The sun fell obliquely across the schoolyards, warm and soft, announcing that spring was slowly making its way through the gray days of winter.
Lunchtime was usually a small reprieve from the daily grind, but for Tomás, that day, it was simply a pause to succumb to exhaustion.
He sat on a bench near the trees, his backpack resting beside him, his head bowed to his chest, dozing with a fragile stillness. His brow was furrowed even in sleep, as if not even in dreams could he free himself from the weight he carried. Shadows of exhaustion were beginning to form under his eyes: too many hours at the restaurant, too many hospital visits, too many unanswered silences.
Sunny saw him from afar as she walked out to the patio with her lunch tray in one hand and a juice bottle in the other.
At first, she didn't want to disturb him, but noticing that no one else was nearby, and that he was sleeping as if he hadn't had a good night's sleep in weeks, she approached slowly.
She sat beside him carefully, making no sound. She watched him for a few seconds.
Tomás didn't move.
"He looks so tired…" she thought, pursing her lips.
She knew something was wrong with him; he didn't need to tell her. His gaze, his silences, his way of being absent even when physically present—everything about him spoke of something gnawing at him from within.
Sunny wasn't good at prying into sad things, but she knew when someone simply needed not to be alone.
She took off her coat, folded it, and with a tender gesture, placed it over his shoulders.
"You might catch a cold," she whispered, though she knew she wouldn't wake him with that.
But she did.
Tomás blinked slowly, as if sleep still held him in its grasp. It took him a few seconds to recognize where he was.
When his eyes focused and he saw Sunny beside him, he blinked in confusion.
"Sunny…? What time is it?"
"Time to wake up before they mark you absent for the next class," she said with a mischievous smile.
Tomás straightened up on the bench, rubbing his eyes.
"I'm sorry… I guess I fell asleep without meaning to."
"You don't have to apologize. You were sleeping as if the world was falling on you." She paused briefly and then added, "Is everything okay?"
He hesitated for an instant.
He could tell her yes, that everything was perfect, that he was just tired from studying, but he didn't like lies, especially not with her.
"More or less," he finally replied. "Lots of things at once, that's all."
Sunny nodded, she didn't press.
She didn't need to know everything to stay by his side.
"The rumors… they've died down a bit, haven't they?" Tomás asked, as if wanting to change the subject.
"Yes," she replied with a lighter tone. "You're no longer the star of school drama. Now someone from third year apparently secretly dyed their hair and that caused a scandal in their class."
Tomás chuckled, just a little.
"Everything passes. Even the bad things," Sunny added.
There was a comfortable silence.
The noise of the school continued around them: laughter, hurried footsteps, overlapping voices… but there, on that bench, everything seemed a little quieter.
Then Sunny, as if she had been waiting for the moment, turned her head towards him with a suppressed smile.
"Hey… the Spring Festival is coming up, remember?"
Tomás nodded.
"Yeah, of course. They do it every year. The stalls, the lanterns, the fireworks…"
"And the food. Don't forget the food."
"How could I forget?"
She looked at him with sparkling eyes.
"I was thinking… do you want to go with your family? Like when we were kids. We could all go together, bring your cousin, Amelie if she's up for it. I don't know, it would be nice. We haven't done something like that in a long time, don't you think?"
Tomás looked at her. Her proposal had that air of nostalgia mixed with sweetness that only Sunny knew how to give.
For an instant, he saw himself a few years back, with cotton candy in his hand, running between the stalls with Sunny, laughing at any nonsense.
"It would be nice," he replied, this time with a more honest smile. "I'd really like that."
She nodded, content, as if her proposal had been more important than it seemed.
"Great. Then it's a date," she said without thinking and, realizing her words, quickly corrected herself. "I mean, a friends' date! A 'friendly spring date.'"
Tomás looked at her, amused.
"Relax. I got the idea."
Both laughed, as if that instant was enough to sweep away the fog of everything that was weighing on them.
And so they remained for a few more minutes, sitting on the bench, sharing a simple moment, unpretentious, without sorrows.
Just two friends amidst the chaos of the world, breathing a little peace.