Writing Collaboration #16- Passing By

It’s been a few weeks since I last posted a writing collaboration. But now Christmas and New Year are out of the way, I will go back to posting one or two each week. If you would like to take part, let me know. The lastest writing collaboration is Passing By, with Aspasía S. Bissas

She saw him. She hadn’t been expecting it. He was walking along the street, hands in his coat pockets, face turned up to the bright autumn sun. He looked happy. Happier than anyone should look. Happier than anyone had a right to in this world.

She was coming from the hospital, head full of negative prognoses, heart full of bleak. Everything was white noise to her until now, until him. He gleamed.

She’d hoped for a long time to see him. To run into him accidentally on the street or in a store. She never had before today. She’d always imagined he would smile when he saw her, pull her into his corona of warmth, remember her. Now here they were and he didn’t notice her. He walked along the sidewalk keeping his smile for himself.

The traffic light changed and she began moving forward, watching in the mirror as the distance between them grew. She’d heard he had someone new and shiny. Someone who made him gleam. The world went dull around her, flat, cold. White noise. He was everything to her, and nothing.

Bio: Aspasía S. Bissas is the author of the dark fantasy novel Love Lies Bleeding. She lives in Toronto and is currently working on her next novel. Find out more about her work, including her free stories “Blood Magic” and “Tooth & Claw,” at https://aspasiasbissas.com/books. She can also be found hanging around Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AspasiaSBissas.

He saw her. He saw her and his heart skipped beats and sank like a rock in the same sad heartbeat. He saw her passing by him and as he did, his mind flashed with scores of happy memories syncopated with harsh bitter arguments.

He was coming from work. The recent stresses and the strains had made him hate his job, but since the breakup it was all that he had to cling to in life. The world was grey and tainted and since nobody knew or cared how empty his life was, he wore a smile to ward off uncomfortable questions.

She looked sad. She looked sad and angry and still burnt from their love-gone-stale. Dare he flag her down and open up old wounds? Whatever could he say that could ever bridge the gaping chasm that had formed. Bitter feuds from nothing could never be mended by a polite smile or a meaningless greeting.

He always ran through scenarios in his head where he would see her. They’d come together just like it was five years ago. They’d smile and laugh and neither of them would remember or feel the pain. But as he saw her passing him by, the fear inside him told him to let her go.

He had heard that she had found someone new. That her life was better without him. He had held her back and he knew that now. She was still everything to him, and now he was nothing.