Chapter Thirty-Four: Rooftop// Two Kinds Of People
One day she came over with a small plastic bag of kidney beans. Sitting down next to me, she grabbed the empty flower pot from the window sill, carefully balancing it on her crossed legs.
"Pain is a wound in your chest. It bleeds." She rubbed her eye and poured a handful of kidney beans into the pot, dropping a sunflower seed on top. "But it's a different kind of bleeding. Not blood, but tears. Not broken skin, but a broken heart. Not a scar, but.." She swallowed. "Time. And forgetting. Giving it enough space that it doesn't hurt to think about anymore."
She started dropping kidney beans one by one over the sunflower seed, scooting closer so I could watch. The dark red of the kidney beans started covering up the sunflower seed until another bean dropped from her fingers, sending the others sliding off the sunflower seed.
"Every once in awhile, the pain resurfaces again. And it's just as strong as it was before."
The beans started covering up the sunflower seed again. Then, again, another one sent the others sliding off. This happened a couple more times before the kidney beans started piling up, successfully burying the sunflower seed for good.
"And as time goes on, eventually the pain subsides. It never goes away though." She shook her head and set the small flower pot back on the windowsill. "We just learn to live with it."
She sighed. "I guess at the end of the day, there's two kinds of people in the world when it comes to someone leaving. The ones who hang up pictures on their walls, and talk about their loved one every chance they get." She brought her knees to her chest and gave me a long look. "And the ones who pack everything up in a box and never talk about it again."
YOU ARE READING
The Moth
Teen FictionNoel Lane is a worn-out college student, spending nights on his rooftop looking for answers in the silence and sky. When a strange girl with broken eyes and a soft smile appears one night, he's intrigued. She claims she's a "moth," drawn to other...
