The beginning and the end.

I picked at a string that had strayed from the arm of my sweater as we sat in silence. Our tummies warm and fuzzy like ants on a television screen, watching our town from above as it laughed at the thought of us. The emptied bottle rested between our hips. Our mouths felt loose in the calm of the night but there was nothing left to say. My eyes drifted to his neck, splashed with moonlight between the shadows of the trees. I let my eyes linger there, tracing along his hairline and committing the patterns of the little hairs that grew outside it to memory.

“Uzelesss.” He slurred as he kicked a rock from the edge of the cliff, we listened to it’s screams as it tumbled further down.

It didn’t seem any time had passed but as I woke brushing bits of moss from my hair, I could see how the trees were coated slick in morning light and our town buzzed alive once again down below. The birds sang solemn melodies as if they understood and I listened intently for a moment, dazed. I didn’t turn my head to check, I knew he was gone. My breaths came shaky and I felt raw. I ignored the ache in my head because the one in my chest was unbearable.

“Useless.” I whispered hot tears pooling at the corners of my eyes. And I grabbed the wine bottle from beside me and hurled it over the ledge. Unlike the rock, it smashed once, sickening and final. And with that, I wiped at my face, picked myself up off the ground, and began the walk home.