I remember the world before, bright, clean, full of potential. Things felt whole then, like everything had its place, all cogs in the machine working at their full potential like they were built for it. Who knows, maybe they were. I'm not sure what changed all that, it felt like waking up from a dream only to learn that all the wonderful things you'd been living were gone. Maybe never existed.
He wasn't like that. He didn't remember before; he remembered all the dark grit of now. I guess that made me the idealist and him the realist, but really, he had some of that too. Whether it'd come from being around me or if it had been there all along, I can't say. We'd not been romantic at first. Sure, we'd flirt, but what friends don't? And then the more I learned of his past, what he remembered, I realized I'd been in love with him all along. My passive comments became more overt, his roguish smirks became devious grins.
"Tell me." He said as we walked on a broken slab of what had once been a road. I looked over at him as he lit a cigarette, taking a long drag before passing it to me. "What made you pick up and wander around with me?"
I considered this; I'd been wandering before I met him. It felt like I'd been searching for something, maybe a hint that the world I remembered was still around somewhere, under all the trash and rubble. I'd found something else, but it felt almost better?
"I think you've got that backwards." I replied, passing the cigarette back, exhaling through my teeth, streams of smoke. He hopped down from an errant end of road, and offered me his hand to help me down. I accepted it, smirking at him as I landed. He looked away to exhale a long puff of smoke.
"Then why me I guess?" He said softly, his voice was deep and rough and dragged across my skin like rocks, but I wanted to bury myself in the sensation.
"Why you? Getting sentimental in your old age?" I laughed. He offered me a weak smile, he was being serious. "Why you..." I pondered a moment. We'd never been the type to talk about these things, I wasn't sure how to phrase it. "Why? Well, I guess it has to be how you make me feel." I said tapping his shoulder to ask for the cigarette back.
"Feel?" He looked at me as we came to a stop under a long dead streetlamp. I inhaled deeply, unsure if it was to prolong the silence or if it was for the burn of nicotine in my throat. I handed it back, watching the cherry tip bob in the failing light.