[so let the fireworks burst]

part 4//

Stop./

...

And now let's rewind.

----

He turns away and abandons her the first chance he gets.

Of course, thinking back, as he shuffles up the street, it wasn't his fault.

Not entirely. There is, he hopes, denial and alcohol and violence to blame.

---

Stand back.

--

He first meets her in the dingy old bar, she oblivious to the leering stares of the other men.

He first sees her taking a drink, and another, and another, and so forth, so on. A vicious cycle, battering and bruising her and-

[well, you used to be like that, didn't you?]

He sees her from time to time, sitting on the stool, all alone, begging and pleading and-

[but aren't you still like that?]

And he wonders to himself, to her:

Why are you still here?

---

Get up.

---

It's a recurring pattern, he realizes, and he realizes and realizes and

[please someone someone just stopstopstopSTOP]

---

And watch.

---

And so that night as she's-well, all he knows is that he taunts her and flaunts the drink-

It feels good, he thinks, as he gets a reaction out of her as she lunges-

and misses.

But maybe it's good that she misses, maybe it's good that she doesn't understand for once-

Because he knocks her out the first moment he gets, afraid, breath shuddering.

And maybe she's watching something else. Maybe she's watching her mother, or father or New York or anything but-

|All he knows is that no one is watching him.|

[ aren't you jealous?]

He rasps up the deserted, orange splotched street, while she's crumpled up like a wad of paper-

he feels guilt, guilt, guilt,

|but he's been feeling guilt for too long now.|

And so he leaves her, hoping and wandering what what what-

what the future might hold.

For her, for him, and for-

|But right now he'll just stand back, and watch the fireworks burst.|