Amidst Crimson Kisses

Chapter Five: I Remember You

Asher's POV

A gust of wind blows through the autumn leaves as the sunrise peaks behind azure eyes, and Lynn exhales a shattered breath that cools down her cup of coffee. I dissect the forlorn clashing with the calmness in her smile as the last forty-eight hours' reign in my heart. God awakened me while Juliet gave me a kiss of death, and now my past is scattered somewhere in the fragments of my mind. I can't fathom the bitter revelations that unhinge my pride and put a raging fire in the pit of my stomach. Then I can't comprehend David's fury as hatred ignited in a man I once considered a father.

A swirl of hazel paints inside a mug of roasted coffee beans as steam presses up against a translucent window, concealing the candor Lynn masks in a receding smile. The sunlight bathes in the diner as it gleams in a world of fading neon lights and electric red pigments that saturate the walls in an aurora of the past. I remember vaguely how my mom and dad use to bring us here once a month for family night as the stars illuminated over Annie's Diner while we gathered at a booth fawning over the beauty in my mother's smile. It's the last place in the world where I summoned enduring peace as those moments overlapped in time and vanished while I walked the earth in darkness. Everything had a purpose, even the excitement that flashed in my sister's young eyes.

"Do you remember this place?" Lynn smiles. "We were all here together."

"In small doses," I say, exhaling. "I use to gag when mom and dad shared one milkshake with two straws and a never-ending gaze."

I glance at a couple a few booths away as his hand gently traces the woman's while she leans in closer with the moonlight dazzling in her countenance. He steals a glance at her as she twirls the ends of her hair on her fingertips. The cosmos melt around them as all the voices in nearby tables hush, and their souls intertwine under what seems an eternity of nightfall. Their laughter erupts as a thirteen-year-old girl chases a fidgeting five-year-old boy around the isolated counter stools as Annie Mae lifts him into her arms. I blink hard as the man fades out of existence, and the woman follows him in despair.

"I remember once a certain five-year-old stole my curly fries right before I folded him into a pretzel," Lynn smirks as she takes a hand full of french fries from my plate, gorging on each fry as she gauges my reaction while she slowly sucks her teeth.

"Oh, really," I say with wide eyes. "You know we can always walk down memory lane with a simple rematch. I'm sure five feet Lynn Torres can still fold her six feet and three inches tall, little brother."

Lynn perks up as she yells. "I'm five feet and seven inches, thank you!"

The mug passes my lips as I take a shot of espresso. Then in an instant, I blow into the mixture while a dark memory brews within the caffeine. Clouds of hazelnut float to the surface as Lynn Maddox appears in my cup with bitter tears forming in her irises. Lynn brings a cup of straight black coffee to her mouth as I thrust the unearthed memory to the back of my mind. The second I woke up calamity laid over the horizon as my past blunders were only a breath away, and my only confidant a traitor whose blood wasn't only mine. I take another sip, condensation appearing as Lynn manifests with David's arm around her waist.

The truth is, Lynn Maddox was always multifaceted, and her first time meeting David wasn't in front of our mother's old apartment building. It was when Apryl battled her addiction with drugs every morning but fell apart at the stroke of midnight. It happened when I watched Lynn appear in our house with her shirt unbuttoned and a few ounces of heroin. When the sun rose over our apartment, it was a mere obligation as hostility seized our household, and the spirit of strife was groomed within our midst. Although, my mind fumes at the thought of Lynn's misdeeds but, they aren't what drew us apart.