I think my heart stopped when you told me. You were too cruel as you broke my world apart letter by letter, word by word. That one sentence cut me down to size. -You put this, this thing inside me!- what? I did this? What thing? You held your hand over your belly without thinking. Your mascara was running as you pushed your face into my shoulder, leaving a black stain on the shirt my Aunt Helena bought me for my birthday. My birthday was three months ago and the shirt arrived two weeks ago. Why did that matter to me? That my old, senile aunt forgot my birthday? When my heart stopped beating and there is a thing inside my girlfriend? wait. breath. beat. OK. -What?- You cried some more. I think I cried some too. I can't remember. I can't remember a lot of the last two days. I do remember that it was wet. tears? rain? just wet. Now I don't feel so wet, but the I think my roof is leaking. plimb. plimb. plimb. The sound of a crack so tiny it can't be found letting in water by the ounce, by the plimb. You stopped crying between plimbs. You looked up pleading -What now?- I love your eyes. -I don't know?- You buried your head back into my mascara stained shoulder. I sat there, hands confused. Should I grip you tighter or will that scare you? It scares me. If I asked nicely would this stop? Do I want it to stop?

a/n- If you didn't figure it out: the italics are spoken words and the speaker alternates each time starting with the female speaker. I could have made it follow a traditional format but I thought this suited the piece better. Thank you for your time.