His beautifully etched jaw spilled warm words out excitedly, normally when he talked to me like this it set my heart on fire. It ached a sickly pain this time. His eyes gleamed like the stars above, although those stars didn\u2019t sparkle for me.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re really going so far.\u201d His smile was so genuine, the deep dimple beside his sweet lips was a dark shadow in the dimly lit night. \u201cShe\u2019s my warm hearth on a frigid winter, I feel so alive.\u201d His sweet laugh warmed my chest, moments before its acid seeped in. He wasn\u2019t talking about me, so desperately I wanted him to. That warm summer night was icier than the stinging of a February wind.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n February hurt too.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n How could he not have guessed? His words were arrows piercing my heart, but in his excited ramblings he lost himself and likely couldn’t see my tears. Why didn\u2019t I walk away? Tell him to find someone else? Find someone new for myself? Because I was a fool.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n A fool so deeply in <\/span>love<\/span><\/i>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOh, Amber, I wish you\u2019d see us together.\u201d The corners of his eyes scrunched up as an ecstatic grin painted his face. They had just come back from the Valentine\u2019s dance. Well, Stevie had come back from the dance. I had sat outside the gym, shivering as I watched the sun fall beneath the crooked apartments down the block. My cheeks stung cold as I watched the dark sky pepper with incandescent sparkles. If only he was there to warm me, <\/span>be my warm hearth<\/span><\/i>, or at least to dry my eyes.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Many dances we attended with each other. Each one a preview into what our future would look like. Holding each other close, our bodies touching as we swayed to the music. Perhaps I misapprehended what it all meant because that night he held someone new, held her closer than he held me.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s really wonderful, Stevie. Are you going to the same school in the fall?\u201d My chest heaved as I dragged the words out. Why did I urge him to keep talking? I didn\u2019t want to know, to hear his soft words trip over themselves because the girl in his mind owned his heart. His words stumbled, his sweet round cheeks turned red, his boundless blue eyes dilated, all just like me. But not <\/span>for <\/span><\/i>me. Stevie was in love, and that made him so happy. When Stevie was happy, I couldn\u2019t help but be happy in some sense of the feeling.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Even if my heart cracked with each word.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYeah, she already planned to attend WSU too, so it\u2019ll all be perfect.\u201d His now nearly black eyes looked to the shimmering sky above. \u201cYou know what she said to me?\u201d His cheeks blushed noticeably even in the pale moonlight. \u201cShe kissed me,\u201d a sting in my chest, \u201cand said she loved me.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n A dagger in my heart.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Jack Weber His beautifully etched jaw spilled warm words out excitedly, normally when he talked to me like this it set my heart on fire. It ached a sickly pain this time. His eyes gleamed like the stars above, although those stars didn\u2019t sparkle for me.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019re really going so far.\u201d His smile was so… <\/p>\n