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Snow’s been falling for ages and a good amount of the sensible population decided it was time to move indoors, to the comfort of enclosed spaces and rooms radiating warmth and the company of their loved ones, whether human or animal.
Windows captured snippets of lives led by others as the mounting snow covered the ground in its purest hue.
The smell of freshly made apple pie aired out of the bakery, children laughing as snowballs fired against each other, elaborate displays of snowmen were scattered around.
Everything was at peace, it was beautiful and it was lonely.
The winter season only proves how time was running faster and faster with no end in sight, seasons rapidly changing and leaves floating down to the ground leaving the trees bare were all indications of it.
The winter season, with its cold gusts of wind, proves that the year is ending, and here he was, standing alone by a rickety bus stop, scrolling through the posts of old classmates and friends’ christmas eve dinners.
Eddy looked at the time, the bus should be arriving soon but seems like its schedule was running late.
It is fine, though the snowfall is worsening every minute he lingers around here.
“Eddy?”, a voice called his name from a distance.
“Brett! Good to see you, it has been so long,” Eddy smiled at Brett as he walked towards him, underneath the awning of the bus stop.
“It has been such a long time, how’s life in the orchestra? Taking you well?”
“Dude, I got promoted to concertmaster last year, it's been a tough ride to get to that position but I’m happy as ever.” Brett smiled at him, there was a lack of eyebags on the man’s face, contentment was plastered all over his face, not can said be the same for himself. “Well how about you?”
“Still working as an office worker. Though I got a few gigs here and there.” Eddy answers calmly.
“Cool.”
“Yeah.”
Silence envelopes the two as the snow falls harder, Eddy wants to ask Brett more, to know how was his life in the conservatory, to know what struggles he went through without him. But in that moment, Brett looks so at peace, like he found where he belonged.
Was it weird to not ask a single question about the other’s journey after being apart for so long? Yes, it was but the look of happiness that Brett was radiating, it was enough to tell that his journey was all worth it.
It made Eddy happy, very happy that bitterness started to mix, he wished he could have gone with him, could have texted him, could have kept in touch but it was too late, far too late for those hopes of his.
Eddy saw his bus quickly approaching, he knew he couldn’t stay for long.
“You know, we should play together sometime. Still remember how to play Sarsate’s Navarra?” Eddy spoke up to Brett, and the man’s eyes lit up with an old memory.
“Oh yeah! Totally, we need to recreate that one specific video we recorded, hula hooping while playing that.”
“Ugh, don’t need to remind me! It was so bad.”
The two laughed, it was melancholy to Eddy but for Brett, it was an ordinary moment of joy.
As the bus stopped at the stop, Eddy waved goodbye to Brett, he replied: “See you later, Eddy.”
He knew that he should reach out once more to Brett, but sometimes, things always drift apart, and that moment was their proper farewell, normal and mundane.
Another winter entered once more, the tune of Satie’s Gymnopedie No.1 playing in the back of his mind. Snowmen, garlands and the smell of cinnamon decorated the same area, children that once played there were replaced by a newer set of just as enthusiastic kids. The bakery’s apple pies taste almost the same, though the crust was much lighter, or maybe it was himself that was lighter.
He hasn’t talked to Brett ever since that night, he occasionally sees him in his feed, in the orchestra’s postings, smiling on the stage where he is meant to be in. Eddy will get to his own stage later.
He waits there, for a duet that was promised to him 5 years ago, a see you later that was still due for a reunion. To bask in the memory of moments long gone, now gently decorated by the snow falling, he stood up and stopped reminiscing.