They all leave.

Soon, not a

single

one of them

will remember my name.

Not the ones

that say they're different,

or even the ones with the

audacity to say, "I love you."

But, when I knew nothing

except the reality

of seclusion,

She came to me as the sun

tucked itself into the Earth,

as if to run away from me,

just like everything else.

"I'll be your friend.

I won't ever run away.

It'll be our secret, okay?'

A ghost of a smile

passed my lips,

faint and callous.

Perhaps this time I found someone

who really

wouldn't

leave.

I stretched my hand towards her,

fascinated by those

tiny silver fairy wings,

dainty but hideous.

She flitted about my grotesque,

wasted form,

leaving those

little fairy kisses

all over me.

Like little bolts of electricity through my veins,

or the gentle caress of the wind,

or the affection of a forbidden lover,

they made me forget everything as they left

little trails of vermillion lipstick

upon the alabaster of my skin.

Maybe they stained a little.

But that's okay.

Fairy kisses

might

just

make everything better.

So, nearly every night henceforth,

after the sun tucked itself into the Earth

as if to run away from me,

She returned to say,

"I'll be your friend.

I won't ever run away,"

and to give me those

gentle fairy kisses

that soothe me so.

But, most of all,

She came to be the

best

friend

I'd ever had.