You woke early that next morning, light shining in from the window behind the bed.
Stretching, you heard the sound of pots rustling against one another.
Following the sound, you smiled at the sight of Andy. He looked good in white, even if it was an apron.
”You need a hat to go with that.”
He turned at the sound of your voice, a small smile breaking onto his face.
”Oh really?” he returned, turning back to his eggs.
“Yah, really.”
That meme tho. It was an early one, for sure.
So you two spent the morning laughing and quoting those old rage comics, things that spanned from your Scene phase to well... your current one. Whatever that may be.
The afternoon passed by in laughter and kisses (sometimes at the same time). Juliet nor your ex was brought up, until Andy and you finished watching a movie about heartbreak and the inevitable realizations of the soul.
You were the first to bring her up.
”Do you... ever miss your ex’s?”
”Crazy bitches like Juliet, who crash your window with a baseball bat?” Andy laughed a little, reaching into his pocket for a carton of cigarettes. “Hell no.”
Swallowing back that pain, you placed your hand on his.
“Could you...” you swallowed, capturing your words and sending them down your throat. With a clearing cough, you spoke again.
“Could you... not?”
After a moment’s pause, he nodded, and tucked the package away.

---

You two were going out tonight. For dinner, and this would be a first.
So you slipped the garment he’d bought you on, slipping on your shoes and smiling at the mirror. You brushed out your hair, and the rest was easy.
You smiled as you went to the balcony.
He was waiting for you, standing out behind a glass door, cigarette lighting his face as he turned around to the sound of the door opening.
He smiled.
"Hey," you said, pulling his hoodie closer to yourself.
"Hey yourself," he replied.
A silence passed by.
”’Nother cigarette?” you asked.
He blew the smoke at you, and you did your best to suppress a cough.
"Don't act too surprised, princess."
"I just..." But your words died there, resigned to your mind and resigned to the silence you were creating. You couldn't make your thoughts permanent, couldn't reach that far out to him. In anguish, in sorrow, in heartbreak for the future.
Because that was just pain. And pain was meant to stay in the past.
So it did.
You allowed every ounce of heartbreak and every shard of broken promise to remain locked away.
That was when you did something dangerous: you thought too long and too hard about one thing, and it was then you made a realization.
You tried to push every ounce of it away, but the thought crept up like a tidal wave crashing onto shore.
You held it back, and it came to you full-force.
So, you made a decision.
"Andy..."

Notes