Shorts

Tall, Tan Tattoo

There's not much I can do when the sea salt perfume fills the air. He's back again, and I missed his head on top of mine, his hands running up, down, and around every inch of my being, until I was just another infinitesimal stain in the maze of his pretty mind. Maybe it's wrong, but the stars in his eyes are always enough for me to let him in.

He turns on his favorite song, and we slow dance to the echo of synthesizers and steel guitars. I spin and twirl as he watches in awe. I'm not sure what type of beauty he sees in me, but his words sound so sincere as they fall, soaked in whiskey, from his pale pink lips. With that mouth, I could forgive and forget the most treacherous of sins, and he knows it. With every fight and every lie, I find my way right back to his side. That's one thing that will never change. We made a pact, that day in his golden caravan, that we would stay. I would stay by his side, as he stayed by mine, through thick and thin, for better or for worse. Maybe it's foolish to believe that he still keeps that promise, but I know him. I know he will not desert me. He has never gone back on his word; there is no reason to believe he's changed that much so soon.

Those four doors were a haven that summer, as June burned towards August, before fading into the cruelty of September. September meant goodbyes, new girls, old friends, and even older enemies, trickling back from a few months away. Our demons broke down the doors, but he would die before he let them take me. We would never be strangers, he made sure of that, as he made his mark on my scarred canvas. His mouth stained the layers of fabric that built me, a pale tattoo coating everything that we were and all we might become. And maybe I thought too much about what wasn't and what could have been, but he stayed through it all.

Wasn't that the promise we made, back when the darkness threatened to take me? Didn't he swear he would be there, always? Through the thick and the thin, doing what he could to help me carry the shattered pieces of my soul in this plastic town filled with Negative Nancies and demons? He never went back on his word, always a shout or step away. I know he will not desert me. I know my skin will never be cold from lacking his touch.