Summer Meets Autumn

Their first encounter was as warm as mid-spring. The interactions were soft, unsure and cordial: they simply wanted to get to know each other. They'd meet only in groups, both unaware of the ticklish sensations their bodies experienced that were caused by the presence of each other. Her cheeks flushed red like flowers every time he held her eye contact. His loving eyes made her forget the cold air from the morning dew. Endless conversations would occur under the night sky about the moon and stars and everything in between. Verbenas bloomed brilliantly the night of their first kiss, alone at last. They once met as younglings, unknowing of the future they'll have together, but their connection was tied with a red string as soon as they locked eyes. Their romance took flight at the ripe age of 20, both still felt like children despite how time has passed.

Their love, however, was as hot, powerful and intense as the midday sun in a desert summer sky. Their bodies intertwined like vines on concrete combusts a flame in their soul, ever going. Passion in its peak, her eyes were hungry for more of his mischievous smirk and his smirk desired her playful lips. The sweat of a humid summer brings their minds and bodies into an eternal heat wave. Their only way to cool off is with each other, minds clear with pure intentions. A summer-born child, he led her to a world of excitement her inner child always wanted. Their minds were hurricanes silenced once they exchanged words.

And like every hurricane that comes by, the eye of the storm is always temporary. No one could've predicted the cold breeze that froze their progress. No one would have foreseen the trust that would be cut from the sharpest of crisp winds. The pain came in slowly like the colors of leaves falling from the autumn tree. Her time had come but stubbornness kept him from walking with her. As each leaf falls, her heart frosts into ice to protect her from her rose tinted glasses. Doubts began to clutter her mind as he unknowingly took advantage of the broken stage. She tried to breathe and keep herself from acting out, but time foresaw that truth would find its way to her, and it did. She took a bite of the apple as he denied the apple's existence. Words became knifes, the endless back and forth suddenly becoming an ugly cycle.

Blood dripped from her once playful lips. She'd spit it out in spite of the knife pierced behind her back from his nervous hands. His loving eyes now only filled with sorrow, he whispers apologies to the ears once open but now shut closed. Her heart was completely frozen by a single snowflake, the season opposite to his heart. This weather she knows all too well, some would name it a defense mechanism. He spends his days treating the wound as the blood stairs the snow. She wants to fight as much as he wants her to, but the fierce warrior he saw in her had already come during harvest. That warrior has now left, only to leave the mushrooms to take hold of her corpse.

He watches her and cares for her, waiting for a response. The summer child now in fall, his own doubts cluster wondering his own worth. She holds his hand, cold from holding on for so long. She falls into a deep sleep, his tears falling, not knowing what he had done.

Her eyelids receive the falling droplets that come from the hovering boy. Suddenly, she wakes. His sorrowful eyes in shock, his cold arms hug tightly her warm curves. Her eyes open slowly to see the same verbenas in full bloom. Her body now reborn out of forgiveness she never knew she could muster.