Between me and you
Disclaimer: trigger warning
Between bubble gum flavoured lip gloss, green hair pumps and mid length skirts turned to mini
Between a voice that matched yours in its pitch, high….high oh high spirits
powerful enough to reach the mountain top,
stand boldly arms stretched meet the sun and our brown skin be burnt to a crisp by her, you didn't see me.
Between small feet, eager hands, eyes that nearly popped out of its skull as the sweetest honey gossip flowed down our tongues and out our mouths you didn't see me.
Between sweaty palms and a hope to be seen to fit in perfectly like a white stripe next to a black stripe,
between the red & pinks of blushing cheeks after our lips got to taste our first kiss and we felt seen and we breath in and exhaled a bucket full of glee
And kicked our feet at the back of the bus hoping that our first love was being true to us, hoping to start the next day of youth again…you still didn't see me.
And I guess I didn't see you too.
But between the ringing down of my phone and the screech of your best friends voice,
between the deflating of my heart and the way my feet turned from that of a 15 yrs old child to an old oak tree trunk doing its best to keep me sturdy, I started to see you.
Between the nausea that met me at the thought of your small body much smaller than mine lingering fighting for its small life, fighting for a life it barely got to live I started to see you
Between the rallying of young secondary school kids outside a house,
with the sounds of your pain lingering in the air and our throats dry for the first time from this gossip that felt too bitter to our tongues.
Washed it out a thousand times hoping that this was all just a nightmare and we would not eventually have to taste the realities of your death, I started to see you.
Between the way the fire of your joyous spirit was extinguished by careless hands. I started to see you.
A mirror shattered at my feet that night
between me and you the distance had finally been filled.