10:55am
"Thank you for last night." Mark smiles down at me.
I lay on the bed with my chin resting on top of my folded arms. Mark is sitting up with his back against the wooden headboard and a pillow in his embrace.
A smile rests on my face.
Mark chuckles.
His stomach grumbles loudly. Mark sighs.
"I'm hungry, Jackson." Mark squeezes the pillow in his arms.
"If I could, I'd feed you my love."
Mark laughs.
"That would be nice. I'll most definitely digest it."
We smile at each other in silence.
The birds chirp outside loudly. Mark's smile turns bitter.
Children in our neighborhood yell outside; tears start to flow out of Mark's eyes.
I sit up in bed, alarmed by the sudden tears leaving my angel's eyes.
"What's wrong?"
"I'm sorry." Mark wipes his eyes with the sleeves of his black sweater.
"Don't be sorry." I grab his hand, gently.
"What's wrong?" I ask again.
Mark bites his lip and inhales deeply. He tries to suppress his tears but they continue to fall mercilessly.
"It hurts." Mark finally answers.
"Your stomach?"
"No. This." Mark smiles as he cries. "Us."
"I can't get your words out of my head." Mark starts to explain. "When you said you wanted to see, hear, feel and taste my happiness. That hurts so much."
I squeeze both of his hands.
"It hurts because I feel exactly the same. I don't want to give this up. The thought of leaving you hurts me worse than my body tearing me apart."
"I-I don't want to leave you, Jackson." The look of pain and agony in Mark's beautiful, brown eyes causes a lump to form in my throat.
"You're my everything. I just want to be with you forever."
I remove the pillow laying in his lap and I pull him into a warm hug. I battle my own tears as they threaten to fall.
"Today is today. Tomorrow is tomorrow. Yesterday was yesterday. But forever is to infinity. No matter where you are in this universe, you'll still be with me in my heart. Forever."
"Jackson!" Mark bellows as his tears intensifies.
It hurts me too, Mark. But you're hurting the worst.
Listen to my words. I mean them.
Even if we can't meet again in the afterlife, you, and only you, will still be in my heart.
Forever is to infinity.
We'll be together, forever.
