Author's Notes: Profuse thanks and adulation to Kacy for editing this. If there's
anything lacking here, it's because I couldn't rise up to her challenge, not because
of any ineptitude on her part. Ganked many, many things. I'm a very bad girl.
Chapter titles taken from "Las Ruinas del Corazon" ("The Ruins of the Heart")
by Eric Gamalinda. Original excerpt at the end of the story, and the poem in its
entirety is at http://www.livejournal.com/talkread.bml?journal=greatpoets&itemid=128858,
if anyone's interested. Also, incorporated something from Jeanette Winterson's
"Written on the Body, "Brick" by Ben Folds Five and "Konstantine" by Something
Corporate. Written under the influence of Jason Mraz, coffee, and severe nicotine
withdrawal. First attempt at het.
Seven Times Around the Sun
He is still lost for words whenever people ask him Why, what went wrong; he never knows what to say when they append I'm sorry and It's such a shame. He stares blankly when they say You'll get over it or These things work out for the best and by the time they get to, Well, she's doing fine now and so are you he excuses himself and leaves.
Because he isn't doing fine and no matter how many times he looks back on it none of it makes sense, none of it at all.
TBC