Word.

Don’t you love ^that word? 

I do. 

***

His eyes skimmed across the page, trying desperately to locate his roll number. Please let me have passed, please let me have passed. Sleepless nights spent by the old kerosene lamp, trying to shield his arms from being feasted upon by the mosquitoes from the nearby rubbish dump, borrowing books from a few classmates and writing down everything he could before having to return them… I HAVE to pass.

108991 – 65% (First Class)

Unbidden tears skimmed the surface of bony cheeks.

***
His fingers skimmed the smooth skin of her thighs where her skirt ceased to exist and rested there while his other hand splayed against the curve of her spine. Her face was buried in his neck, shutting out the world in the light while they danced quietly, closely in the shadows. Tomorrow she would be gone, her career awaited her. Tomorrow he would be gone, his wife awaited him.

But, tonight?

Tonight, they would skim across the dirty charcoal lines that society has drawn and give in to the ecstasy that God intended man to experience.

***

Her little nose crinkled as she skimmed the thin layer of cream off the top of the milk; she hated this layer. She looked at her sippy cup with the milk swirling around ominously for some time, trying to work up the courage to down it. Mummy said she couldn’t go play with Sara unless she emptied the cup.

That’s when it struck her.

Mummy said empty the cup. Mummy didn’t say where, did she?

So she giggled to herself as the last dregs of pale white milk skimmed over the metal of the sink and into the drain. Then she carefully placed the cup on the table as proof of her instruction-following capabilities and ran out wondering if she could have her turn at the swing right now.

***

It took her three years to find out that he was not only playing peekaboo-I-don’t-want-you with her heart but with skimming off a couple of zeroes from her bank account.

She didn’t know what felt worse – the crash and burn of the love story that was epic apparently only in her head or the raw feeling of being ripped off by someone who you trusted with your passwords.

She didn’t know what felt better – kicking him out of the house right after he got a hard-on thinking he was going to get lucky or freezing all of his accounts that had all of her money.

***

They sat in silence, the only sound was that of the pebbles that he was absently skimming across the water that was glittering in the late afternoon sun.

After three glorious years of having loved and laughed and hated and cried, after three whole years of fighting with the world to be with each other, after what seemed like a lifetime of proving that they had as much right to love each other as any other couple did, Aaron and Paul decided that it wasn’t working.

There were no tears, not much heartache. And that’s how they knew it was the right thing to do.

After all, what is a relationship that loses the sheen of feelings.

***

I ducking love that word :)