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December 31st, 2005 - Seaside
“Man, why’d you bring me out here?” Lupe griped, teeth chattering. “It’s freezing!”
K beamed back at him, seemingly unfazed by the cold. “It’s a surprise!”
“It had better be worth it, then,” Lupe grumbled, taking a seat in the frozen sand, cringing at how hard it was.
“It will be, I promise,” K assured, taking a seat next to him. “And you won’t have to wait much longer - it should be starting soon.”
“Huh? Wait for what?” Lupe asked, confused.
As if on cue, a single firework shot up into the sky, exploding as it filled the night sky with colour. Despite their distance, the bang from the explosion reverberated loud enough that they could hear it from where they were.
K smiled, his plan revealed. “Surprise.”
Lupe tried to smile as more fireworks went off above them, but it must not have been convincing, because K’s smiled faded.
”What is it? What’s going on?” he asked.
“Nothing,” Lupe replied hurriedly, trying not to kill the mood.
“Really? Because we can leave if you want to-”
“I said it’s nothing. We can stay,” Lupe snapped.
K raised an eyebrow. ”Okay, now I know something’s up. Wanna tell me?”
Lupe sighed, resigned. “I’m just not a fan of fireworks.”
”Oh.” was all K said, the gears clearly still turning in his mind as he tried to process what was up. “Oh, is it because of the noise? Because I brought earbuds just in case-”
”Nah, it’s not - well, actually, it kinda is, but not the way you’re thinking,” Lupe interrupted. “You ever heard any of the arguments against fireworks before?”
“Yeah, I think I’ve heard some stuff about their effects on people with - oh.” K realized. “The sound of the explosions can be a trigger for some people, right?”
”Yeah,” Lupe admitted, sheepish. “They can scare animals too. Not to mention to all the pollution they cause.”
”I…didn’t consider that,” K said, clearly deflated. “Fuck, I’m sorry. I should’ve thought this through more. We can just go-”
”No, wait,” Lupe cut in, grabbing K’s arm as he tried to stand up and leave. “You planned this, but I’m the one who ruined it for you. We can stay. Besides, they’re still pretty.”
”But you’re right, though,” K countered, sitting back down. “They cause all those bad things, yet we’re still okay with them because they’re ‘pretty’? The ends don’t justify the means.” He ran his hand over his face, exasperated. “And for the record, yeah, I do think they’re pretty. But it seems like everything beautiful has a million more ugly things hiding behind it, isn’t there?”
“There is,” Lupe agreed. “The world is a messed-up place. But there’s beauty in all the complexity too, don’t you think?”
”Yeah, I think so too.” K conceded, though he still sounded irritated. “The world isn’t black-and-white, and so many things - and people - exist beyond that binary that to erase the world’s complexity would be erasing half the world itself. And I do believe that it weren’t for all the hardships and ugly truths, we wouldn’t be able to value the beautiful things in life as being beautiful at all. But at the same time, I…sometimes I just wish…” He threw is head back, struggling to find the right words, until they finally seemed to come to him. “Don’t you ever wish things could just be simple sometimes? That there doesn’t always have to be some detail that complicates everything and makes you wonder whether what you’re doing is right at all?”
”I mean…’right’ is subjective-”
“See! That’s just further proving my point-”
Lupe laughed. “I dunno, that’s a big question you’re asking. I think both ways of looking at the world have their own positives and negatives.” he went on. “But if it’s any consolation, there is one thing that I know for sure is beautiful, no strings attached.”
He leaned in for a kiss, and K laughed as they both tumbled over into the sand, kissing him right back, the feeling vivid and colourful like the fireworks lighting up the sky.
After a moment, Lupe pulled away, but they kept smiling at each other. He wasn’t lying when he said the world was a messed-up, crazy, complicated place - but here in this moment, none of that mattered, as the two of them sat alone together, happy, and completely at peace, if only for a moment.
That is, until a harsh gust of wind came along, both of them grimacing as the cold hit their faces.
“On second thought, maybe we should just go,” Lupe suggested.
A goofy grin came across K’s face as he suddenly took off running to who knows where, nearly tripping over some rock in the process. “Only if you can catch me!” he called out.
“Fuck, wait up!” Lupe shouted back, howling with laughter as he took off behind him. Life could be unpredictable, and this man was living proof of it.
But that’s exactly where the beauty in life comes from, isn’t it?