sadness is a vine and it blooms

34 6 12
                                    

The sadness in me is like a vine that entwines around my heart, the blossoming grapes a grim reminder of how much it is flourishing; how much I have let it take control over me. But too much of anything is poison. The grapes that make wine—if ingested too much, is sour for the liver, slowly expunging blood from it, shriveling it up until the body it is contained in is the same. My grapes will lead to the same outcome; the serenity of death.

I can't stop thinking about him, his arms around me, his lips against mine—soft and pressing. The way his eyes, such a blue they were, could turn a stormy grey in anger, cobalt in happiness, aquamarine when he was tranquil and a pale blue when he was at bliss. I saw his cobalt's more than his stormy greys. Well, I had for the longest of times, before I realized they had never been a cobalt blue, but midnight. An unusual black soulless, blue.

"Willow, why are you out drinking with us on your wedding anniversary?" Jaya tips her glass in my direction

Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.

"Willow, why are you out drinking with us on your wedding anniversary?" Jaya tips her glass in my direction.

Cali nods in agreement. "Your ten-year anniversary is supposed to be a celebration in the sheets if you know what I mean." She shoots me her classic meme face and I laugh.

"Well, Jake had a business meeting and he is in London. He won't be back until tomorrow. It was an emergency. He couldn't help it, guys." I take a sip of my martini, hoping my friends don't see the tears I can feel gathering at the edge of my mascara ridden eyes, hoping they can't see the smile falling from my lips. Cali's brief knowing look suggests otherwise.

The truth is, I had forgotten to cook dinner he'd asked for the day before because I had gone out with Cali and Jaya and let time pass me by. Jake had been enraged, sitting in the dark until I had come home. Angry whispers had turned into shouts. Then, they had turned into bruises. My hips, my back

It is not the first time it has happened. It won't be the last. And no one knows, for the mask, I fit on is so perfect, so immaculate—Jaya's nails have to compete with it.

Suddenly, they both let out a small squeal as they glance behind me and I frown at them. Jaya points her hands at something and I turn in my seat.

The very same way my breath had caught ten years ago when I saw him, it catches now. Despite our differences, that all-consuming fire of our love still rages on. It still does now, dousing me in flames and as his beautiful, beautiful eyes fall on me and he gives me that smile—the one the makes my heart stutter like a butterfly's wings before they take to the sky.

Cali grins. "You were saying?"

I get up, almost mechanically and walk towards him, kissing him as we meet. His arms circle my waist and I can't help but grimace when his fingers trail over my bruise even if my dress is covering it. He doesn't seem to notice.

He leans forward. "I am sorry for yesterday, baby. Want to get out of here?"

I nod, giving my giggling friends goodbye as Jake pulls me away. We are home in what feels like minutes and then we are tumbling into the bed. I open my mouth to say we have to pick up our twin girls later but he claims my mouth with his and shushes me.

Writing SnapshotsWhere stories live. Discover now