kissing cousins

She doesn't look at him; he can understand why - she might not have enough time for him any more, how other people might have moved into the spaces in her life he thought he would fill - but some part of him is still waiting for the crescent curve of her face from the side to wax into the moon of her smile, gleaming for him.

He doesn't look away from her. From the corner of her eye, Rose is aware of the way he moves in sync with her, orbiting in her shadow. Just once, she wishes he would move out of shadow, slide into the spaces in her life only he has ever owned, holes that she has been forced to plug with pieces from other people. Just once, she wishes he would turn to her in the light, and she would give back to him the smile she has kept close to herself, the smile she has saved just for him.