What Is Love?

Christofer walked down the dirty side walk of the little Midwest town he had called home all his life, bare feet scraping along the cement as he hummed under his breath. His hands were shoved deep into the pockets of his tan skinny jeans, which held a big rip over each knee, exposing the tiniest bit of the tattoo that sat right above his right knee. Strapped across his hoodie clad back was his trusty acoustic guitar, worn and beaten down from years of music making.

Leafs rustled and blew around his feet in the light autumn breeze that filled the air bringing a small, crooked smile to his face.

Walking into the small local park his smile grew, feeling at home again after being away for almost two months on tour. He shuffled over to his favorite bench, one that held many memories for him, sitting down as he pulled the guitar around to rest on his lap.

He had come home to something he never expected and after one night locked away in his rundown apartment a new song had all but written itself.

A rhythmic sound filled the air as he strummed his fingers against the cords, words flowing out as if he had played the song a thousand times as opposed to the few times he had run through it in his dust filled bedroom.

The thought of a divorce never came to mind when he thought about his parents. But when he arrived at their door step the day before he was greeted with his mother’s stressed face.

And I have a question!
What is love?
What is love?
Oh, oh oh oh-oh-oh
Is it giving up?
Well cause that's not how you raised me, yeah.

That one line, it filled his thoughts the entire time he had been in their house, and then back at his own place.

What is love?

The love of his parents had been something he always strived to find one day. The love they shared all throughout his child hood, it was something that he looked up to.

It was his mother that had brought up the notion of divorce, and it broke his own heart, not to mention his father’s. That was what really surprised him, her being the one to set that ball in motion. As he grew up, it was always his mother that taught him about love and how it could make you feel like you were on top of the world, and yet, she was leaving someone who loved her like that.

He was suddenly pulled out of his thoughts when two petite hands suddenly covered his eyes, making a smile grow on his face as a light laugh sounded behind him.

“Guess who,” said a soft female voice, who spoke as if she were singing the words.

With a laugh of his own, he reached up and grabbed the girl’s wrists lightly, maneuvering them so that she spun around, facing him suddenly.

“I missed you Chris!” She said, laughing once more as she moved his guitar, just before plopping down onto his lap.

He pulled her against him in a hug, wrapping his arms around her waist as she molded her side against his chest.

“I missed you too Joss.”

“So how was seeing the world?” She asked, moving away so that she could look up at him with big and excited green eyes.

“It was only the East coast.” He said with a small laugh at her enthusiasm for his music, and his ever building success.

“Still!” She said with a big smile and a slight eye roll.

“It was great.” He finally admitted. “I wish you could have been there with me.”

She blushed lightly, pushing at his shoulder in the same manor, as she bit at her bottom lip.

His mood was much brighter than it had been before, the blushing girl lifting his spirits just by being there with him again.

When he was young, just about seven or eight, he remembered asking his mother, “How do you know if you’re in love?”

She had just smiled at him and replied with a simple, “You’ll just know.”

By the way that this girl made his heart swell, feeling like it would burst right out of his chest at times, he thought back to that moment, and he knew. He knew in his swollen heart that she was his love. Her smile that made his stomach flutter, how she always bit her lip when she was blushing, the way her eyes light up when she gets excited, making them sparkle like lights, he loved everything about her.

She looked back up at him when she felt him touch her face with his tattooed hand, thumb running softly over the apple of her cheek. She leaned into his touch, the feel of his calloused finger tips being a long missed comfort, watching him curiously.

He just smiled at her again, leaning so that their foreheads rested together, his choppy bangs tickling her face to the point of making here giggle.

“I really missed you Joss.” He said quietly, repeating himself from earlier.

“I really missed you too Chris.” She replied in a similar tone, tugging at the draw strings of his grey jacket lightly in a playful way.

Walking past the two was an older couple, a pair who had lived in the town since it was just a small thing. The woman pulled at her husband’s arm which she had already been holding onto lovingly, nodding over to the ones on the bench when he looked down at her. His smile matched hers as they took in the sight of them. It was already all around in the neighborhoods what happened with Christofer’s parents, and seeing him smile the way he was surprised them.

Secretly, or not so much anymore those days, she had always known that the two would end up as a couple.

She had seen the way that Christofer looked at Josslin, and even if he didn’t know himself, it was plain to anyone who really looked at them together.

To look at them now, you would see him holding here gently, yet keeping her secure at the same time, as well as her leaning into him, his touch, just wanting to be close to him. It reminded her of herself when she was their age, with the man she walked with now.

She looked back up to him at that thought and he just smiled again, leaning down to kiss the crown of her head as they continued to walk past.

Christofer leaned into his own girl as well, brushing his lips lightly across Josslin’s, her leaning in even more to add pressure to the kiss.

She was the one to break the kiss first, biting her lip again as she moved to put her head against his shoulder, nestling into the curve of his neck.

The older woman was looking back at them again, her and Josslin’s eyes meeting for a second before they both looked away.

If you were to ask the woman, “Does love have limits?”, she would tell you in a heartbeat that real love can never be measure in words; It was something that you just felt in your heart.

Christofer knew that he felt it for Joss, and Joss felt it the same, her heart fluttering at the feeling of his fingers moving up and down her exposed arm in smooth strokes.

What is love?

You won’t know until you really find it.