I locked my crush on Dani in a box
because she wore another man’s ring.
Seeing it was like a cross seared
into a vampire’s skin, melting before my eyes.
We used to come here as kids,
and here we were again, smoking pot.
Dani flirted with the thought of us.
I calmed myself with the sparkle of her diamond ring.
Expensive.
Much more cash than I had to fork out.
Dani’s soft lips shimmered with sparkles
when our kiss led to more in a dream.
I died thinking of her lying with him.
I searched for a thought to untie
this slipknot on my heart,
and painted a mosaic
portrait of us, clasping hands
together at Outlook, gazing down,
kicking our feet off the edge,
of Edison Creek.
When Dani needed a friend,
my ringtone played.
I’d listen.
She asked me what I thought.
I told her what she thought.
The city light blinked like applause
before the cast exited the stage.
But we stayed after everyone filtered
through the auditorium doors.
We roleplayed a script of our own lives,
where we stuck
together through water damage
and a drought that sparked a grass
fire to consume the home we’d saved
five years to put a down payment on.
People walked their dogs
and husbands by the collar.
Everything looked different from the outside.
We laughed at a car plowing through a red light
and entered a bakery with a bang.
Glass and a propane tank filter
through flames and debris.
Our dark humor turned us on.
We chased out fears until
we climbed through her bedroom
window, telling each other
that we should sleep in separate beds.
We did until we didn’t.
Rays brightened through the blinds
that spread light over shadows.
I turn to the other half of the bed.
Dani smiled.
I grinned and moved strands of her long,
damp red hair stuck to her face.
I embraced her hand
and noticed she’d removed her ring.
I asked her where it went.
Dani didn’t want to have another
one until I gave her one.
She called her boyfriend
while I slept and told him it was over.
Dani heard me profess
my undying love for the beauty queen.
She said she loved me
but settled for a man that her parents
thought would be best.
Dani wasn’t miserable around me.
And I was myself with her forever.