"leaves fall from the tallest trees, even mountains crumble into the sea, holding onto memories and i can't let go."
present
faith sits in front of me with a vanilla latte that matches my own coffee. she has been talking nonstop for around forty five minutes even though i haven't been listening to a word she's been saying. i just know the topic of conversation because i am guilty of saying, "yeah", "that's awesome", or "that's terrible" while i stared off.
the whole time we have been sitting in this coffee shop i have been counting the number of leaves that have fallen off the tree right outside the window. it takes me back to the night ethan and i explored the city. it was the end of august at that time and almost becoming fall, so leaves already started to fall off trees.
right now it's the middle of december so all the leaves on the trees are almost all the way gone. i can't stop looking at the tree outside the coffee shop, and faith finally notices.
"...grayson is constantly talking to me about this chick and-- hey, are you listening to me?" she waves a hand in front of my face and my eyes move from the drab weather outside to her brown eyes. they're super wide and i can see how wild they are because of her jealousy of that girl grayson has started hanging out with.
i don't think faith has anything to worry about when it comes to grayson and girls. he used to be a really big player when it came to girls, but she changed him for the better. at first i didn't want to accept the fact that grayson was actually changed, but eventually i saw it. he didn't only change when it came to faith, but when it came to me as well.
i remember one night about a year ago, faith had to run to the store to get chocolate chips for cookies. grayson and i were sitting on the couch in the living room when he randomly apologized for 'being an assclown' and we actually had a good conversation while faith was gone. as soon as she got back, she could tell that something was different.
it's nice to know that people really can change, and i'm very happy that grayson changed. it turns out that he actually wasn't raised to be an asshole, but his friends were just very bad influences on him. once he realized how rude he was actually being to everyone around him, he took it a couple notches down and he's actually super awesome.
"you were talking about grayson for an hour straight," i deadpan as i tighten my hold on the coffee cup in my hands. my eyes don't leave hers as i continue talking, "there's no need to listen to the same stories over and over."
the brunette across from me sighs loudly at my bluntness. she always gets irritated with me now because of how much i have changed in the past four months. i bother her whenever i speak to her like that, and that's if i even do speak.
faith bites her lip in thought before muttering, "you're such a bitch now."
"happens." i roll my eyes at her words and she copies me. she hates when i reply with one word which is why i do it all the time.
"are you ever going to tell me what happened between you and e--"
i perk up when i realize that she's about to say his name, and i almost scream to stop her. instead of screaming, i just wince before she can get his name out of her mouth, and she understands that i don't want to talk about it, let alone hear his name right now.
"no," i whisper. my eyes well up with tears when the memories of him leaving play in my mind. it was a series of screaming, crying, and slamming doors until he just left and didn't come back. i tried texting him a couple of hours after our argument just in case if he felt better. whenever we had arguments it would result in him leaving for a couple of hours before he came back in the middle of the night and crawled into bed with me. the last fight we had didn't end that way. "i can't."
