Air-Kissed Steve Borreros Romano
You chased after me. I shove open the door with a deafening crash, slamming it against the opposite wall. You rise and call out to me, incoherent words, and meaningless phrases. The late afternoon light is bronze and sears my cheeks without notice. The suitcase in hand is empty, barren, and void like a desert; what do I have to take with me when you’ve plundered and stolen everything else? The lonely dirt road is strangely unfamiliar, but the train station is in sight. I stride towards it. You caught my hand. As you wretch my body to face towards you, your gasps surge down my face and your dark eyes distort, wild with fear. You ask me stupidly if I was really going. When I recoil, you pluck me back again as if I am a flower that bends away from your oppressive wind. Staring at me to the point of being a glare, you tell me not to leave. My dress slides easily over my body like the ocean’s waters; what happened to the love that was born that day I first touched the sea’s tears? A distant ringing weaves in between us like a fluttering butterfly, warning me that the train was leaving. I start to tear away... You drew my lips to yours. As I try to break free again, you yank me in, and your cold lips press against mine. Your hand screens and masks my cheek. For a moment, I forget my anger, and everything seems right again. But I remember her, the one who destroyed everything that was right between us. I can feel the cold ring on your finger that presses against my cheek like a cold glass window; why did you care if you had her? A hard slap across the face shatters our contact. Hot angry tears scald my eyes and face. I turn away, knowing that if my graze crosses yours, I will lose sight of all reason to leave, to become your chained prisoner again. My eyes didn’t catch yours. The hard road pounds against my feet. My sandals unravel then fall away, allowing loose stones to claw and to slice at my skin. The torrid heat parches my already impoverished throat. Rasps heave my body and, for an instant, the sun shudders. Then your voice screams the phrase that threatens to draw me back and make my tears storm for you. To weep for the paradise lost to us. Those two words still ring in my ears as my feet whisk me away. Don’t go!
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