[the girl's pov]

//// the hallway like a
tunnel ㅤㅤㅤof
color splashes of pink,
neon
green, ㅤㅤand
gold ////
her blue jeans and
roseㅤㅤ ㅤㅤred
trench coat
blending in

her blue jeans and her
rose red trench coat...
her blue jeans and her
rose red trench coat...
her blue jeans and her
rose red trench coat...
her blue jeans and her
rose red trench coat...
her blue jeans and her
rose red trench coat...

becoming part of a rainbow

rushing down like
fish swimming with
the current of the
water

for sometimes

going with the flow is

the easiest way

to

get

to

the

other side

🌙

her eyes flashed around like
streetlights in a dreamscape
world of neon pink moons
and retro lights

the thought of which bringing
memories of shattering
car windows and ringing
in her ears. the taste of blood
and the sound of screams

[it drowned her mind out sometimes, the memories]

the moments suddenly rushed into focus and she stood
frozen as she watched her mother's eyes fade away
in a hazy fog of white coats, as she heard the words
that her mother was gone, and that she was gone too

memories of white walls and white roses

🌙

it was then that she saw him

🌙

[the boy's pov]

when i first saw you

it was in a bleak hallway.
i was talking to her, the
girl who trips you whenever
you walk past her. i was
faking a laugh when i
saw you. i was remembering
the time when i tried to
die when i first saw you.
i was thinking about the
rope that snapped and
the numbness i crashed
into, when i first saw you.

when i first saw you

when i first saw you,

i saw myself

because,

because you were ALL, ALONE.
alone in a sea of jackets of
all colors, a kaleidoscope of
dimensions we had no part of.
i saw ME when i saw you standing
there. i noticed your eyes freezing
with traumas and memories
of a lifetime you didn't want.

you were ALL, ALONE.

when i first saw you,

i saw someone who knew
loneliness as deeply as 
a friend, as deeply as i
wanted to know you

🌙

you looked like a rose in the rain, trampled by thousands of shoes. you belong in the ocean where the sea's tide pulls you into feverish quietude but when i saw you you were drowning on the air of this human world.

a rose in the rain.
a rose in the rain.
a rose in the rain.
a rose in the rain.
a rose in the rain.

🌙

they

knew

they

would

never

belong

here

🌙

not here, in this world made of plastic smiles and cold eyes set on a path of their own. eyes that did not care to look around and see pain other than their own. a world made of plastic hearts and plastic eyes and plastic bodies.

not here, they didn't belong.

but when their eyes met,

all

the

stars

in

their

skies

exploded

🌙

because,

before they saw each other the world was a black and white blur and they were on the edge, holding on but always s l  i   p    p     i      n       g 

before they saw each other all the c  o   l    o     r     s they saw with their broken eyes were coated with a grayscale filter

before they saw each other their bodies were consumed with plastic and they could not breathe or feel their legs and all they could do was watch as everyone laughed and acted as if there were no monsters under the bed anymore, all they could do was  w a  t   c     h  as they withered away

before they saw each other they were students d r  o   w    n     i      n       g in a river of raincoats and umbrellas in the school hallway   

before

they

saw,

before their eyes were opened,

before their stars exploded.

before,

before,

before,

🌙

the rain sounded like footsteps

and the sound of walking away
the sound of walking away

their eyes met for a moment of when time and gravity and physics and chemistry stopped

before she turned away.

🌙

he watched her as she walked out the school building, watched in a daze of hazy confusion as she opened her red umbrella. stepped down the steps. holding her red umbrella.

looking like

a red rose in the rain.