#thesameroof

I had a dream of you, one with we know each other and yet we pretend that we don’t. We’re on the same roof, we talked with our eyes, just looking at each other deeply, waiting for someone to speak first. My lips grasped for breath instead while the words howled in my mind, locked in a cage reserved for you to open. How I wish you spoke in bittersweet language and not a moment of silence for the two of us. It hurts even more to see through your eyes, your unending sparkling light in my night that I can’t stay long.

You removed your gaze; you walked your way out, holding a piece of garment I remembered I gave you. My heart was fluttered for a second, for thinking that you still remember me and I once had a mark in you. Once that will never be twice or thrice or repeated, for the bond we had was not even strong to last. I know that the cloth you were holding is just a coincidence, it didn’t matter to you anyway.

I was heading the opposite direction, which comforted me to not see you around. It’s good to not regret the days I was with you, the days I wasted in the corner looking out for you in the center. Wondered by how beautiful you are in my sight, how perfect your angles are, how resounding your deeds are, and how my emotions jolted. It seems fine being far away, but as I turned around, pitch black, you weren’t there... I kept looking for a hint.

Maybe there was a hope dug in the ground, ground where everything underneath is all mine, none is yours. All the efforts and emotions as foundation were all mine, but I’m still holding on that there is a single gold of yours. I know you knew I was there all the time, sitting, reading a book, there when you needed me, but you didn’t asked for help. I know even before that it’s all me who has feelings for you.

Spacing out in this walk, finally here, opening the door and it was locked. I realized that you knew this was wrong, this is not the way, you were here before I came and yet all you did was trace my eyes. “Going further isn’t the answer,” it’s like you whispered to my ears. I went back and found you in the same roof, your eyes met mine, you were cornered by those people, you couldn’t move. Why were you frozen? It’s not like you. You can’t even say a word and defend yourself.

I covered for you; I said that you needed to use the bathroom. They stopped glaring, did I save you? You looked at me in the eye, still the same deep gaze, unanswered. You managed to say thank you before you left. I waited and no other words came out after that. Still, pretend we’re strangers under the same roof.

I don’t know what this dream of you means. How I wish we could be nearer rather than farther away when we’re at the same place, at the same time. I hope that in this dream, we’re not under the same roof, under the same situation where we are not free, both bounded by the feelings that hold us back, hindered by the circumstance that you and I is not right when this is only a dream, that when I wake up, everything will stop.

After getting everything up to his new place, Cooper thought he would pay a visit to his sister. When he was signing the papers, the landlord explained that he had heard the name Broderick before, and to be honest, in Denver it’s good to hear your name. He assumed that his sister was here, so getting the place she lived in, he waltz up and knocked pleasantly at her door.

@olivia-broderick