Random One Shot Stories

Life After Love: A Smile

Hey all! This is a snippet of the first chapter in my book I'm currently writing! Hope you enjoy!

Make sure to follow my Tik Tok @faithem.00 💕

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!! TW: subtle hints towards rape/sexual abuse !!

It started with a smile. The uplift in the corner of their mouth as their eyes land on you. The kind of smile that makes you feel like you're floating, flying through the crisp morning air as the clouds tickle your nose. That place in time and space where no one can hear you or see you or even remember you ever existed. The kind of smile that hooks you the moment you lock eyes and you think to yourself. This is it. This is the moment you stepped off the ledge and landed in the tides that take you under and wrap around your ankles, dragging you deeper and deeper into the unknown. The waves that grab you and spin you round and round and never let go. This is the moment you'll never come back from.

But then, they say one word. One short word that has you gasping for air, reaching for that part in your brain that can wrap around the impossible possibility that this person, this figment of your imagination, is standing in front of you right now, saying hi.

You can't believe what is unfolding in front of your eyes. You're dreaming, having fallen asleep in class and you pinch yourself to wake up. Because this isn't happening. You've died, walking into the gates of heaven and into God's waiting arms and he wraps you in the warmest, brightest, most welcoming hug you could ever imagine.

Their eyes grab you by the soul and yank you into their own, leaving you empty and full and you can't think of anything you wouldn't do for them.

Sixteen years old and you can't imagine any other way you would want to die except for in their arms. Sixteen years old and they have you by the neck, squeezing the life out of you as they push oxygen into your lungs.

It's in that moment, though, that your life flashes before your eyes. You can see it. A house in the suburbs, away from the busy streets and strange people. A quiet neighborhood with a school and a grocery store. The sun filters in through the windows, casting a light glow on the pictures hanging on the wall. The pictures mapping out your life. From your marriage to first child to graduation day to first grandchild. Your entire life in a single hallway. Waking up in their arms as you stretch, smiling into the crook of their neck. Soft kisses late at night as you dance to no music in the living room.

Pure happiness in .5 seconds of a thought. The kind of happiness that leaves you weak in the knees and red in the face. Pure bliss from the promise of love. A promise so easily shattered by a slamming door and echoing silence. Happiness so fragile that it crumbles as they walk away, leaving you alone and vulnerable. The crack in your soul so deep you search for a reason to keep going, and can't find your way back to who you were before. The girl you used to be staring back at you with disgust for what you had become. What one night could do to you.

It started with a smile. The kind of smile that made you forget who you were. But you had already done that, and it didn't take their smile to do it. Because they had made you who you were, and without them, you didn't know who that was. Without them, you were the scared little girl trapped under strong arms, praying that someone would help her. But no one had come. And no one ever will.