[mature] things we never thought we could be, adna

[bethlehem]

sometimes i wonder, will god ever forgive us for what we've done to each other? B E T H L E H E M then i look around and realize, god left this place a long time ago He can feel her anger, though it lacks in venom. The acid in her tone has been replaced by something else entirely. Resignation, maybe. Bitterness. And still, he remains unmoved. He knows that she is trying to coax a reaction out of him. She is baiting him. He has been here before. He has never had any preoccupation with being right and he doesn’t want anything from her. But he feels no overwhelming need to tell her this. She has long since removed her head from where it had rested heavy against his shoulder but the nerves still hum beneath the surface of his skin. He can still feel the heat of her there. It is not totally off-base, what she hurls at him next. It is not totally accurate but it is not wildly outlandish either. He smiles then. A quiet, patient thing as she rails against him. He shakes his head. It’s not that he has any fear of anyone seeing him feel anything, it is simply that no one has ever made him feel anything. Nobody has ever brought him to his knees. Nobody has ever brought him to ruin. She’s right about this, too. Right that he’s good at leaving. It’s all he’s ever done. But his jaw aches and he goes on watching her a moment. “My name is Bethlehem,” he finally relents. “Everything about me and my life and everything that came for me is ordinary. There is no deeper something lurking beneath the surface. I never knew love in my youth, so I set out in search of it. When I didn’t find it, I accepted the fact that it doesn’t exist.”