Separate Ways - Byler

VII - How We Touched and Went Our Separate Ways

In the early hours of the morning, I strolled home in a daze. My mind was ablaze with the force of a million bright and positive feelings and fresh memories. It had seemed as though it had been a century since I'd last smiled and experienced such a true and undeniable joy. The stars that glimmered from up above shone down and enveloped me within their comforting light, sharing with me all of their glory. The night was clear and alive with the wonders of the heavens and I was finally revived.

Mike's searing touch lingered on my skin and, despite the cool air of the early morning that I knew surrounded me, the biting chill was powerless in its quest to harm me against the warmth that had come along with the boy I had once, long ago, loved more than anything. Mike was my shield from the darkness, my only source of heat in the frozen wasteland of my broken heart and the voice that gave lyrics to the undying tune in my head. For the first time since I'd been forced to abandon the place I had lived for my entire life, I finally felt home as I meandered my way through the streets of New York with a lighter heart and a purer soul than I had ever remembered having.

"I'm not happy with the way you behaved tonight." Came a voice darker than the night itself.

"What?" I spluttered rather stupidly, for I hadn't been paying an ounce of attention to the companion who paced alongside me. I had been lost in a glorious daydream, one that most certainly had not included him.

"I said," The man hissed as he stopped dead in the middle of the footpath, clearly infuriated by my lack of interest in him but I couldn't find it within myself to care. "I am not happy with the way you behaved at that party, Will. Not happy at all."

"What the fuck are you talking about?" I scoffed unabashedly as I came to a halt beside him. The danger lurking within my boyfriend's tone like a looming shadow didn't frighten me at all. I didn't care enough to be frightened.

"You embarrassed me in front of all of those people. You paid more attention to that fucking mop-haired bastard than you did to me!"

Rolling my eyes heavily at the man who could drain my good mood more swiftly and with more ease than anyone else had ever been capable of, I fought to keep my irritation under control before I said something I would regret. All I wanted to do was to find my way into a comfortable bed and sleep away the night with the memory of Mike's smile still glistening behind my eyelids, illuminated there and providing me with a light and sanity I thought I'd lost forever.

Tom was making it extraordinarily difficult to continue bask in the glow of a night well spent. I found myself grumpily wishing that the darkness would swallow him up whole until he was nothing more than another inky smudge in the gloom. Only then would he be incapable of distracting me from the joy that had ignited and danced its way through my bloodstream until I felt as though I mirrored the radiance of the sparkling lights up above.

After an age, I mustered the will-power to turn to fully face him and finally honour the boy's accusation with a measured response. "Fine, I do understand what you mean. Maybe I danced with someone other than you tonight but when have you, in our whole relationship, ever danced with me? You always blow me off when I ask you and say "I'd rather break both my legs than be caught in the middle of a dance floor" so can you really blame me for jumping at the chance of someone else actually wanting to dance with me? And I guess I was excited, you have to understand that Mike is the best friend I ever had and I thought I'd never see him again so, tonight, it came as a huge surprise to me that he was right there and it's only natural that I wanted to catch up with him. Okay? I'm sorry if you felt a little, I don't know, left out. I should have considered how it would make you feel more than I did."

Silently, I praised myself for the statement I'd put forward as I thought I had adequately covered all the necessary points from explaining myself to an apology. With a content little nod, I made to start moving again and to continue our journey, however a hand that seemed to have appeared from nowhere latched far too tightly onto my arm and held me in place. Narrowing my eyes and forming a crease in my eyebrows in confusion, I glanced at the man with whom I had planned to spend the remainder of the night/morning and witnessed how darkness had grown like thunderclouds within his icy gaze and my heart faltered for a moment. It appeared I hadn't done a good enough job appeasing my boyfriend as I'd initially presumed I had.