Lewis Vanguard and a New World

It was nearing the end of April, and the trees blazed shades of red, purple, green and blue. The springs sky couldn’t decide what to do, so it stuck to gray. The nights rainstorm painted the concrete in dew, which rose into the noses of city dwellers.

It was man, newly alone. A boy on the brink of adulthood. Lewis Vanguard walked out of his apartment and greeted the mornings offerings. He noted the blooming nature surrounding him, though it was overshadowed by urbanity. He noted the cars speeding off to work as the morning sun rose over the buildings. This was a man who thought severely.

Upon facing a new day and appreciating it for all its beauty, Lewis walked with his head held high. Incidentally there was much on his mind, having just been broken up with. He couldn’t understand it. It’d been his longest relationship, lasting a year out of the nineteen he’d lived.

He was built tall and thin, with a mop of curly golden hair on his head. To see him on the street was to see an inflatable arm tube man at a car dealership. He noted the stares he received from pedestrians, though he wasn’t much for caring about it.

He stopped in a café to grab coffee. The morning seemed to be a rude reminder of the life he lived just the day before. The shoes on his feet were the same shoes worn by a lover now gone. The coffee that heightened his awareness was the very one she used to get. The eyes that met his no longer seemed optimistic, but cynical.

It was a new day and a new world all at once. He began to walk home. The three flats lining the street looked different. He remembered how he and she would dissect them, pulling them apart from a distance and dreaming of a shared home. The pace at which he walked became slower as the thoughts in his head grew faster.

He unlocked the door of his apartment with a sense of relief, only to find another reminder as he gazed up the staircase. The green walls of the hall now turned monotone, and the stairs turned into too many. He sat at the bottom of them for a while and sipped his coffee.

It was to be a new life. Scary, unnormal and filled with reminders of what once was. Lewis Vanguard finished his coffee and trekked up the stairs.