Honey and Spice | ✔️

Chapter 30

Yall have waited patiently for this and I applaud yall
Enjoy :)

[RAPID POV SHIFTS]

Ryder

The sky is so beautiful. Stars litter the night sky like salt on a shiny black table. The cool breeze gently rustles the trees and cicadas break out in a quiet hum. We are lying down on the grass in a nearby park, looking at the expansive night sky. The moon subtly luminates Nathan's face, and the soft glow makes him look angelic.

"Look at that!" He points at the sky. "If you connect those stars together-" He moves his finger around. "- it makes an elephant."

"And that" - I point at a faint cluster of stars - "looks like a faint cluster of stars."

Nathan laughs. "You have to do better than that."

"Fine." I smile and roll my eyes. "Those stars beside the cluster, when you join them together, make a dolphin."

"Which stars?"

I roll to him and hold his hand out to the vast starry night. "Those. You see them?"

He squints, and then he grins. "Yeah. That's a pretty dolphin."

I smile back and lower our joined hands.

"Have you ever thought of how big the universe is?" he asks me.

"Hm?" I look at him.

"Like, we live on Earth, right? It's in the solar system, and the solar system is in the milky way, and who knows how many other galaxies are there, and all the galaxies in the universe and the universe is so endless . . . like a sheer volume of nothingness, weaving dead stars and worlds like a tapestry of meaninglessness . . . .

"Anyway, my point is, the universe is just so vast and empty, and we are just something small- really, really small. A speck. Like something that doesn't matter - like I don't matter." He is sitting now, his knees pulled up to his chest.

"One day, all life on Earth will be extinguished like a small flame. Millions and millions of lives lost, but to the universe, it's just another insignificant dead planet, another collection to its void. We will all be forgotten, gone forever, and all that's left is just the cold, empty universe."

"Hey, hey." I scoot closer to him. "Hey, don't say that."

Nathan buries his head in his arms. "But it's the truth, isn't it? I'm just a nobody who leaves no mark in the world."

"Nate, if you don't matter, then why am I here? Why are we in this situation? Why do I wake up every morning comforted by the thought of you? Why do I always think about you? Why am I with the most wonderful, kindest, and lovely human being I'm with right now?"

You are my sun, my galaxy, my whole universe.

He doesn't say anything, but he looks up from his arms, eyes glistening. And I keep going.

"You matter, Nate. To your parents, Eva, Cole, everyone. But you matter the most to me. You leave a huge-ass mark in my world."

You are my reason.

". . . Really?" He looks at me.

You are my everything.

"Really." I take his face in my hands.

And then I kiss him.

Nathan

Ryder's hands are cold, but his lips are warm and slightly chapped. I already expected him to kiss me, but when he actually did, it sent tiny fireworks running down my veins.