Stargazing

31st of December, 11.00pm.

The night sky wasn’t that bad tonight.

I lay down on the soft grass, looking up onto an empty sky. I haven’t laid down like this since I was 10. Back then, a day was much simpler. Get up in the morning, go to school, come back home, play around the neighbourhood with a couple friends till the sun sets below the horizon, have dinner, then head to bed. Rinse and repeat. I wished I treasured those times more. Now, in my peripherals, I could still see the vast concrete spires all around in me. The glow of hundreds and thousands of street lamps and indoor lighting gave even the pitch black night a light reddish hue. The moon hung loosely up there, it’s own light also smothered by the luminescence of the city around me.

31st of December, 11.15pm

At least I wasn’t going to be watching alone tonight.

“Damm, this whole scene takes me waaaaaay back, was actually wondering why you weren’t going for this year’s new year party.” My dear friend had arrived. He sat down on the grass beside me, leaning back to look up at the same sky I watched. My friend was a country boy like me, but moved to the city much earlier than myself, and it was evident how much he had assimilated into city culture. Forty-five more minutes till the new year, forty-five more minutes till the both of us drop the ‘young’ from ‘young man’. I gripped onto the grass beneath my hands as if it would slow the passage of time, trying to shake off the feeling of stillness from my mind. Yes, coming here forsaken the last time the both of us would see our college friends again. Yes, lying here gave up valuable opportunities to live the last moments of our youth to the fullest. Yes, this whole expedition was based on an impulsive decision last night.

31st of December, 11.30pm

At least I wasn’t wasting our time right?

The place was starting to get crowded. People started streaming in from all directions, spreading picnic blankets and sitting down as well. Apparently, this was a prime spot for catching the New Year’s fireworks. Photographers began to set up their tripods and cameras to capture the beautiful spectacle later on, and the sound of hundreds of footsteps scrunching on the grass overtook the calm serenity I had felt just now.

“It’s getting pretty crowded, you think we should head somewhere quieter?” My friend asked.

“No. This place is perfect.”

31st of December, 11.45pm

My friend and I had to start sitting up as the grass patch was getting more and more packed. We could now hear the drunk celebrations of party-goers as they stumbled out of the bar to witness the fireworks. I looked up at the sky once again, to scan the dark canvas stretching over the skyscrapers. Maybe I was hallucinating, maybe it was a stray camera flash, maybe it was the fact that I was pressed up against my friend’s shoulder by the sea of people.

Maybe I just noticed it now.

A Star.

1st of January, 12.00am

The sky exploded into a flourish of red, green and blue, swallowing up the light of the star.