of the moments in between

She whispered it to me: 
"If you could rid the world of one evil, what would it be?"
As I existed in calm contemplation, the hush of the willows encircled us. 
We lay adjacent beneath the leaves atop the hillside. 
Where she broke my heart. 
A stream rushed on somewhere downhill, and I let myself be taken by it. 
Buoyant, for once, I meandered. 
In expectation, her eyes flashed. Her lips, my second favourite part of her, curled at the edges. 
Dimples appeared in the sides of sun-kissed cheeks, sitting spitefully. 
How amnesia-inducing her face could be.
Like a blow to the head. 
Her lies, a cataclysmic force. 
Her truth, devastating.
But she was so beautiful. 
Hers was a voice so melodic that it was almost enough to make me forget. 
Her hair curled softly around her jaw and I thought it almost enough to make me forget. 
The bones of her cheeks sat high and gave her face edges that I wanted to trace endlessly. 
Edges almost enough to make me forget. 
But not quite.
A few seconds had passed. 
The question floated above us. Expectantly. 
We let our attention be taken, in part, by a flock of birds overhead. 
Formation of an arrow. 
Direct.
Oh beautiful was she, as thoughts of elephant poachers and narcissists danced behind her eyes. 
She glanced sidewards at me, believing I might feel similarly. And I might have done, once. 
The image of the new necklace hanging delicately around her neck burned itself into my retinas and I knew what I had never wanted to.
"You."