Not Even a Chapter

The first fight was explosive. She hurled her poisoned barbs at his exposed flesh, watching them sink into skin and reflect inside his eyes. He fought valiantly with the kind of fury she never thought he could possess, pulling out the ends but leaving in the points to remind himself that she was like this and even God couldn’t make her change. He realized that God made her this way and he told her so, which made her mad enough to spit smoke in his face, and when he didn’t say a word after – jumped straight out of the beautiful house of the lord – she grew even angrier, driven to violence.

The next time Jack saw her, nothing but an apology at the ready, Jill’s bruised knuckles fit perfectly inside the drafty walls. Her smile was as spurious as the plastic crown she bought at the dollar store, obliging him to wear it for her, an odd request but one he was desperate to follow.