Everythings coming up…
Roses.
1 month of so much belly-shaking laughter. Of so many hours spent tumbling between sheets and limbs, kissing elbows and collar bones and belly buttons.
Take care, don’t let go of those handlebars. Can’t get hurt again.
Bottles of wine clank in a pile of their empty peers. Sloppy kisses, slow kisses, giggly kisses, biting kisses.
He holds me closer every day.
And then my family. It breaks. Into a billion pieces. And I don’t want him to get cut by the shards so I try my best to sweep it under the rug before he notices.
The moon is rising and his arms bring me in closer. Wet softness on my shoulder. I feel it starting, from the bottom of my stomach, rising faster until I barely catch it in my throat. I have to leave. I have to get away. H can’t see this part of me yet. I’m strong. Independent. No on likes a damaged girl. No one buys the broken china doll.
I rush out, grab my shoes. “I have to go.” He comes after me, takes my hand. “But I don’t want you to go.”
Those words ring in my ears for the next two days.
He tells me he thinks he might love me someday.
He describes Oregon as if its a members only club. A place everyone wants to go. Everyone wants to get in to Oregon. He grew up there. He wants to return there.
He wants me fall in love with Oregon.
We map out a road trip. Our fingers trace lines on laminated paper.
I feel inspired when I’m with him. I’ve started taking pictures again. I’ve started looking around me in search of perfect images. I want to learn another language. I want to travel more. I want to be better.
Not for him. For me. But he inspires me to find new things I want to learn.
I’m falling so quickly.
And it feels right.
River of Lies
I don’t know why I do this.
Time and again.
I have no interest in him.
Less than no interest. The thought of being intimate him makes me cringe.
And yet…
Zach: are you in class?
Setting little fires….
I sabotage myself. I’m attracted to self-torture like a moth to a flame that he lit himself.
Fire # 1
Overanxious and impatient. Weekend trip? In a couple weeks. Just us? It’ll be fun. Romantic. Bed and Breakfast. Wineries. Hole in the wall restaurants. Come on. It’ll be fun.
It would’ve been cheesy anyway.
Fire # 2
Drunk. And Tx…Te…TT… T_E_X_T_I_N_G….
“DrNk and hoRNy
“
“Well good luck trying to get laid. I’m going to bed, like a responsible law student.”
“come oN, Dnt make me dRunk dail you”
……
Drunk. And. D_A…D_I_L…D_I_A_L_I_N_G.
“Congrashulashiooons! Thiss is yer firsst drunk dial from me! YAY! Are yousssleepin;?”
“I hope to very soon.”
“WHYYYY? You know i drive riight passtyer exit on my way home! Wanna have a little fun?”
“I have a big day tomorrow. I’m going to sleep. Wait, drive? You’re not really going to drive home like that are you?”
“Oh pleeease, I’m not thhaaat drunk. I wasjis kidding!”
“Don’t be dumb.”
“I’m not! I have to go.”
………
Fire #3
I have his password. It’s the only way I can find out what he’s doing now. What he’s been doing since… well, since the spring.
Login.
Inbox.
Heart drops. Heart stops. Stomach flips. Spine shivers. Am I breathing?
I shouldn’t be reading this, I shouldn’t be reading this, I shouldn’t be reading this…
Really? He’s moved on… he really said that to her? He used to say that to me…
That was
Our Thing.
I shouldn’t be reading this, I shouldn’t be reading this. I. shouldn’t.
But I did. And as much as I like to pretend it doesn’t.
It hurts.
One day. Three Fires. Why do I do this.
I want to be as mature as people think I am. I want this new fresh start to be a good one. I want to develop good habits. I don’t want to manipulate, and lie, and play games… only to be left with nothing but a password and regret.
Growing hurts.
Changing Seasons
The curtain of spring’s rain shut on seven years of my life. Seven. Long. Years. Full of whispered good mornings with his taste still on my lips from the night before, full of lazy afternoons spent watching meaningless television, full of long nights spent twirling round and round stuck on neverending sadness-go-round arguments, full of loving hands wiping away tears, full of mundane conversations about nothing, full of headaches and regrets and secrets.
The summer’s heat bore down on my back as I trudged through the garbage and muck and regret and fear and anger and jealousy of one-ness. Lost in a sandy, dry identity crisis. Who am I if I’m not his? How long before the vultures circle the abandoned carcus whose arms once made me feel whole and safe? Frantic panic attacks. I shouldn’t have let him go. I shouldn’t have let him go. I shouldn’t have pushed him away. I’ll be alone. I’ll be alone. I’ll be alone be alone be alone be alone. Forever. A long, dry summer, the tears of spring dried up and gone.
And then… the fall. The beginning of fall. I awake to a chilly nose, pull the covers up over my shoulder. Alone in my bed I provide my own warmth. I don’t miss him. I don’t miss man. I’m focused on me. My needs. What I want and who I am and who I want to be. And where I am, right now. In my own bed. I don’t care where anyone else is. I’m happy to know exactly where I am.
I tell my friends. I know what I want. I want a man… who will challenge me. Who won’t give me everything I ask for. Who will love me passionately at the right moments. Who can make me laugh one moment and have me moaning the very next. Who knows what he wants and pursues it. Who will respect my independence. A man I respect. But I don’t want that man for at least a year.
You know what I’m about to tell you, reader.
You know what happens next.
I meet him. The man I’ve been describing. Within weeks of speaking him into being. And now…