The other day she sat beside him for the first time in months She watched his eyes brighten at the thought of his new life without her But the way he sat on his hands told her he was fighting the urge to touch her cheek He talked about how he had to do his taxes for the first time He talked about his new friends and how he didn’t know how to make time for his old ones He talked about his mom and the tattoo she wants but will never get She couldn’t help but catch the inflexions in his voice and notice how he still sounded like the boy whose words She had been replaying in her head for months She couldn’t help but close her eyes as She took in every sentence he spoke, like a shot of rum Their eyes were both drawn to a sweet couple that couldn’t keep walking for more than a few steps without stopping for a kiss They sat in silence and thought about the days when they would sneak out of class to feel each others lips because they couldn’t go another minute without They sat in silence and thought about their whispered exchanges outside her classroom door and his grip on her waist when he couldn’t let go They sat in silence and thought back to the days when he didn’t have so much facial hair and she didn’t feel so dismantled by the sounds of his voice They sat with an uncomfortable distance between them She sat feet away from him, the girl who used to only know how to sit on his lap She noticed the crumbs in his beard and it took everything inside her to not brush them out She sat on her hands now to keep resistance of something her body only recognized as involuntary So there they both sat biting their tongues and sitting on their hands There we sat two lovers who knew the love between them was still alive and well in their blood There sat two star-crossed lovers who knew that their time had ended long before but was not yet over The other day she sat beside him for the first time in months She watched his eyes brighten at the thought of his new life without her