location : outside of palmview fm.
with : @seasalteds ft. lux.
the motorcycle cut off with a low growl, then silence. he sat still for a second longer, one boot down, the other still braced on the peg. helmet hooked on the handlebar, gloves half-off — but he didn’t move. staring across the cracked blacktop like it might give him a reason to turn around. but then the back door of the station creaked open. and there she was. same walk. same damn boots. same person who'd lit the fuse and disappeared before the explosion hit years ago. he swung his leg off the bike and walked slow across the parking lot, every step heavy. loud. final. boots scraping gravel, the scent of oil and rain still clinging to him.
“ couldn’t pick anywhere else to vanish to, huh? ” his voice carried across the parking lot, sharp and cold, like he’d been rehearsing the line in his head for years — and maybe he had. he stepped closer, boots crunching over loose gravel, every inch of him coiled tight like he was fighting the urge to just scream. because she was right there. because she’d left. “ you knew i was here, ” he said, lower now, eyes locked on her like the truth itself might bleed out if she flinched. “ that wasn’t some fuckin’ accident. you ran here. ”
he dragged a hand down his face, exhaling hard, the pressure under his ribs suddenly unbearable. the kind of pressure that only came from years of silence and a promise that never stopped aching. “ i waited. ” he bit out, voice cracking. “ i waited like an idiot. thought maybe you’d write. thought maybe you got caught up and you’d— ” he shook his head like he could physically shove the memory back down. “ you were gone. no word. no goodbye. just fucking gone. ”
there was a beat of silence — but it wasn’t empty. it was screaming. and then softer, like it physically hurt to let the words out: “ you were the last person i believed would leave. ” he looked at her like she was a ghost, half-hate and half-home. his voice steadied, but it was quieter now. cracked open at the edges.
“ say somethin’, lucy. or i swear to god, i’m gonna lose my goddamn mind right here in this parking lot and start bustin' some windows. ”
