That Time of the Year

Half past eleven on the 31st of December.

Raving crowds and coloured lights are all that they'd remember. 

I stopped making new year resolutions two years ago. Not because I stopped believing in them. But because I was still working on my older ones. The ultimate 'life- plan' was still underway, time management for me was still a bummer, and I hadn't yet sorted out my priorities quite well.

It'd been a while since I'd spoken to the diary. Every year the first pages spoke highly of my resolve. The two years saw no new diary and with it no new resolutions. In the last half hour of the year, I still found no reason to make one.

There in the midnight chill and the lights flashing in rhythm, I sat apart from the crowd. But not alone. 

Flashbacks of the year now flooding the online walls.

More phones out and ready for the loving midnight calls.

The twelve-am-call was my long-lost routine with a bunch of friends. From ringing a group of ten it had plummeted to three, and then further down until only the best friend remained. But it'd been a while since she and I had met. Or talked. Or even texted much. Perhaps this was to be the year when the streak would finally break.

Fifteen to twelve and the crowd was raving still. I cuddled closer to the warmth of my company. With silhouettes of bobbing heads dotted with glow-in-the-dark bands, the night grew older.

There was quiet in the chaos, chills in the sweat,

Inching closer to that moment with every passing breath.

Two years ago I'd asked myself what the ideal new-year-eve would be. I was satisfied with myself and a solitary spot to pen down my mind's wanderings. A year later I was passing around new-year

hugs to anyone in sight at the time.

This time I sat watching the crowd with not a thought in my head. I did not know what it was that I wanted at the time.  I could not make sense of the blank in my mind at this hour.

But there was the comfort, and there was this peace. It was of knowing that there was nowhere else I'd rather be. The clock ticking down and the crackers lighting up, the end was now here. But so was the beginning.

Wrapped in the arms of the favourite I held dear.

The crowd had proclaimed the countdown near.

The chaos did not settle. Neither did the crackers nor the speakers. The last ten seconds were buried in the screams of the masses. Maybe the countdown was done, or maybe it was still seconds away. But none of it mattered when the lips met in the sweetness of the moment. In the bliss of celebration, we floated far and away in oblivion.

Thoughts still refused to seep into my head, but happiness did. And it only grew when the call came. My old best friend had maintained the streak, after all. How things had changed and yet they hadn't.

The crowd receded and the spotlights dimmed. 

Mere laughter and wishes now blew with the wind.

Important calls and messages were done; the attention had returned offline. With the crowd dispersed and the music shut down, the night stood peacefully still. I reached back in the haven to my constants of the time. Therein began yet another reflective conversation.

Hours of discussions, plannings, teasings, and the night had finally called it a day. I was exhausted, and exhaustion meant it was a time well spent.

Here was to another sweet new year's eve. 

Half past six on the 1st of January.

The sun rose to a year with promises to carry.

Happy New Year, dear world.
:)

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