new friend - price

You left for the village suddenly. After his betrayal, you wanted to disappear, erase everything - words, touches, even the sound of his voice. The pain was pressing on your chest, and the city was suffocating you with memories, as if every turn reminded you: "He was."
Grandma's small house, the smell of daisies under the window, an old blanket and silence became salvation. Time flowed differently here. No one knew your pain here.

On the third day, you met him. He was repairing the fence at his neighbors' - tall, with slightly disheveled hair, with warm eyes and a slight smile, as if he knew how to listen not with words, but with silence.
"The bike creaks," he said. "Let me help you."
He didn't ask unnecessary questions, he just fixed it and suddenly asked:
"Do you want to go to the river?"

You walked through the meadow, the grass tickled your feet, the dew sparkled in the sun. He walked next to you, not touching, but as if supporting you with his presence alone. You sat down in the grass by the shore and started to weave a wreath - from daisies, cornflowers and something else that had grown without asking, but was suitable.
He looked silently, without interrupting, as if he was afraid to scare away something fragile. When you put the wreath on his head, he laughed:

• Am I your village prince now?
• Just an acquaintance for now, - you answered, also smiling.

The sun had not yet risen. The morning was just beginning, the birds were singing, the air was fresh, almost transparent.
You entered the lake - the water gripped your skin with cold, but after a minute it became good, calm. You splashed, laughed like children, as if nothing had happened - no betrayals, no past.

And then - silence. Only breathing, light circles on the water and the first, barely noticeable light on the horizon.
You looked at him and suddenly realized: not only the morning begins here. You begin here.