Oops! Questa immagine non segue le nostre linee guida sui contenuti. Per continuare la pubblicazione, provare a rimuoverlo o caricare un altro.
EIGHT YEARS AGO
I watch the water ripple under the white cast of the moonlight, the girl clutches her boyfriend as he skips a rock across the water. It was peaceful at night out here, serene. The tide was out but the water was still soothing.
Couples had the same idea we did, here you didn't have to think, you didn't even have to be. Troubles didn't exist.
You and the silence went hand in hand.
Although, there's tension I'm not used to, an awkward silence that has settled around us and I don't like it. More quiet than normal, he may as well be mute.
In my peripheral he's slicking back his hair in the rear view mirror, shifting in his seat to get comfortable before turning his head my way.
I act like I wasn't staring at him.
The low beat of a song plays through the confined space of his car, it's slow and miserable which is fitting right now.
Gnawing at my thumb nail I try to think of something to say to him, all while my heart is hammering against my chest.
He's the first to speak. "Remember the..."
Yet I don't listen to a word he says, the wind whistles through the window that he cracked open a few minutes ago to allow a draft in, I had silently thanked him for it.
The couple near the water take off, droplets of rain begin to fall and the girls runs back to their car with her boyfriends jacket over her head, he follows after her, grabbing at her waist as he catches up.
I hear their laughter.
They're happy.
I watch until they're both out of sight.
Droplets fall heavier, one after another they hit the windshield. Signifying each second we haven't spoke.
My fingers trace one frayed end of the woven fleece that's wrapped around me, the exact fleece the boy next to me keeps in the trunk of his car — for me, that's how thoughtful he is.
We normally share it, but tonight he didn't want to.
I look to the sky as I zone back in, humming softly when he mentions something about football. He either refuses to acknowledge the tension between us or he simply doesn't feel it.
I lied to him, I embarrassed him and it's eating me alive. I would tell him everything he wanted to hear if I thought it would make this better.
