Love Before Graduation

Often some words get stuck in the throat before they can be uttered... and when they come out, they take a part of the heart with them.

My hands... were clenched into fists near my arms. Perhaps with the fear that if I loosened them, I would fall apart.

"Rei..."

His name came out of my lips as if a prayer that could not become words came out only as a breath.

And he held that breath.

As if he knew that this was his name—his identity, his patience, his punishment.

He took another step... there was that hope in his eyes which is often there before breaking.

"Say it again..." he said.

I looked away. Because some truths flow only from the eyes, and my eyes would have said a lot.

"A person always desires the things that are not his..."

Every word was cold, but straight through the heart.

"And what is his... he does not value it."

I stopped. The words were heavy. Even more than the heart.

"I am no different."

My words were not poison... they were a mirror. And mirrors often break.

He gave a slight smile. The smile that people give when something is dead inside.

"I understood..."

That was all he said. And then he left.

I saw him go. Every step was increasing the distance between us.

My heart screamed for him... but my tongue remained silent.

"I did the right thing..." I said to myself.

But my voice was trembling. As if the truth did not believe in itself.

And then... when I stood there alone... just one thought echoed in my heart - once again.

" i am no Different....."

"You were mine... but never mine.

And I was yours... but never yours."

I took a deep breath. No, these were not tears... these were just the feeling that was sitting quietly in some corner of the heart.

I turned inward.

The night swallowed him completely