A Short Shell Of A Love Story

The storm had stopped hours ago but it's presence still remained. Birds still refusing to fly, like they were all waiting for the first courageous one to take the first graceful glides into the empty, grey sky. Although after that one bird flew all the others would, for those few seconds the sky would be all his. I once was a bird like that. But now I'm not. I'm the bird that lingers until the very end to make sure it's safe to fly because it's scared the rain will come again. Once all the birds in they're swarm of black, fluttering silhouettes had left I got back to unpacking. Brown boxed stacked on top of each other scattered the room. So many boxes for only one person. I walked over to the box that had fallen unto it's side. My old books spilled out of it. One caught my eye. The pale blue with white and black cover. Alice In Wonderland it said in curly letters over a drawing of a rabbit with a pocket watch. I picked it up remembering reading it. How wonderful it would be to escape to wonderland. I turned to a page the refused to shut all the way. Inside were pressed rose petals. Mixed with the dead brown I saw tints of the crimson that it once was. Picking one up half expecting it to be the same soft feeling it once was it fell apart in my hand. I remembered who gave them to me. He wasn't my first boyfriend but he was certainly my first love. I remembered how he held me, how he'd give me kisses so fragile I could almost feel them only cheek now. I remembered his smile. He was always embarrassed of his smile but the rare moments when he did I could feel one spreading on my face too. One summer he moved away to some far away place I can't remember the name of. He promised to visit but he seemed to have forgotten. Phone calls got less and less common until in a matter of years they stopped all together. He gave me the flowers on my birthday. I thought of how we hugged. I could hear his heartbeat. I took the petals in my hand and crushed them into dust. I let it sit there in my hand for a while until I let it go. The little tiny pieces fell to the ground and in the cracks of the floor. And there they stayed.