when you met me

bench

Bench

The both of them knew what bench they were sitting on. The one at the park that wouldn’t mean anything at all if they hadn’t sat there before. This was the first time the two of them had spent time together outside of the bridge for over two years. Dud had a day off and Mara had nothing to do, so they walked to the park and happened to sit on a bench.

Mara fed a squirrel with the peanuts she’d brought as Dud watched with a smile. Had it really been almost two and a half years ago? Dud knew it was the same bench. Before the blow out, on his day off, Dud talking about his struggles at the academy while Mara listened.

It had been the opposite of the present day. Mara was in shorts it was so hot. Her hair was still long and loosely curly, and Dud was laying down on the bench, his head on her lap, talking about how impossible it was to train with Jack, because he was so good at the physical side of things.

Mara had idly ran her fingers through his hair, and Dud had one foot on the bench while the other scuffed the concrete as he swung it back and forth in time to his story.

Mara sat up with slight disappointment as the squirrel scurried away from her after eating all of her peanuts. “I feel so used.” She laughed, and Dud laughed too. They both went back to NOT thinking about days passed. The day was grey and bitterly cold, and after a moment of total silence, Mara rested her beanie covered head on the shoulder of Dud’s black coat.

Dud was shocked, but only momentarily, and they continued to sit in the cold quietly for another hour. Isn’t it funny, those little memories, and those small things that bind you to a person forever? The both of them would be twenty-one in a matter of months… Where had it all gone? Why couldn’t they still be eighteen? Why couldn’t they still be…? Them?

None of those questions were uttered. Instead, they both stayed in thought. Thoughts of before. Thoughts of the present. Mar didn’t dare with the thoughts of the future, but Dud reveled in the feeling. The feeling that someday in the future, it would work out. He breathed in the scent of honey from Mara’s hair. It HAD to work out.

“Everything changes,” Dud said quietly.

“But we stay the same.” Mara smiled into the wind, her small laugh making a cloud in the air around her smile.