A Collection of Short Stories

You stood in front of me, your eyes filled with an emotion I was afraid to see. No, it wasn’t love because I would have known if it was. Too often you looked at me and saw beauty, but not today. A storm brewed in your eyes, little by little taking control of what was yet to come. I could see anger and pain fill your eyes, and I was scared it would consume you - consume the kind, gentle boy I have grown to love. I looked at you, and I knew that it wasn’t you that I was looking at.

I was looking at a different man.

My hands trembled as they ached to hold yours. I knew, somehow, that if I tried, you would cringe and step away from me. I knew because the look on your face told me so, even when your lips remained silent. I knew because you had never looked at me this way before.

So I didn’t reach out for your hand, and we stood an arm’s length away from each other, but a thousand miles apart.