El Tango

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Diamond drops traced their way down her porcelain cheeks, leaving a trail of glistening promises. Her dark eyes were clouded over with confusion and hurt as she met his gaze. His brows furrowed and he cringed in pain as he saw her dark eyes pool over once more. She was silent, waiting for him to make the next move in this strategic battle of emotions. He let out a long battered breath as he stalled for time to think. Her face was stone still and the only movement in this dark night was the diamond like drops racing each other down her face. He finally lifted his arm and put his hand on her face. She winced as though burned by his touch. She took a step back and continued to gaze at him. The darkness began to swallow them as the wind whispered songs of romance into the flutter of her hair. She blinked slowly, her lashes slowly clinging together. He took another step closer and put his arms around her, she struggled to push him away and immediately clung onto him. She wrapped her arms around him and began to sob. Slowly her sobs became louder and louder and he pressed her closer as in hope to muffle the sobs. She finally mustered the strength to pull away and she turned and ran off. She saw blurs of her surroundings. And when she turned the corner she collapsed onto the ground and began to sob. He immediately followed her and crouched by her side as he waited for her sobs to die down. Eventually her sobs began to turn into battered breathing and hiccups of controlled sobbing. Her tears still streamed down her face. He sat down and put his arm around her. She immediately shrugged it off. He lifted her face to gaze into her eyes. He slowly pulled her face close to his as his lips softly brushed hers. She was hesitant, unsure whether to fight or to give in, and with a small sigh she gave into the kiss and her tears stopped. He wrapped his arms around her as she placed a hand at the back of his neck. Then almost as abruptly, he pulled away. And she was silent, with no more tears down her face. Instead, on her stone face a look of comprehension was being etched and carved into her features. She nodded and slowly turned to walk away. He stood there, unmoving, undecided whether to open his heart again or to let it stay shut. And as he let her walk away, he chose to let his heart stay shut.

They moved in unison, their feet taking steps around each other. It was quite slow as they both basked in the emotions of the different instruments playing. They spun around together and he plunged her backwards. She immediately came up with grace and glamour and his arm that was around the small of her back pulled her in closer. Their gazes interlocked and they were unable to pull away as they continued to move. As the song became to pick up the tempo, he picked up the speed. He spun her gracefully and immediately pulled her close once more. She wrapped her arm around him tighter and hooked her leg around his. He leaned forward and she threw her head backwards.

In the tango, if you mess up, you get all tangled up but you can still untangle yourself and keep moving. In life and in love, if you mess up, there is no second chance.

So as she walked away, she felt something shift in her heart. She understood now that they were to not be with each other. They had been fighting fate all this time. They were not meant to be, they were not destiny. And the harder they fought against fate, the more pain it brought them both. And she kept walking because she had realized that only two options remained for them. One was to stay together and continue to fight fate, and eventually lose themselves along the way. The other was to walk away and let fate go back on the path it was originally on. In a way she had hoped that he would want to continue fighting but the silence that followed her proved that fate was already back in motion. Tears no longer streamed down her face, but instead pain filled her heart. She heard the skies roar in anger at her. And as she kept walking, she felt drizzles of rain. She blinked and kept going, unsure where she was headed.

He stood still, unmoving since she had walked away. He too heard the angry skies and felt the tears of the clouds fall down upon him. But unlike her, he felt nothing in his heart. He had lost all feeling in his heart a long time ago.