well…no. We’ll speak when you’re better. For now, rest. By the way, now that I remember, something did happen. Do you know Jonathan from Class Three? Heard he’s dating the daughter of the Principal. Lol…no one could believe it the first week of the rumours. Until he went ahead and kissed her in the middle of P.E., in front of EVERYONE! The photographer dude in a grade below us even captured a picture and spread it all around, and the Principal finally got to know…pfft”

“What did he do?” I think I’d heard of this one before…or maybe not. I just recovered from a comatose state, might’ve been in a dream or something.

“What he obviously would do is what he did. Stupid John’s mum got called in an hour later after he was informed and poor guy got suspended for a week for indecent conduct in the premises. We all knew the real reason though…the elephant in the room was so big, it couldn’t be hidden by disciplinary concerns. We knew he held a grudge against the chap.”

Anna then began to mimic angry expressions of the principal the day it all happened. I chuckled when she wiggled her tongue around in jest.

Everything’s the same. My Anna’s the same.

Then, a strange feeling gripped me. A tightness clutched my chest as I felt the urge to hold her close. And I did.

Holding out my right hand, I touched Anna, feeling the softness of her cheeks as I caressed. Her eyelashes fluttered in dainty little sweeps, as if asking what my intentions were.

‘I don’t know.’

Warm notes of sugar music played in my head, the surroundings around us blurred. Finger tips made their way from cheeks to lips, brushing against the supple texture. I looked into her eyes, searching for some truth. But maybe the truth I was searching for, was within myself. Closing the distance between us, I finally succumbed to this strange new feeling.

This kiss of truth made me discover and uncover so much more than I had known, and what I didn’t understand then, I did now.