Metamorphosis

Theft

I want my memories and my happiness back.

I can barely tolerate the ones you ruined while we were dating, even though it was only two years of my life. I can't wash your colored stain out of my black and white memories. The time you ruined were two of the best years of my life and I can't allow myself to revisit and reminisce them anymore. They contain some of the last memories I had with friends I've lost touch with. Nights I could've shared with just my best friend (who loves me better than you ever did). School occasions I could've danced under disco light with my friends instead of going through uncomfortable motions under your arms.

I think the memories you stole after we dated hurt the worst because you didn't have to be there. You didn't have to steal these too. My senior awards, my last musical performance, multiple football games. These were all places you had no reason to be but you were anyway. And every time you made yourself known. Even though you aren't in the photos I took, your ghost still lingers in them.

I can't look at the photos of me and my friends dressed up after a band performance because the red stage behind us is the one you sat on and waited an hour after the end to speak to me. Pictures in red and white uniforms remind me of the times you confined me to the bleachers as if I had the freedom to flee.

You took another great year from me, and many more to come.