The Sunset of My First Love

It was a moment that I didn’t want to end, but I knew it was going to. We watched the sunset on a majestic summer evening with a cool breeze flowing around us. The hue of orange, yellow turning to red and pink was remarkable. In that moment I thought about how lucky I was to share it with someone I loved. I turned to look at her and caught a glimpse of the sunset reflecting on her beautiful face. She was glowing and radiating just like that summer sun. She had this aura about her that embodied the essence of summer. She was free, and to me she was fleeting. I could only stop to admire her like I could the sunset and then she was gone. I was left amazed and bewildered at the same time and couldn’t understand why things had to end. In those days love was fleeting to me, it was always there until I reached for it. It faded like those sunsets on those summer nights.

We had met on the summer of my 17th birthday and I was visiting my father and grandparents. I had gone there to reconnect with my father after he had left many years ago. We talked, we fished and I learned more about the man I once called dad. There was an amusement park close by that I remembered vividly as a child that my grandparents use to take me to. It was one of the best memories I had growing up and my father took me once more. I rode the rides, the roller coasters and played the carnival games and I felt like a child again.

In those moments there was no pain, no anger only joy. The kind of joy that is pure and comes from within. Next, we moved on to the waterpark section because as a young man I enjoyed showing off for the ladies. I found myself in the children's section of the waterpark with the tower of slides and ropes. I decided to go and have fun on those slides once again. When I reached the top of the tower there she was, the most magnificent woman I've ever seen. Her smile radiated warmth and love, her aura filled me with calmness and a sense of home. She embodied the sun and I couldn’t avert my gaze.

I did what any dumb kid would do and use a funny pickup line to start the conversation. She giggled and her face lit up all embarrassed. I knew it had worked and I asked for her name. Emma, she replied, and I said nice to meet you Emma and I went down the slide. She was frozen in her tracks in that moment, and I could tell she wanted to know my name.

I returned to the top of the tower and make another joke then introduced myself. I stayed there talking with her for what felt likes hours, and when her shift was about to end, I asked for her number. She laughed and asked if I had anything to write it down, but I didn’t so I tried to remember it. We parted ways and I walked off to find my phone quickly to not forget when her manager came running after me. I thought I was in trouble, but he simply gave me her phone number. She had gone to him and asked for paper and pen so I wouldn’t forget.

Over the next couple of weeks, we talked over the phone and went to the amusement park together on her days off. She was deathly afraid of rollercoasters but everything else we managed to ride. In the evenings we watched the summer fireworks pop off with that sunset in the background. Emma was a year older than me and was planning to go to college. I was now a senior in high school in another state of all places. A part of me knew when that summer ended, I would never see her again, but I didn’t care. I was grateful for every moment I had, and I cherished them with all my heart. For the first time in my life, I had felt love and I didn’t know what to do. I told her how I felt that night and she reciprocated the same. We knew how things would end but neither of us wanted to say it out loud.

That day finally came faster than I imagined it would. I took her out to the lake to watch the sunset for the last time. In the morning I would be back home and she would be leaving for college. There was something indescribable about that sunset. It glowed a little warmer, it radiated a little brighter and it lasted for what felt like a lifetime. The world stood still for us on that lake, while watching that beautiful sunset.

Love wasn’t fleeting and neither of us wanted to leave. It was real, it felt like home and it lasted for a lifetime. That sunset ended, but my feelings for her never did. Our love transcended like the moon after a sunset. I can never forget how she made me feel nor can she. We were given a perfect moment, and a beautiful love to remember. Now every time I watch a sunset I'm reminded of that love, and of that moment. Its irreplaceable, my memories may fade, but the way I felt never will.

-Mack