Sunday Sprinkle: X.X.

X.X.

a smile for you, Jake

I.

One day after class, we sat on my couch and we resembled

high schoolers in college-kid bodies the way we sat side-by-side

and flirted and giggled. And how he doodled two stick-figure people

on my thigh with his pen from school. One of the characters had

real tall hair. I took a picture of it and didn’t wash it off right away.

II.

With a cheesy horror flick on that he rented for us,

we laid on the living room floor atop my pink quilt blanket.

I laid on my stomach as I talked to him.

My finger gently tracing the tattoo on the inside of his arm – JG

It was the night he kissed me for the first time.

III.

I was standing on the patio of the bar he had first recommended

to me months before. Before he started working there.

The bar I went out to for the very first time.

He was working that night as a bouncer.

He came out the door to the patio charging straight toward me.

Almost the way he would if he saw a fight beginning.

Without saying a word, he pulled me in and gave me a big kiss.

It felt like to him I was the only girl there. The only one that mattered.

IV.

In the back alley of the bar, I was about to walk home with a friend

and he snuck away from his job and he kissed me quickly and told

her to protect me and keep me safe, “because she is awesome,” he said.

V.

After he helped me load up my car for my summer back home,

we stood in the living room of my place and I had my arms around his neck.

I kissed those big lips of his and his gorgeous smile.

I put my hands on his cheeks to feel the scruff on his face

and he asked, “Are you going to miss me?”

My head shook the biggest yes it could.

Long before I knew the kind of missing it would be.