THEM – ERE THE NIGHT FALLS

Thinned out streets were slowly growing full as the sun inched toward the horizon’s end. Among the fervent populace adorned in tanned skins and loose clothes, walking hand in hand, Emma and Jared were moving eastward through the city’s main street, directly next to the beach. Some ways off, Jared spotted the lonesome pier sticking out and felt his heart freeze for a moment.

“Where did Aya and Ty disappear off to this morning anyway?” Emma asked.

“He told me she wanted to go to the city over the mountain for a day,” Jared said an already pre-planned lie. “She has family or friend or something there.”

“Oh? She didn’t mention anything to me.”

“… y-yeah, weird, right?”

“There’s a lot of people though,” she said as she bumped shoulder with a passerby. “I can barely see anything in front of me.”

“Well, it’s almost the end of the season,” Jared said. “Everyone and their mother is trying to squeeze in the last few days of rest before going back to real world.”

“Oh right, I almost forgot!!” Emma suddenly exclaimed as she reached into her purse and took out a silver, fish necklace. “I saw it this morning, and I just had to buy it for you. Look, look, fish is shaped like J!! It’s so adorable!”

“Ha ha ha, yeah, yeah it is,” Jared said as he took the necklace and inspected it for a moment. “You’re not asking me to wear it though, right? I mean, I like fish and all—yup, I’ll wear it. I’m wearing it, stop glaring at me like that.”

“I knew you were gonna love it!”

“Yeah, I do, I really do. Ugh, my feet are killing me, let’s rest here for a little while.” Jared suddenly exclaimed as the two left the crowd and stepped onto the pier.

“Feet are killing you? You? A guy who can lift a car with one hand and kill Batman with the other?”

“Oi! Don’t ever say I can even touch Batman ever again! That’s just disrespectful!”

“… I’m complimenting you here.” Emma said.

“Not at the expense of the greatest superhero ever!”

“… fine, you can’t kill the Batman.”

“Exactly.” Jared said, nodding as the two reached the edge of the pier; sun had nearly sunk below the distant horizon, its burning hues reflected on the wavy ocean beneath.

“Wow, it’s beautiful,” Emma said as wind fluttered her hair backward, causing her to fix it by pulling it behind her ear. “Let’s take a selfie. It can be our new profile pic!”

“Em’,” Jared said, his tone both nervous and serious. “We can, uh, take the selfie, uh, later.”

“Oh.” Emma exclaimed softly as her eyes shone with understanding. “Right. Of course. Later, yeah.”

“So, uh, you’ve… you’ve probably figured it out,” Jared said, chuckling nervously. “But, uh, whatever, you know? It’s… uh… god, I swear I was better in front of the mirror!”

“Ha ha, uh, yeah. No, by the way, I, uh, I haven’t figured anything out.” Emma said, biting her lower lip gently.

“Oh… you… you didn’t?”

“No…”

“That’s… that’s good, yeah, good,” Jared said, scratching her nose. “So, uh, the thing is… uh… the thing is that I love you.”

“Oh, wow, didn’t see that coming!”

“Hey! No sarcasm in tender moments, what did we say?!”

“… sorry…” Emma mumbled, stiffening her laughter.

“God you’re awful…” Jared said, smiling lightly as he shook his head. “So, uh, as I was saying, I love you. I’ve, uh… I’ve loved you for a long, long, long ass time and, uh, truth be told, I don’t think I can, uh, imagine my life where I’m not in love with you. Where, uh, I don’t get to see you every day… where I don’t get to hear your voice scolding me every time I do something dumb… which I do, let’s be honest here, quite often…”

“Ha ha, yeah…”

“And while I may not know many things,” Jared continued as he grabbed Emma’s hand gently. “It’s enough for me to know just one: that, from today until the end of time, I want to be with you. I love you more than I can ever put into words, and, for some ungodly reason, you happen to love me too.”

“I do… I really, really do…” Emma said as the corners of her eyes grew teary.

“So, with that in mind,” Jared said, suddenly falling on his knee and looking up at Emma’s burning red face with a smile. “Emma Reed Reynold, the one thing in the world more beautiful than this view behind me, will you marry me?” he took out a small box and opened it, revealing a shiny ring inside it and lifting it up.

“… I will, I will,” Emma stuttered out, tears slowly trickling down as she helplessly tried to wipe them away, her hands shaking, voice cracking. “Of course I will.”

“You will?”

“I will.” Jared got up and put the ring on her finger slowly, unable to wipe the grin off his face.

“You just made me the happiest man alive, you know that?” he said, as he lifted her chin up, revealing a beautiful smile surrounded by rosy cheeks and glistening eyes. He felt his heart flutter as though it was the first time he’d ever seen her, and the first time he realized he had fallen in love with her.

“You big idiot,” she said, tilting her head sideways lightly, narrowing her eyes as her smile widened. “You made me cry!”

“I did, yeah!” Jared said, laughing.

“I haven’t cried since I watched that shitty Marley & Me movie!”

“It’s one of your favorite movies of all time, why call it shitty?!”

“Because it made me cry!!”

“So am I shitty too?” Jared asked.

“Yeah, very, very shitty…” Emma said.

“Well, you must be a fly then--”

“Oh for the love of shit, just kiss me already!!”

“…”

While sun slowly faded in the sky, the two kissed, tightly entangled in each other’s arms, unwilling to let go. As though afraid the other would slip away, never to be seen again, unwilling to even humor the thought. While some people paused for a moment and looked at the two with smiles, most had simply moved on to their own small adventures, as many beautiful things away, and life is too short to be hung up on a single one.

FRIENDSHIPS AND LOVES

While Emma and Jared celebrated the start of a new life for the two, Aya and Tyson were sitting in a coffee shop across from the pier. The latter had long since buried his head into the table, cheeks redder than the sun in the horizon, while Aya watched it all with a tender smile on her face, even taking a few pictures as a memento.

“Oh, come on!! Your best friend just asked your other best friend to marry him, and you can’t even watch?! What are you, eleven?!” Aya exclaimed as she softly banged Tyson’s head, causing the latter to grunt as he slowly looked up. “If I didn’t know you, I’d say that you were dying due to the highest fever ever recorded in a human being.”

“Oh, fuck off,” Tyson grunted lowly. “I still can’t believe he did it so… openly!! I mean, look, there are a hundred-butt-bucket people passing by!”

“Hundred-butt-bucket?” Aya repeated, arching her brow.

“I wanted to say hundred butts, but then for some reason I thought about that time during our mountain trip where you took a shit in a fucking bucket--”

“Okay, okay, okay, say that one more time, and I’ll behead you!” Aya interjected, glaring at him.

“Oh god, here they come. What do I say? How do I act?! Do I point at the ring and say ‘You’ve finally got your precious, eh?’. Aya, tell me!”

“… do that last thing. Then I can point at your dick and say ‘and that’s my precious’.”

“… yeah, make fun of me now.” Tyson said, glaring at her. “Why the hell do I love you?”

“Who cares? What matters is that you do,” Aya said as Emma and Jared walked up to the table, hugged tightly together. “Hey guys!! Congratulations!” Aya got up and immediately hugged the two. “It was really, really beautiful!”

“Thanks, thanks.” Emma said, laughing. “The bastard’s finally managed to make me cry. It’s a victorious day for him.”

“Oh, and she said yes,” Jared said. “That’s, you know, the crowning achievement of today.”

“Ha ha,” Aya laughed. “Well, I managed to grab a few pictures. They’re terrible, of course, but it’s better than nothing.”

“Oh, I’m sure they’re great.” Emma said.

“You guys…” Tyson finally spoke up as got up onto his feet and placed one of his hands on Jared’s shoulder and the other on Emma’s. “It was… goddammit, I won’t cry!! Tears, go back inside! Go back! There we go. Khm, so, as I was saying--”

“Sorry to interrupt man,” Jared said. “But they didn’t go back in.”

“… yeah, wow, I totally missed that. It’s not as though I was hinting at playing along. Geez, I’m really an idiot!!” Tyson exclaimed. “So, as I was fucking saying, it really was beautiful. You guys are beautiful. The ring is beautiful. I’m beautiful. Aya is getting there--”

“Hey!!”

“--this whole goddamn thing is beautiful! Congratulations you two!”

“Ha ha, thanks,” Jared said as he hugged Tyson. “And thank you for being here. I know it couldn’t have been easy for you.”

“It wasn’t.” Aya said. “He nearly became hotter than sun.”

“Oi!” Tyson exclaimed.

“Thanks, Ty,” Emma said, hugging him tightly. “For everything.”

“If you break his heart, though,” Tyson said. “I’ll have to break your bones.”

“… shouldn’t you be saying that to him you asshole?!” Emma exclaimed, lightly punching him.

“Him? Jared? The real-life example of the Iron Giant?”

“… yep, point taken.” Emma said. “I promise I won’t. Rest assured.”

“This guy really loves Iron Giant, doesn’t he?” Jared said.

“I know, right?!” Aya exclaimed as the four sat down. “It’s like, we get it! It’s a great movie! Move the fuck on already!”

“Aww, leave him alone guys!” Emma exclaimed as Tyson began pouting. “Don’t listen to them, Ty. You keep on loving whatever you want, okay?”

“… what am I doing here?” Tyson said, sighing. “I could be having friends who don’t make fun out of every facet of my being, and I could have a girlfriend who actually respects what I love and enjoy. Instead? Instead I’ve got the hell rejects to torture me.”

“You do it to us all the time!!” Aya suddenly exclaimed. “Last week I told you I felt my ass got fatter, and you wouldn’t stop making fun of it for six fucking hours!! I was more impressed with that than I was by quatom physics!!”

“One time – and this is a true story – he found out that Jared and I took ballet classes,” Emma said. “It was his ammunition for like half a year.”

“… pft,” Tyson puffed as he tried to hold back the laughter. “Yeah, that was… ha ha, oh my god, every time I imagine this big chunk of muscle trying to do ballet, I just lose it. Ha ha ha… I’m sorry but, it’s like… people have invented machines for leg days!”

“… yeah, thanks for the vote of confidence buddy.” Jared said, faking a smile as he flipped Tyson.

“Aww, come on guys!” Tyson said. “I’m not that bad. At least I don’t hit where it hurts the most!”

“… December 23rd last year--”

“Okay, so, are we getting drunk or not?!” Tyson interrupted Emma as the three burst out in laughter. “Right, yeah, let it all out. Or, let it go as kids these days say.”

“Oh my, I didn’t know you were approaching sixties man,” Aya said. “I must be sick, dating an old man.”

“… you literally begged me to dye my hair white and draw wrinkles on my face because you wanted to see how it’d be like to fuck me in forty years.” Tyson said.

“Aww, that’s sweet!!” Emma exclaimed suddenly. “Not just any old man, but you!! Okay, Ty, listen here carefully, if you fuck this up, I will fuck you up, got it?”

“…”

“Got it, old man?!”

“I got it, I fucking got it, woman who is bound to forever screw one guy!” Tyson said with a sneer.

“… oh, so you’re planning on screwing someone else besides me?” Aya asked, hiding a smile.

“No!! No, I mean… you know what I mean!! Ugh, whatever, you guys suck. Hey, waiter, bring me three bottles of gin! And for them, I don’t know, a few bottles of bleach!”

Heartily laughter resonated from their table as night slowly grew darker, and singers began singing from their souls, and night lamps began shining onto the street in their spectacular splendor… deep, deep into the night, before the city fell asleep yet again, awaiting a new dawn, and a new start.