Witches Mag, Issue #5: Time

Page 59

Scenes From an Expiring Relationship By Jaclyn Griffith Time suspends around us in the spring, but I can still hear the clock ticking. Over FaceTime, I cannot stop crying. Bernie Sanders is dropping out of the 2020 presidential race, and my boyfriend is moving to Michigan. I drop my phone in my bed and run to the bathroom. My boyfriend’s digital face plummets into my teal velvet duvet, and I sob until the wind gets knocked out of me. For seven months I have tried to outrun my feelings for him, but my love has finally caught up with me, finally caught up and crushed me into a dirty pile of tissues on my bathroom floor. Are you okay? he asks when I return to the phone. Yeah, I’m literally fine, I say. I’m so happy for you. *** We meet for the first time on a rainy Thursday in the fall. We drink pink cocktails on red stools in a bar that sits on aberrant cobblestones. I am a half hour late, and he offers to pay the check. By the second drink, I am already telling him, You’re applying to way too many grad schools. By the end of the night, he is already telling me, I want to make out with you until my Uber gets here. I lean against a black wrought iron fence and slip my hands inside his leather jacket, where they rest naturally on his waist. I have ninety seconds until a silver Camry pulls up and takes him away from me. Six weeks and eight dates pass. He listens to my stories on a bench outside an observatory in October wind, at my favorite cafe where I write and drink tea on Monday afternoons, in my passenger seat before work, at a Korean restaurant with no other customers that shuts down the following week. 58


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook

Articles inside

opal jewelry & beckoning bread

1min
pages 120-121

dedication & more info

1min
page 122

littlest apple, big apple, pt. 3

1min
pages 118-119

world standard time

1min
pages 110-111

on the art of conjugation

2min
pages 114-115

38 days

4min
pages 106-109

jac’s diary

5min
pages 102-105

i didn’t know it at fifteen

2min
pages 99-100

waiting room

3min
pages 97-98

clairvoyant monica and the mystery of major

2min
pages 94-95

wo)man’s best friend

8min
pages 88-93

her honor

0
page 87

takes two to tango

3min
pages 84-85

no gods / forgive us our sins

2min
pages 80-82

tiny round belly

3min
pages 77-79

stephanie’s diary

0
page 76

life on a timeline

6min
pages 73-75

scenes from an expiring relationship

20min
pages 59-71

tattoo trails

5min
pages 53-57

time in a vial

8min
pages 44-48

when i was

1min
pages 49-50

great piece about time

0
page 52

thing with the feathers

0
page 39

fuck turning the other cheek

2min
pages 40-41

yellow house

14min
pages 29-37

just one year of love

10min
pages 22-27

four generations of poinsettias

0
page 28

main characters

2min
pages 15-17

maría, a bird

6min
pages 10-13

new listings

1min
page 9

when you find a white hair

3min
pages 6-8

right girl, wrong time

2min
pages 19-20

manifesta

4min
pages 4-5
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.