You yelled at me when you found out about the couple. I showed up to apologize even though I wasn't sorry. I told you I wasn't. You don't understand I said. I had a relationship end that day, but it wasn't the one with you. I told you I enjoyed their cramped bed, eating and fucking and smoking and licking. We all moved together. We didn't talk. I didn't want to. You forgave me, but also did not. I was this evil you disliked. I was this evil you wanted to speak with. The temptation and mischief clearly sparkling in my eyes when I spoke to you. There was no one but us. Even as the small pools filled up with the bodies of stand in characters. I felt you. We looked at one another in comfort as a clown performed bad rap and I gave a knowing look that chided appropriation. The years that separated us glowed in your eyes with a "kids these days" look but it didn't matter as I knew I'd see you later. It had been a month or so since we last spoke. You picked me up when I saw you, scooping my thin but tall body up in a way that only a tall, muscular man can. I felt so tiny. Taken.
I did more bad. I liked to do that to you. I didn't trust you or your fucking broken heart. That stupid girl you loved in the past I didn't care for. I didn't do what you wanted. You hated my blatant disrespect. I hung out with your former acquaintance. Crashing at his place. He fell in love with me while I dated half the town. I didn't love him back. I loved him. I didn't want to fuck him. I fucked him. He was a virgin. It made things complicated. I didn't care about anyone. I didn't want to. I saw you off and on. Whenever we saw one another we were in each other. Taken over by something deeper than mere desire. I never texted you after if I could help it. You were always mad at me. I felt my addiction to you. I cried over it as your friend comforted me begrudgingly. Fuck I craved you. I sweated with desire with the hot sun reflecting on that stupid white fence.
I don't know when we stopped. It wasn't for awhile. I remember laying in your arms. We didn't fuck that night. I was upset. I'd found someone else while you were traveling Europe with a poor excuse for me. I told that man that I may not see him again. He cried. I thought it was strange. I had never seen you cry. This creature who didn't know me like you did was crying. I'd made other men cry, but this was different. He wasn't trying to control me. He was feeling. He thought I was good. You knew I was not. I chose him to make me better, but he annoyed me the way they always do. So I went to see you because I couldn't think of where else to go. Of course it had been months and many men and women between the two of us. Still, I felt so comfortable with you. I'd see you sometimes in a way that I attempted to make platonic. You were always trying to convince me to marry you. To leave him. I wanted you to show up with a ring. I wanted you to tell me we were leaving to go elsewhere. You never did. To be fair I never said yes. I made fun of you even while my heart beat with excitement. Don't be dumb I'd say. Don't.
He gave me a ring. It had been a long time since I'd seen you, but suddenly you were there. I felt my throat close up in a way that he never made it close. God I've never wanted anyone as much as I wanted you. All at once the time felt like no time at all. We stood in a crowded room alone pleasantly catching up. I felt your eyes devouring me. I felt my eyes asking them to. I thought we must have looked obscene to everyone fucking each other that way. My friends had not noticed. I realized that people were more blind that I thought. How could they not see us burning there. How was my secret still safe? We parted ways. You were working. I was happy. I told myself. I'm happy. I dreamt of you again. Woke up in a cold sweat of longing. I saw my rock sleeping peacefully beside me. How sweet he looked. How simple his love was. I swallowed the scream inside and burned for a week while I tried to forget.
They told me you had a baby and I laughed so hard. So very hard. It hurt to laugh. I didn't know if it was because it was funny or because I was so angry. You weren't supposed to do that. You were supposed to be like me. Childless. Free. We were going to be together one day. It was just as you would text me. You can be with him now, but I know we are meant to be. You would write such sweet nothings. So empty like nonvenomous snake bites.
You stole me away to the mountain. We watched the lights glitter below us and your hands were deftly feeling me and making me feel. No I said. I can't. It isn't right. I love him. The lights blurred below. The city so far down. The people so small. Again just me and you and him in the distant below. I laughed with you so freely. I knew it was ending. You did too. We held hands as you drove down the mountain. Even as the road curved dangerously out of sight our hands remained entwined. This is the end I thought. I kissed you and felt the craving inside. How would I say goodbye? I ran. I didn't look back to you. When I got home to my better side he was angry. He forgave me. I didn't want him to. I did want him to. He believed in the good side of me. You thought good didn't suit me. I tried to believe in myself. Still I dreamed that night of you pushing me against that stone fort wall. The cliff edge so near. I didn't jump but I pushed you. I let you take me over the edge. I didn't fight. Just fell into the sky.