Tell
The Message
She informed him in a wide variety of ways.
She expressed it in song, with the quiet lyrics she sang as she entered the room. The melodies were different, and the notes had changed, but they were similar in meaning. The message was never clear, and although its rhythm pounded the silence of the atmosphere, it very gently danced around his ear. Sometimes it passed through, and sometimes he recognized it, but he never quite understood.
She revealed it in the escaped smiles from her mouth. They appeared without her knowing or her consent. Genuine in nature, they emerged boldly across her face, betraying her. They were never subtle. They were proud, unashamed, and differently equipped for every single situation, whether it was in response to the sound of his jokes or the sight of his antics. A twitch of her mouth here, a pull of the corner there, a bite of her lips - it showed him words upon sentences upon paragraphs of a book he could not read.
She admitted it in the fingers that grasped his when he asked, the legs that kicked his playfully, the tongue that stuck out at him when she joked. Between them, secret handshakes were made, arms were linked, hands were slapped. When one kicked, the other kicked back. When he made a face, she made a face, too. The first was synonymous with agreement, the second with interest, and the last with happiness.
She declared it in the hidden grins against his shoulder, the gems he could not see behind his back. Every curve on her mouth molded the air around her and whispered to him bits and pieces of the message. The other faces in the room decoded it, smiling slyly because they knew. She looked at the mirror, the mirror looked at her; he looked away.
She screamed it in the silence between them. The air pulsed with the carefully chosen words that did not exist. She disclosed it in their short conversations, in the way she answered his question or described the events of her day. She said it in her hesitant action, in the way she took a handful of candy or tied his shoe laces together.
In fact, she had confessed it to him several times over, using a multitude of techniques.
But she had never actually told him.
She expressed it in song, with the quiet lyrics she sang as she entered the room. The melodies were different, and the notes had changed, but they were similar in meaning. The message was never clear, and although its rhythm pounded the silence of the atmosphere, it very gently danced around his ear. Sometimes it passed through, and sometimes he recognized it, but he never quite understood.
She revealed it in the escaped smiles from her mouth. They appeared without her knowing or her consent. Genuine in nature, they emerged boldly across her face, betraying her. They were never subtle. They were proud, unashamed, and differently equipped for every single situation, whether it was in response to the sound of his jokes or the sight of his antics. A twitch of her mouth here, a pull of the corner there, a bite of her lips - it showed him words upon sentences upon paragraphs of a book he could not read.
She admitted it in the fingers that grasped his when he asked, the legs that kicked his playfully, the tongue that stuck out at him when she joked. Between them, secret handshakes were made, arms were linked, hands were slapped. When one kicked, the other kicked back. When he made a face, she made a face, too. The first was synonymous with agreement, the second with interest, and the last with happiness.
She declared it in the hidden grins against his shoulder, the gems he could not see behind his back. Every curve on her mouth molded the air around her and whispered to him bits and pieces of the message. The other faces in the room decoded it, smiling slyly because they knew. She looked at the mirror, the mirror looked at her; he looked away.
She screamed it in the silence between them. The air pulsed with the carefully chosen words that did not exist. She disclosed it in their short conversations, in the way she answered his question or described the events of her day. She said it in her hesitant action, in the way she took a handful of candy or tied his shoe laces together.
In fact, she had confessed it to him several times over, using a multitude of techniques.
But she had never actually told him.