Aphrodite

I felt like I was suffocating whenever I was with her, like an invisible hand had wrapped itself around my throat and was squeezing tighter and tighter until I begged for it to stop. To just end it all. But then she would smile, and adjust the daisies that stuck out from behind her ears, and I would fall back under her spell, over and over again.

After our escapades in the darkness, she had vanished. I hadn’t really thought anything of it, but soon began to worry as my lungs took in unfamiliarly large amounts of air. My eyes searched for her through the halls, looking for a throne with her perched on top, but she was nowhere. Slipping in and out of my classes felt monotonous as worry coursed through my veins. Nothing registered in my brain as the day passed me by, and it wasn’t until the final bell rang that I was awoken from my trance-like state.

“You look like a zombie,” a voice pierced through my ears, suddenly making me aware that I hadn’t been paying attention to anything all day.

“Good to see you too,” I mumbled as Christian rolled his eyes, leaning against the line of lockers I was standing near.

“I never said that. What’s with you today?” he asked, rubbing the back of his neck as genuine concern filled his eyes.

“She’s not here. She hasn’t been here all day,” I said, my voice smaller than I would have liked it to be. I cleared my throat and looked up at the boy in front of me. His eyes were hard and his mouth formed a straight line. His head slowly began to shake as he spoke.

“You need to forget about her, before you hurt yourself,” he said, pushing himself off of the metal doors and walking away slowly.

“I can’t,” I said, my voice chasing after him. He paused for a second and he turned to me, his eyes full of something that resembled sadness. But as soon as it came, the look disappeared and he continued walking, not turning back.