Do You Think We’re Friends In Every Universe?
Image Description: collage photograph of two girls sitting on stairs near bushes. The background is overlayed with red, while the girls are in black and white. The person in the center of the image has white squiggles overlaying her face. The words, “IN EVERY UNIVERSE…. / ARE YOU THE? / KNIFE -> THROAT / LOCKS TO MY CHAIN / GUN TO MY HEAD?” appear in white above her head.
Design by Leann Remiker.
Do you think we’re friends in every universe?
We met one day during the months of fallen leaves. How does a person go from a stranger to someone you can’t live without? You didn’t feel like a stranger, the way you smiled at me with nothing but stars in your eyes. I thought they blended in with the dark sky above. We talked as if we had known each other for ten years, not ten seconds. My past, present, and future flashed before me with just a single laugh from you. We walked down the paths on our journey home, knowing we had already found this place in each other. The melodic steps you took forward sounded like music, beckoning me toward your saccharin charm and luring me to a new place to have all my own.
If every time I saw you, I fell in love with you all over again, would you tease me for it? If I told you every day that without you my life wouldn’t be the same, would you believe me? Maybe you would agree that we are two halves of the same whole, soulmates. With the seasons changing, the walls shattered. Within days, weeks, and months, you cemented yourself as the only person who could understand my world.
No matter what you did, you never did wrong. That was always my belief. You, the person who changed my life, could never harm me. That’s why without eyes, I chose to follow you. You made me feel what it’s like to be cared for, supported, and loved. All the words dripped in sweet nectar, sticking to my every movement until it consumed me. If you gave me such beautiful gifts, you deserve even more. Take everything from me, for I am not useful without you. Who am I now that I’ve given everything I had to you? The smell of roses guides my path to you, ignoring the small cuts that cross my body.
That’s when the storm approached and the blood I lost began to slow me down from following your path. The clear skies filled with infinite stars and became clouded. Then rain began to fall. I shielded you from the shower with my coat, used my body to fight the wind off, and held you when thunder was near. The cries were frightening, but I thought you were near, so I felt safe enough to cover my ears.
Left in the absence of light, the cold nothingness surrounded me. My coat was drenched, my body blowing away with the wind like paper, and my umbrella was gone. I should have realized I had been pushed away. Was I no longer useful? I’ll try again to shield you better. To be the bigger person, so I could help you. I thought to myself, please come back.
But my pleas weren’t enough. I didn’t feel your energy near me, I felt blinded and left in darkness. I had to uncover my ears. The cries turned to screams, the raindrops turned to a hail storm, and you disappeared. The person I once knew became something I could no longer see after opening my once-clear eyes. I’m attacked, wandering aimlessly to escape. I have no place to call home. I’m left all alone, battered, bruised, and bleeding. Not even a cry for help could be heard over the screams.
I gave everything.
I’m tired. I want to see the stars in the sky once again, but I don’t know when the storms will end and the screams will retire. I think back to it all, every smile, every laugh, every emotional cry, every touch, every moment. All to finally find my answer.
Do you think we’re friends in every universe?
The toaster to my bath,
The lock to my chains,
The pills to my tears,
The knife to my throat,
The gun to my head,
In every universe, you are the same.
So I ask myself, do you think we are friends in every universe?
With a soft smile, she answers the question in my head.
I hope so.
I nod along, tears streaming down my face, I smile.
I hope so too.
