“Oh my God!” Stan groaned as he landed with a thud.
He remained still, hoping that the sound he had created didn’t distort the sleep of anyone in the house.
After some minutes, he stood up and dusted his trousers, looking around and ensuring that he wasn’t being watched.
A massive sigh of relief escaped his lips as he silently trudged towards the window.
He glanced around at intervals, trying so hard to remain discreet in other to avoid getting discovered.
It was 2:am, some hours after the failed wedding of Carissa and some hours after her return from the hospital.
Stan had asked Jay to keep an eye on Carissa and from the information he received from him, there was no space for him to come in at that point.
He needed no one to notify him that sneaking in at midnight might be the perfect way to meet with Carissa.
At this, he had waited in his car for over three hours, watching the house from a distance and trying to ascertain when they would have retired to bed.
At about 12:am, he observed that the lights went out, a solid evidence that they had gone to bed.
With his heart beating out of his chest, he had waited for a few more hours, before indulging in his quest.
Luckily, he was able to jump into the house, as the surrounding fence wasn’t really high. However, he got his back hurt as well as some scratches on his knees.
That didn’t seem to bother him, as his only concern currently was having Carissa peer into his eyes.
Stan took in a deep breath as he crouched low to pick up a stone.
He made to hit the stone on the window, but took a pause to recall some memories that flushed into his head.
Some years ago, he had always used this exact means to come in search for Carissa. This was mostly in cases where they’ve just had a fight.
With a flower in his hands, he would pick up a stone and knock on her window.
That was their love signal and once he does that, Carissa gets the message of his presence.
Those times, she would run over to the window, with a gigantic smile on her face and her heart beating in excitement.
And then, she would open the window and draw him in, with hushed chatters and giggles, to avoid getting discovered by her family.
Those were the period where their love still blossomed and flourished…
Stan jerked up when he heard a slight noise coming from Carissa’s room.
He swiftly crouched low and slowly lifted his head to know what was going on.
Just then, the lights in Carissa’s room came on, making him to realize that she was awake.
He peeked into the window and caught a glimpse of Carissa, who was holding a journal and walking towards her desk.
She picked up a pen and got engrossed in scribbling down some things on the journal.
Stan observed her closely and realized that she kept dabbing her eyes with a tissue.
“Oh my God”, Stan mumbled when he realized that she was crying while writing.
Just then, he hit the window with the stone.
***
Carissa’s face was red and her eyes blurry as a result of the tears that had welled up in them.
She kept writing, pouring out her heart and narrating her desires.
For a while, her journal became her place of rest and peace.
She had no one to talk to about her pains and wants because none of them would understand from her perspective.
However, her journal was one thing that wouldn’t judge her or debunk her thoughts and opinions.
As such, she derived great joy in writing whenever she felt so overwhelmed and deserted.
Carissa couldn’t get enough sleep all through the night. She kept tossing on her bed, thinking of Stan and wondering what her life would be like.
This caused her to become restless and when she was unable to take it anymore, she picked up her journal and decided to write.
“Hey journal, all I want is peace and despite how much I crave it, I can’t seem to find it anywhere. Maybe, I would find peace if I set my eyes on Stan again”, she wrote down on the journal as more tears dropped out of her eyes.
Just then, she heard something hit her window and for a second, she froze.
It sounded so familiar, but she concluded that there wasn’t a way that what she thought would come to reality.
She quickly shook her head and returned her gaze to the journal.
Again, she heard a hit on her window and this time, it was longer than the first.
“Oh my God!” She yelped as she stood up and staggered slightly.
She swiftly turned her gaze to the window, with her heart beating out of her chest.
Glaring at the window, she waited to hear the knock yet again.
And then, it came, making her realize that he was right there, at her window.
She stayed rooted to the spot, thinking of the next step to take.
Memories came flooding in as she remembered how excited she got whenever she heard the knock on the window.
Her heart was in an array of emotions at the moment. First, she got excited to open up the window for him, but then, that excitement quickly paved way for great sadness when she realized that they had nothing to do with each other again.
He had left her at a point where she needed him most, causing her to live in misery while pretending to be great.
This caused her heart to ache and almost immediately, she made up her mind to ignore him.
She sniffed hard as she took slow steps back to her bed, ignoring Stan and hoping he would go away.
Stan shivered in the cold, but wasn’t willing to leave without setting his eyes on Carissa.
He peeked into the window and saw that she had ignored him.
However, he wasn’t willing to relent in his actions.
He quickly dipped his hands into his pocket and brought out a little notebook and pen.
On the note he wrote “I love you Carissa”, after which he stretched it out on the window which was closed.
He hit the stone on the window again, hoping that Carissa would dart her attention to him.