Story

by Megan Ng

Water comes splashing up to my feet as we walk down the pier, and I smile at hearing him shriek from behind me, the droplets coming close to his dress shoes. A laugh bubbles up from my throat as I turn, shoving him lightly. It’s just hard enough that he squawks trying to regain footing and he gives me an exasperated stare. I only look ahead, squatting beside the edge of the pier. 

We watch the waves crash into the cracking wood in a silence I could only describe as familiar, and all at once, a feeling of peace washes over me. A gasp leaves my lips, and despite the silence, I can hear him raise an eyebrow at the quiet noise. The silence stretches out between us, and if I weren’t so mesmerized with how familiar it felt, I would ask him to sit beside me. 

Familiarity is comfort, but it only goes so far until new things begin to feel like routine. Familiarity strays further from sitting beside my friends in the country, and it becomes listening to the busy noises of traffic, running across fields to reach classes, biking along the streets in the early mornings. And suddenly, all happiness is set upon where I could go, what I could do, who I might be with, rather than such silence. But I am at peace again, and somehow, even in the most exciting time away from home, he is here, and I am happy. Only as time passes do I know how wonderful the breeze feels on my skin, how to revel in the quiet a friend can bring. 

Sometimes I know that this will be a memory to cherish, and sometimes it is forgotten in the following rain. But it isn’t horrible. Even rain can feel joyous; we just have to think it’s so. The weather is not ours to control, but there are still those who can smile at it after it passes. Those are the ones who know that after every little storm, they can still live. They have a reason to feel at peace. I can only call myself lucky that I know that now. 

The sun begins to set and I stare beyond where the pier will not keep my feet afloat. Soon, a different type of happiness will make my mouth run with words, limbs numb from excitement, with the people around me that I care for most. But as it seems, I am okay with now. I am happy now.

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Megan Ng has been writing as long as she's played the piano and has an interest in marine biology. She currently lives in Long Island where she attends high school in New Hyde Park.