After Six Years

And then, after six years, she saw him again. The love that she had buried, deep within herself, left her heart through open doors, as she stood, rooted to the ground, no more than ten feet away from her first heartbreak.

   Her mind became intoxicated with the memories she had tried to burn, though she knew that the ashes still remained, as they clouded her vision and made her head spin.

   She looked to the boy, demanding herself not to weep, as his sea-water eyes gazed her way, contrasting greatly against the coffee coloured skin that he possessed, but had always despised. His thick lips curled into a small smile, but it was the waves in the blue of those eyes that seized her.

   And then, almost as if the waves had devoured her whole, everything that had happened between the two of them came flooding back, filling her mind with mighty waters that fought inside of her, leaving her with an agonizing headache.

   There was anger, bitterness, guilt. She thought back to the way that he had taken her, taken everything that she had, everything that that tiny heart was capable of giving… And then left. With no word to linger between them. Not even a goodbye.

   Those six long years had been kept clamorous with a screaming inside her head of questions of him leaving. If he really had loved her, the way he’d said, then why did he leave her, without a word, to find the pieces of her heart that he’d crushed on the ground, as if on a scavenger hunt? And this is what hit her: the way he had repelled her company all those years ago when she had longed for his to keep her sane. He was unhealthy; a toxic gas that smothered her lungs.

   This realisation washed over her, swilling away those ashy remains and so presenting her with clear sight. It was, now, her turn to walk away and to leave him choking on the distant memories of the passion left behind, in such a way to make him wonder why on earth he’d ever let her go.