Rebound

I don't remember how we met. I'd say it could have been a casual accident, a chance meeting, the way most friends come together. A coincidence that we just happened to be at the same at the same time, that your world and mine collided for that single profound heartbeat that twined our lives together. Except, I don't believe in accidents or chance or coincidence anymore. Not since I met you; thankfully, I still believe in irony.

I can only imagine how it went. Maybe you waltzed in out of the blue, caught my eye in the nearby park while I was playing on the rocks that no parent ever really wanted their child to play on. Maybe you walked home with me and stayed because you saw something in me no one else did, maybe you saw a little girl worth saving underneath the silence and awkward smiles. And maybe, just maybe, I knew that and wanted to be saved, so I let you in.

Then I guess things happened naturally. We talked and laughed and smiled and were drawn in to one another. Not like a moth to a flame, because you didn't leave me singed, no – we were more like the earth and the moon, I think. You gave me enough confidence to shine, even if it was when your back was turned, and my world revolved around you.

This is where I run out of what-ifs and could-have-beens and maybes, where I actually remember moments in our time together, like snapshots taken and stored in the back of my mind. I remember the way your skin felt against mind, you always felt chilled and I never understood why. It never crossed my mind that someone like you, someone so kind and gentle who loved to smile, could have cold blood running through his veins. But, even if your skin was calloused and cold, I remember loving the way my arms could wrap around our neck so perfectly, and you could lift me up without even trying if you just straightened your spine a little.

I remember needing you and feeling my heart drop to the pit of my stomach every time your pretty brown-eyed stare was on me. I didn't understand then that I was falling in love with you, all I knew was you made me feel wonderful and alive and like I could do anything. If I would have been taller, like you, I would have reached for the sky and taken down the stars for you.

It didn't last very long, though, did it? You still made my stomach somersault, and I still made you proud each time I smiled with a little more confidence, but it was all wrong. We crossed a line somewhere along the way and we knew it, but you always thought you could overcome anything. I guess that included destiny. I guess you were wrong, and some lines weren't meant to be crossed and I wasn't meant to be saved and should have never opened up my heart to you.

I remember rain and sadness and silence and feeling the world fall out from under me. I remember you fading out slowly and the way the rain suddenly felt a whole lot colder without you.

I was stupid and naive and should have never let you go.

We're not kids anymore but you're still that pretty brown-eyed boy who's still trying to save a girl that isn't savable. We're defiant and disobedient and we've learned even the uncrossable lines can be crossed with enough persistence, as long as both parties want it so.

And we want it, so we throw caution to the wind and bring two worlds back together, because extinction never settled with either of us and we just aren't meant to die so easily.

I don't know what I was or am to you, but you're the only tragedy I know who can smile and really mean it. You're the only one who makes me want to believe in my heart again. You're the only boy that makes me want to study gastroliths, if only because the way I feel for you weighs me down like rocks in my stomach.

I don't remember how we met, but now that I think about it, of cold skin and shy smiles and rain and the ability to overcome, I'm really, really glad we did.