The SUNSET - by Gift Olabode

The day becomes day because of one character: the sun. Remove it, and the day becomes night.Its blazing light reaches every corner, impossible to ignore, impossible to deny. Yet somehow, even the brightest light can go unnoticed…. Why?Why have you chosen to mock my love? Why do you take my care for a common thing? Why does everything I do seem worthless in your eyes? Can you not see my beauty, or do you simply wave it away because your lens is flawed?These were the thoughts fighting within me as Sarah, yet again, wore a neutral face while I handed her my birthday gift.Am I overreacting?Or is this what friendship has become? Treating every part of me like it belongs in the wrong room?Isn’t friendship something sacred between people? Isn’t it supposed to be mutual? Forget love triangles for a minute.Let friendship triangles feel the warmth of the spotlight. Because what happens when your love is not appreciated? When your care begins to feel like too much? When you do favours and never hear a thank you because the value placed on you is almost nothing? Nothing you bring seems to amount to anything. Again, I wondered if I was overreacting.Then I saw her smile. She laughed and talked so freely with her other friends, her face lighting up in a way I had never seen when she was with me. She never smiles at me like that. I thought. I walked away from the party and into the estate street. Across the road, a lonely bench sat beneath the evening sky. I walked towards it and sat. The sun had begun to kiss the sky with strokes of burnt orange and soft violet, painting the evening in colours that felt almost comforting. It was like the sky was telling me a story. I looked around. Everyone was minding their business, rushing through their own little worlds, almost completely unaware of the sunset above them. Then I noticed a woman nearby.She had come out to pack up clothes she had left outside to dry. She gathered them quickly, barely giving the setting sun a glance. She didn’t care that the sun was still there. Perhaps it wasn’t as bright as it had been at noon. But that did not make its light worthless. That did not make its presence less important. And suddenly, I understood.Maybe Sarah wasn’t trying to hurt me. Maybe she wasn’t trying to mock my love or make my care feel worthless. Maybe she was simply looking for something I wasn’t. Something I couldn’t be. Just like that woman didn’t need the evening sun to dry her clothes. It didn’t mean the sun had lost its ability to shine. It simply meant its light wasn’t what she needed at that moment. And perhaps that was Sarah. She wasn’t rejecting my worth. She simply wasn’t looking for what I was offering. The thought brought an unexpected relief. I smiled bitterly at myself. Then I stood.I walked away from the bench. And this time, I walked away from the party too. Not because I hated Sarah. But because I finally understood that not everyone who fails to value your light is trying to put it out. Sometimes, they simply need a different kind of light.

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