This was adapted for yesterday’s LyricalFictionFriday Challenge.

I ran my fingers through Jake’s thick dark curls as if I could help to revive him out of his drunkenness.

I couldn’t help but wonder how many other women had done the same to him in this bed since our split. The room was dark except for the small ray of moonlight that crept in. The curtains swayed through the open bedroom curtains, the hint of the coconut-scented candles that used to belong to me lingered in the air.

He lay fast asleep, his head softly nestled on my chest against my cocoa-buttered skin while I lay wide awake, watching the ceiling fan spin slowly, around and around and around. I was hoping that its motion would coax me to sleep but it was impossible with his body wrapped around me.

All I could think about was the cliff I had just stepped off of, how hard I would land and the number of bones I would break when I finally hit the ground from rescuing him again.

Jake stirred and turned his head to look up at me so that our eyes made four. Shifting himself up, he lay next to me and tried to read my face in the dark.

“Your heart’s racing. What’s wrong Ella?”

The concern in Jake’s voice almost made me feel guilty.

Almost.

But it was just at that moment that we heard the yelling and banging at his front door. When his confused eyes looked into my calm ones, Jake knew immediately what I had done.

©2018 Marquessa Matthews. All Rights Reserved. Adapted from a previous 2016 piece.