𝙵𝙾𝚁𝙶𝙴𝚃 𝙷𝙴𝚁࿐ ྂ ᴊᴇꜰꜰ ʙᴜᴄᴋʟᴇʏ

ᴛʜɪʀᴛʏ-ꜰɪᴠᴇ

"AND THE RAIN, OH WANNA COME DOWN FAST LIKE KISSES ON MY SKIN,"

Jeff sang his lyrics into the cheap microphone at Sin-e. "But it passed me by, and it left me dry." He searched through the crowd packed into the cramped coffee house for Polly, once again she had missed his regular Monday show, as she had been doing recently. His fingers ached as his hands traveled the maple neck of his Telecaster, as this was one of the last songs of his performance. He usually played for a couple of hours, split up by his sporadic coffee breaks or impressions, sometimes talking to the crowd.

"Lover, you should have come over." His voice carried so much emotion as he sung, captivating his audience. "Broken down and hungry for your love, with no way to feed it." The song, of course, was inspired by the fluctuating nature of their relationship- but it didn't make him feel the same way singing it as it had when he had first written the lyrics in one of his old notebooks. That was due to Jeff's feeling that they wouldn't end again, even if they were separated by distance, or their different, busy lives.

He was still confident in their relationship, even in harder times. Even now, with her distant self.

He finished his last few songs, Sin-è nearly empty as he closed his guitar case and bid goodbye to the owner Shane.

Polly stood in the cold night, hands deep in her pockets to warm them as she leaned against the building. Her eyes were heavy and she wanted to return home but knew Jeff would be out soon, so she stayed.

"Polly?"

She glanced up from the ground, Jeff standing with his guitar case in hand. "I came earlier but it was too packed." She explained, returning his happy smile. "People were spilling out onto the street." She shook her head in disbelief as they began to walk hand in hand.

"You came though."

She nodded, still exhausted yet much happier to be with him versus in her bed, even with her hour or so of waiting in the cold. "I'm sorry that I haven't been." She said softly.

"It's okay, you're busy."

Polly would forever be grateful for Jeff and his nature, though never able to really articulate it to him. She smiled to herself and looked down at her docs, in sync with his old boots as they walked.

She wished so dearly that she could express what she felt for him as well was he could. But her emotions didn't pour out as constant or easy as his did, the things she had felt remained unnamed for years. Obviously what she felt towards him was pure love, but that was just on the surface.

As Polly climbed into bed beside Jeff, the orange-ish light her lamp gave off illuminated every single one his features perfectly. From his long lashes to the callouses she felt as he ran his hands along her body.

Jeff had recently decided that he would record a few songs at Sin-é as his first release, being as he wasn't ready for a full album and Columbia needed something to put out. The recording would take place in summer, only a few months away. Following that, and soon after the release of the EP, Jeff would go on tour.

It probably wouldn't be anything very long or serious, just him and his borrowed telecaster in various theaters and coffee houses. But he would still be gone, and that was something both Jeff and Polly had refrained from talking about.

They weren't really anywhere near whenever his future tour would begin, but they still savored their time together, every second.

༻✦༺

Polly entered the small, almost closet room she called her dark room. She hadn't really been in it in months, almost getting a sad feeling looking at her assortment of different cameras, most of which recently untouched.

She had fallen in love with photography once, finding it so special to capture moments in time and then later hold them in your hands. Each individual photo had its own value, being the light had to be perfect at the time she took it, and needing steady hands for it to not come out blurry. There was a story behind each, no matter how small.

She took the photos that had been hanging neglected down, sliding them into their spot into a new album. She sat on the floor, legs crossed as she flipped through older albums.

She looked through one from 1990, feeling for the girl she saw in the pictures- the dark bags under her eyes and last nights clothing. The album from 1991- Polly visibly more happy. She laughed at one with Jeff by her side, his head on her shoulder with a wide grin. The following years album was barely as full, as she had neglected her cameras the past year.

Polly vowed to herself to make the 1993 album full, even if it was with shitty pictures. She took one last glance at her old pictures and put them away, left with nostalgia.

It was lightly raining outside, the sound comforting along with the sound of Jeff's playing and singing coming down from downstairs. She listened as she tidied the upstairs pausing to hear better when she caught a few of the lyrics.

It was a song she hadn't really heard before, at least not the lyrics. He paused between singing, probably writing down or perfecting his lyrics.

"Forget all her flaws that you try to defend, remember her hair how it shown in the sun."

He paused once more, humming the melody. Polly sat on top of the spiral staircase, still listening intrigued by the song.

"Don't fool yourself, baby. She was heartache from the moment that you met her."

She knew that he was probably just trying to finish old songs for his future album, but the words he sung stung deeply, because she knew at one point he'd felt that way. And she knew somewhere that what he sung was about her.

He began to sing once more, "but my heart feels so still as I try to find the will to forget her somehow."

At the last lyric he sung, Polly stood from her spot on the stairs, walking back down the short hall, not wanting to hear anymore. It was obviously a beautiful song, but so heartbreaking. She wished that it wasn't about her, possibly about one of his past loves, but her gut said otherwise.

Once he'd felt that way, once she'd made him feel that way.

༻✦༺

a/n

TYSM FOR 12k !! 😻🫶
you guys are amazing

ALSO
in case it was confusing, the lyrics for lover are the ones he sung on the sin-e version, and for forget her is just an earlier handwritten version i found !