And then? Part 2

There in a bright room he woke up alone outstretched on a huge bed. Every inch of his mattress was cold except exactly where he lay. He thought of her and got up, still no face. The warmth remained on the mattress like a chalk tracing of a dead body on his bed. That morning his feet were a-tapping and his hand was a-slapping his knee. He could not wait to see her face only to remember that he still loved her.

Later that morning he found her and pretended to be interested in a conversation with someone about so and so. It had been a long weekend. Each hour like a block of Jenga, threatening to topple over. His peripheral vision sharpened from all this indirect contact. Shamelessly he looked at her and although he still loved her he begun to remember her face very clearly now. Closing his eyes he could see everything about her. He could see how her red hair dye seeped down her back after she swam, he could feel her weight and her nails scraping, scratching. He knew she had wanted him to find the benevolent force within himself and steal the words from someone else. "You had me at face", "I've loved your face so long"...

Yes, he would remember the way they begun to unglue as she said, "We need to talk..." or did she say "I have something to tell you...". He could feel the guilt in her voice in the small space of air between them. He could see now how Bart had felt when that new girl ripped out his heart, chucked it against the tree house wall as it slid into the bin, "You won't be needing this anymore." Again he could feel her dimples beneath his thumbs as he wiped away her tears. Now thinking of it over and over, he was only rubbing them into her cold skin.

"I love you. You think I don't but I do." He said it over, and over until she stopped watching the floor and looked through him.

"Show me. Don't tell me." She hugged him as a consolation prize. His jaw tightened. Arms lifelessly hanging beside him. He wanted to hear her cry harder. This was only the beginning of lasts. He fell into this hug a little deeper, found the trap door, lifted it, swung his legs into it, and let go. He could feel her chest heaving against his.