a big deal of the F

sticky faces, a local band

rom his first y

the park, by th

confident, wearing a crisp

d a stupid

was

and that old, familiar fe

my sundress, m

ait

to a group of

he t

scanned t

ght they met mine, b

ut towards the makeshift stage where

eath

ing to do

public declaration. My mind raced wit

atform, took the microphone f

ll over t

ce clearer, stronger than I remembered. "

a wide, cha

n' t direc

n, standing near the front, lo

irl, pretty and popular, alw

s voice ringing out. "Wi

t me like a

pted in cheer

, and Mark jumped down

s holding slipping from my numb f

asn'

s Tif

ted, sounds b

ry, shattered into a million pieces rig

emember wa

iffany, the next I was stumbling thro

y bedroom floor,

ing, just sat beside

ll, warm anchor in the

iffany," I choked

y. I saw," sh

o surprise

et sadness that

rs left, until my throat w

smiling, surrounded by cheeri

uld th

r worse, what if he did reme

g at the ceiling, the pieces started t

ambition, his d

just a ran

life, things that had seemed lik

ffany got a new boyfriend, a pop

ng after Tiffany got eng

late in our marriage, was not going t

s just a general wistfuln

ckening reali

the one before her jock boyfriend,

a colle

stones with me, were th

s life, attempts to keep up, to have wha

cold dread spreadi

story, felt like a lie, a carefully const

he wasn' t trying t

always felt he missed, with the