‘when the sky falls,’ she whispered softly, playing with the ends of his hair, ‘will you hold my hand?’

they sat in plastic chairs under the streetlight and staring at the stars. the road was empty and the city was hollow, littered with neon advertisements for underwear and french fries. the wind was cool, but not biting, soft and fresh around her neck as she hugged her body, grasping her shoulders and crossing her heart. she’d only brought one bag and she held it between her feet. her little red case of cds and jewelry. all he had was his guitar. she’d never seen him without it. they traveled light, perhaps hoping it’d rub off on their minds, as they sat with their tickets in their pockets and no money in their wallets. she looked up at his face.

‘sure,’ he said, touching her leg. ‘sure i will.’

they turned their heads, looking straight ahead, watching the streetlight shudder and flicker, blinking and fighting as it struggled with the inevitable. it was silent, save for the quiet flow of the air past their ears and through their hair, and the occasional rush of tyres on tar touching their minds from streets in the distance. sometimes horns sounded, impatient and self-assured on the highway behind them. going somewhere. just not fast enough.

‘if you were a bird,’ she said, ‘where would you fly?’

he bit his bottom lip slightly, lifting his chin and staring straight ahead. his face softened a little in thought, a thin wisp of hair blowing softly back and forth across his eye.

‘i think maybe i’d go somewhere like new york,’ he said, touching his neck. ‘i like watching people move around the city streets, going wherever they’re going or doing whatever they’re doing. i always wonder, you know, who they are and what they want. and why.’ he paused, and closed his eyes quickly, before opening them and bringing his knees into his chest. ‘it’s kind of sad, sometimes, i guess. all these people moving around so close together, but keeping themselves so…i don’t know. disconnected. averting their eyes as they approach each other and leaving spaces in between them when they sit down. i just think, sometimes. how can we live such lonely lives, like this?’

‘i get afraid sometimes,’ she said quietly, softly touching her collarbone. ‘of being lonely. being alone. you know. you always think of this person being out there, for you, maybe. not like fate or destiny or anything, but just that one day you’ll find someone. find love. or whatever.

but it’s like, what if you don’t?’ she stopped, suddenly looking small under the huge empty sky with its faint stars and massive darkness. ‘there’s more girls than boys in the world, you know,’ she said.

they sat, silent for a moment, two blonde heads blowing gently in the breeze. a car drove past, leaving a wave of dust and smog in its wake, before clearing again and leaving them still in the quiet emptiness of the city, late at night.

‘if i was a bird, i’d fly up really high.’ she said suddenly, sitting taller and lifting her head. ‘up past the clouds to where you can look down and see this giant sea of soft, white waves, frozen in time. but still moving, slightly. it’d be so free, up there. so quiet.’

she smiled a small smile and looked back at him.

‘i wouldn’t want to be there all alone, though. not forever, at least.’

‘i’ll come with you,’ he said.

she leant down and picked up her bag, holding it on her knees and stretching forwards, looking down the empty street. she sat back in her chair, softly letting the air rush out of her body, pressing the small of her back into the smooth red plastic. she shut her eyes and ran the tip of her finger slowly along the curve of her lid, letting the lashes softly tickle her gentle skin.

‘do you ever think about tomorrow?’ she asked, watching a man put on his coat as he left the dark doorway across the road, locking the door and pulling the shutter down. it was grey.

‘sometimes,’ he said, glancing quickly down the street and then turning his eyes too, to follow the man as he walked down the deserted street and around the corner, using his coat as a shield. against the wind, perhaps. or the world.

‘it’s a little bit scary, i think. tomorrow.’ she whispered, staring at the empty corner across the empty road. ‘there are so many things that could happen. and still so many things that might not.’

‘maybe the problem, with thinking about tomorrow,’ he said softly, looking slowly at her face, ‘is that sometimes people seem to forget to think about today.’

he looked back to the front, and lowered his head, looking at the crack in the pavement and running his toe along it, feeling the sharp cement under his hard skin. she watched him, taking in the way his back curved, the way his hair seemed to hang, heavy, covering his face and hiding it from the world. she reached up towards her own head of hair, touching it gently and feeling its weight, pulling it forwards around her face, pressing it across her cheeks.

‘sometimes i wonder what it would be like to just stop,’ he said, still looking at the ground, running his toe up the crack, and pulling his hair down.

‘what do you mean?’ she asked, perhaps a little too high, a little too quick.

‘i don’t know. just, stop. stop moving. stop waiting. just stand still, somewhere, holding my guitar, and let everything else keep moving all around me. the wind, the people. just…i don’t know. just stand, for a while. and close my eyes. yeah.’

she looked down at him again, tilting her head and holding her breath. she released it. holding her hand up near her heart she pressed her thumb into each of her fingers in turn, sliding them against each other and pushing them together. she turned her face to look down at her own feet, small and calloused, and worn on the edges. she moved her other hand over the bag in her lap, playing with the ribbons and fingering the zips.

‘once i got really tired, and sat down on the ground, in the city, on the path.’ she said. ‘i just sat there, and put my head in my hands, and let my eyes close, and my feet rest, and my hands relax. people kept walking all around, talking to each other or listening to themselves, to the private thoughts inside their heads. with their eyes straight ahead, set firm in their determination to get to the next place they were going. i wondered, for a little while, if they would rest, when they got there. or just do what they had to do and then move off to the next place. always with that little bit of emptiness inside themselves, that little bit of longing for something more than this.

i sat all day, in that one place on the ground. the sun went up, and then it went back down. it got warm, and then it got cool again. the street got busy, and then everyone went home. and it was quiet. and then, i don’t know. i got bored, i guess. so i stood up and kept walking. not to anywhere in particular. just walking for the sake of walking. of feeling like i was going somewhere.’

‘it’s nice to feel like you’re going somewhere,’ he said. ‘otherwise i guess its sort of like you’re just going nowhere.’

she leant back again, turning her head to stare at the empty street, putting her hand in her pocket and playing with the bent little corner of the cardboard. she looked up at the sky. it was starting to get lighter, faint stars growing fainter in the rise of a brighter star. she brought her feet up and put them on the chair, holding her knees together and letting her head fall back. her hair hung down behind her. she reached her hand down and grasped the end of her jeans, playing with the rip in the fabric, twisting it round in circles and then letting it go again.

‘do you remember your dreams?’ she asked, closing her eyes and thinking of the stars.

‘not really,’ he said, sitting up straight again, lifting his legs and placing them cross legged on the chair. he looked down at her arched back. ‘sometimes when i wake up i can almost remember something for a moment, but then when i try and concentrate and think about what it is, i lose it. and then i search around in my head and i can’t find it again.’

‘yeah, me too.’ she said, lifting her head up and placing her hands back in her lap, resting them gently on the top of her bag. ‘dreams are hard to define, maybe. i guess that’s like everything important. or, i don’t know if important is the right word. just, everything that’s…everything that means something, kind of.’ she laughed. ‘that’s a paradox, isn’t it? everything that means something is hard to define.’

they sat in plastic chairs under the streetlight and staring at the stars. the road was empty and the city was hollow, littered with neon advertisements for underwear and french fries. the wind was cool, but not biting, soft and fresh around her neck as she hugged her body, grasping her shoulders and crossing her heart. she leant forward, looking down the street, still waiting, still empty. the street was still empty. she bent her head forwards and looked down at her knees, poking through the rough little holes in her pants. next to her, he sighed and pushed his hair back behind his ear, mimicking her as he too turned his head to peer down the street before looking back down at the space between his legs where the chair shone through. she leaned into him, feeling her back fall against the warmth of his stomach. he put his arm around her shoulders, holding her tightly, pulling her closer. she closed her eyes, and so did he, and like two tired children they pressed their bodies into each other, holding each other up and pinning each other down, her with her head on his shoulder and he with his head on hers. the sun rose behind them, bathing them in orange glow as the people started walking out onto the streets, pulling up the shutters covering the windows, painting on their smiles and shuffling their feet.