it's cloudy.
the exact details are hard to remember, like a memory that's been percolating too long and the mind has had the time to supplant its own ideas and version of events. Or like a dream you've thought about so much that you begin to trick yourself into thinking it might have just happened.
but it did happen.
vision got clouded in a smokeless room. judgement was steered in the wrong direction without the help of libations.
a life preserver tossed into a bottomless lake causing ripples to cascade out in all directions.
for her, it started as escape from tiresome conversation, unwanted advances. for him....well, he didn't know he needed saving...yet.
their eyes groped their way across the social divide reaching for the inexplicable familiarity of longing. their laughter reached out and caressed the other, drawing them closer than the music thundering around them. their voices whispered unspoken secrets below the surface of their pleasantries.
the ripples touched those around them, drawing attention to the closeness, to the chasm that had suddenly been placed between them and their friends. people whispered and made judgments, placing bets on how the evening would end, but neither he nor she noticed, lost in the moment with their surroundings melting together in a soundless blur of motion.
she chose to forget what she knew and to ignore the cold piece of metal that invisibly bound him, keeping him at a distance. the heart she had kept hidden for so long beat hard and heavy in her chest propelling her forward through the night. it shivered with each touch and each new piece of information left her craving just one more taste. his words had no sooner left his lips and her taste buds begged for more.
the ripples kept emanating touching the strangers now surrounding them, letting them get a glimpse of the secret written across their faces, their gestures and their every breath.
the night air was a shot of espresso, making the longing more conscious and more deliberate and reaffirming that this wasn't a dream with life-like qualities, but instead life flavoured with dreams of promise.
the ripples had reached a point where their mouths now discussed every reason why they shouldn't, while their bodies screamed every reason why they should. they pirouetted around the magnetic pull. he dipped and she spun, their paths intertwining ever closer.
the shrill sound of a safety whistle echoed across the darkness as waves of desperation and necessity crashed over their lips and flooded their minds with thoughts of possibility.
meanwhile the ripples continued their journey into the shadow creating an uncertain future.
