Debutante

She took hold of my arm in the middle of a busy street, only to tell me I didn't have to stop wearing my cologne simply because she had left. I looked this stranger in the eye, and without a glaze of passing recognition, mumbled a thank you. I didn't know what else to say.

-

Remember those nights?

What nights?

You knowwwww. Stop teasing me.

I know a lot of nights. I don't know which nights you know, and which you don't.

The park. The lake. Late sunrises, Early sunsets. We'd start our fires when the sun left its office, and hide them when it walked back in.

Hmm. We were so young.

We were so young. And we both spoke 5 languages to strangers, but only one in common.

And we'd make friends...

You mean you'd make friends.

Well, it was us by the lake.

Yes. But you did the making, be honest. I just helped with the keeping.

Hmm.

But anyways. We'd join the stars with lines, like dots in a child's playbook. Our shapes always cut each other. You'd see a bear, I'd see a teapot. And we'd pretend the trees spoke to us. And we'd give them names, and

Yes, yes. What about those days?

.....I wish you still loved me.

I do.

Not like that.

Yes. not like that.

Then how?

I don't know.

Tell me when you do.

-

I didn't know how. So I never told her. She tired of waiting for an answer, and decided to go looking for it.

-

I know now what that love is like. You've shown me what it's like. I wish you could come back now, so I could tell you.