I. Girl I Used To Be (Meg)

The last thing she remembers seeing is her former friend running towards the bus. The last thing she feels is the impact of the blast crashing her forward. The last thing she thinks of is the life she's never going to live.

Even as the terror of falling into the ocean breaks through the sheer denial of what's happening, her arms criss-cross over her stomach. In a bargain with God and the angels she learned about in Sunday school, she trades her life. She trades her life in her last act, and somewhere, floating along the horizon, there's hope. Still. 

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II. As Lovers Go (Felix)

It’s the wedding band in the window downtown. He sees it on her finger, a thumb rubbing over the gold. He doesn’t have the money, and he probably never will, but there are always dreams and they’re dreamers.

It’s the blood flowing out of his skin, whispering that his time is up. It’s the last time he saw her, one hurried kiss between the bleachers. It’s the lights of the city he never got to see in his rear-view mirror as he left it all behind. It’s the promise he can’t keep as the last breath in stills in his throat.

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III.  Honest Questions (Cassidy)

Every morning, an alarm rings and he wakes up, playing games till sundown, waiting on the moment where life, pain, -when it all just stops. 

Days weave together and he's so good at it now. Smile, nod, walk. Pretend, pretend, to be all right. 

It stops being a game when she arrives. Gasps for a second chance seer his throat and it's almost a surprise when he's not really drowning. The water sits in his lungs all day. 

He imagines playing hopscotch, but each step is backward, and it only takes one this time. He whispers checkmate to the sky.