He was actually acknowledging my existence. In fact, we were in a car on the way to some location that’s escaping my mind at the moment. It was dark, faint light only illuminating the car every so often. He sat in between me and another friend, who was sleeping. We were all in the backseat somewhat not noticing the stiffening silence. The only sound was coming from the steady breathing of our friend who quietly slept. My eyes were trained straight ahead, trying hard to ignore his glances. Though, I did sneak some in his direction. His face was tense and solemn, very unlike him. His brows furrowed in deep thought and he swallowed with a lump of what seemed like rethose emotions were that I was seeing. He must’ve noticed me calculating him as he sighed, looked away, and swallowed again. I now fixed my gaze on the surroundings outside. The night sky reminded me of his eyes-- dark, but holding so much. My thoughts were soon interrupted by something firm wrapping itself around my hand. At the touch, my skin flamed sending an ominous warmth throughout my entire body. What I was guessing was a hand intertwined itself with mine. The fingers spilling through every space of my hand causing my heartbeat to accelerate. I slowly fixed my gaze on the hand. It was his hand. I audibly gulped and forced myself to look at his face which was also slowly making its way from our intertwined hands.

Our gazes met once again except this time, his emotions were clear. Guilt, remorse, knowing, and apology danced around in his deep brown eyes. I slightly gasped at the sight and all the pent up anger and annoyance and indifference vanished as well causing my face to soften with my true feelings. His grip on my hand tightened slightly as he led our intertwined hands to rest on his lap. “I’m sorry…” he whispered. The sincerity and regret evident in his voice pounded in my ears. I didn’t say anything back and I wouldn’t dare to try. I looked away from him, overwhelmed with not only my emotions, but his too. I acknowledged the fact that actually noticed what he had been doing to me all this time and was apologizing for it, placing a great weight on my chest. I felt his gaze shift from me but the warmth radiating from his hand in mine never left. His thumb moved up and down against mine soothingly and my skin burned at the contact. I lifted my gaze one more time and our eyes met once again. His eyes roamed all over my stolic face searching for, what I thought, was forgiveness. His eyes held a hint of hope when they finally met mine again. I looked down once again overwhelmed by my feelings. He tugged my hand urging-- almost begging-- me to come closer to him, as if we weren’t close enough being in the backseat and all. I hesitantly moved closer to him so that some of the right side of my body was engulfed by his left side, causing every square inch of my skin to burn again. Now most of my forearm was resting on his lap along with our intertwined hands. His gaze on me never left even as I began to rest my head on his firm, broad shoulder, I let out a deep sigh. All of a sudden, I felt something slightly chapped, but smooth at the same time brush against my forehead. I bit on my lower lip and shut my eyes tightly at the contact as I shivered again from his touch. Once I began to open my eyes slowly, the feeling faded away… I woke up.