Lost in the Difference

by liuli-xia

He was pressed suits and Italian cologne and Catholic Mass with his mother and father in the Seventh row every Sunday morning. She was tradition and jasmine and dreams of a prince charming sweeping her off to a foreign land. "No" was not a word he was used to being told. "No" was a word she was used to telling herself. AU for greenschist's OTP Playlist Challenge.

3. For the Girl

Here's the third piece. Sorry I took so long to get this one out. My family has been going through a lot of hospitalizations and surgeries.

Disclaimer: You know the answer

---

There were times that he didn't know if he was ahead of her or behind her in life. Not once were they ever on the same page in their... whatever this was. It wasn't a relationship, at least not in name, but he didn't know what else to call it. She didn't call it that so he never said it and it was perhaps the one thing they agreed on in their two months of whatever they were. Then again, he couldn't really talk because he didn't treat it like something that would last. He was used to things not lasting in his life.

He took a drink and met dark, dark eyes over the table. She looked away and he missed the way she looked back at him. The drink slid down his throat, no burn to accompany it this time, and he tried to remember the last time he drank something that wasn't alcoholic in public. He couldn't remember and he didn't really care. Her voice brought him back but he didn't focus in what she was saying. He knew she didn't expect him to. It was easier to just fit into the world's expectations because then he didn't have to fight the losing battle that would be waiting for him.

She stopped and he took her in with his eyes as he remembered the little things that he had gotten from her. Nothing significant but just enough to highlight how different they were. She was a Rolling Stones girl and he had scoffed at her when she told him. Guns & Roses were better in his opinion. That had been the beginning and he knew it would only be a matter of time. The question was there but her answer never was. He wondered what she would say if he asked.

Under the stars, she stared at them with a wistfulness that he didn't understand and wouldn't question. It wasn't who he was and he wasn't willing to break the mold of his life. Instead, he let the silence reign until she broke it. She said she wanted to go to London. They both knew that they couldn't. People like them didn't do things like that, didn't do many things. He offered somewhere different to visit but she didn't answer. He looked down at their hands, close enough to touch but not touching. The stars caught his gaze once more.

He told himself he was doing it for the girl. He knew that was a lie.