“Avery… why didn’t you tell me?” I whispered, my eyes still unmoving under the spell of her own. She exhaled and closed her eyes. Her hand, which I noted was still in mine, squeezed just a little tighter.

            “I didn’t want you to treat me any differently than anyone else. Plus, you had just lost your brother, and your first love. There wasn’t room for two broken hearts” At this, tears welled in my own eyes. A wave of emotion flooded my brain; a deluge of feeling drowned everything else. She ignored the gaping hole in her chest. She took me under a broken wing. She pretended to be okay for me, when I clearly couldn’t do that for her. I finally looked away from her as the tears cascaded down my reddening cheeks. Instantly her free hand drew in upon my cheekbone, turning me back to face her. Her eyes caught mine again, this time both of us allowing our tears to fall.  “Hey” she said, a smile creeping back onto her face. “Don’t you cry, you haven’t done anything wrong.” Her index finger played gently along my jaw-line, tickling my nerves into a frenzy. We had been sitting there for quite a many moments, just exploring each other’s faces when she finally spoke again, “And whether you know it or not, you healed me, too”. The moment her lips stopped moving, mine were on hers in one swift and passionate motion. One of my hands caressed the back of her head while holding her in an embrace. I took her lower lip between mine and held it there for a few moments. When we broke apart, I leaned into her and she reclined onto the bench. Laying partially alongside her, I allowed my head to rest on her chest.

Her heartbeat became the soundtrack of my night.  It pulsed rhythmically, vigorously pumping blood through her veins. For once, my mind was blank and stayed blank. Her heart was the only sound, the only outside force that invigorated my senses. Her wonderful smell cradled me. I lost myself in this brief moment of bliss, comfortably drifting in and out of consciousness. 

            My phone buzzed violently against my hip, startling me out of the most peaceful sleep I’d known in days. Part of me was tempted to just smash my phone into a rock for having disturbed us, but I knew I’d regret that later. I sat up as quietly as I could, gingerly peeling away my arm that dangled over Avery’s waist, so as not to wake her. I wrestled my phone out of my pocket, prepared to make a mental note of the caller ID so that I could add them to my hit list.