「 stray curls 」

three.

「 I 」 THREE.

one day, it happened.

the universe, or God, or whatever else it could've been, decided to allow her to b r e a t h e.

she had been driving past a local university when she saw him emerge from it, looking as sober as she'd ever seen him,

and she thought it ridiculous to leave this godsent sighting to the ephemeral.

so maybe she slowed down, parked right there on the side of the street, and waited.

and when he walked into the inauthentic, new-age yet old-school diner across the street, maybe she put all her spare change in the meter just so she could go in after him.

the most disquieting thing was that she had absolutely no clue what she was doing,

or what she would do,

or if anything was real and happening.

"how many?"

she turned her head to the employee standing in front of her. he was standing expectantly, menus in hand, ready to seat her.

she didn't hesitate. "i'm meeting someone." the skeptical employee raised his eyebrows but let her go.

once she began walking through the place, which was an odd yet endearing mixture of trends from clashing decades that couldn't truly be called a conventional diner, her breathing grew heavier, her fingers began tangling together in an attempt to calm her down (or make her even tenser), and she couldn't for the life of her understand

w h y

she had come.

but she kept on walking.

finally, she saw him, sitting at the back table, haze in his eyes gone, looking all too melancholy—likely because jack daniel was no longer there for him.

every ounce of her willpower polarized into two entities, one begging her to leave and the other challenging her to stay. as a result, her legs felt a bit weak beneath her as she approached him, but then she stopped, looked for a moment at his shrunken frame, and was ready to turn around when

their eyes met.

for the first time since fifteen days prior.

his brows furrowed, but he recognized her. she could tell because his gloomy expression wavered, and his dark eyes glinted with a hint of sunlight, and her knees could've given out right then and there. they didn't, however, so she couldn't move an inch. he had that odd ability to render her immobile without even trying.

but then her insides started screaming at her to get out before it was too late, as if too late hadn't passed forever ago, and she turned on her heel to walk out without looking back. you got what you wanted. he remembered you, just as he said he would. now let it go.

please.

"hey!" the voice was one she would recognize in its drunken state, sober state, and any messed-up state in between. it had been playing on loop in her otherwise scrambled head for days; she was certain she could pick it out in a crowd by now. she turned back around, certain he couldn't have been speaking to her considering nothing out-of-the-grueling-ordinary ever happened to her.

but this did.

because when she turned back around, he was looking right at her, his gaze so much darker than it had been before.

she was in the middle of the freaking diner, all too aware of her own mislocation within the setting. a few people glanced her way to see what was happening, but most didn't care, eyes focused on their utensils in the full bliss of a good meal.

he, though, kept his eyes on her, expectant and

oh so m a g n e t i z i n g.

her feet betrayed her, carrying her

closer and closer and closer

until she was standing a mere few feet from the booth where he sat alone, and she was vulnerable as ever as she waited.

"what are you doing here?" just like that, he asked her the one question she could not answer, the question she wished she didn't know the answer to herself, and he left it there. there was nothing she bring herself to say that would be acceptably coherent.

so when she finally did acknowledge him, her voice came out softly, making her cascading waves of vulnerability clear in case her deer-in-headlights gaze wasn't enough. "i don't know."

this deepened the confusion in his otherwise placid dark eyes, but he spoke anyway. "then sit."

"sit where?"

"sit here."

she thought her heart would burst. he was even more of a vision sober than when he was filled with jack daniel's.

and she was caught up in it.

edited.

beta readers:
—jessy @originalverbivore
—elise @volatxlebxtch
—sarafina @Ginger_Sweets