The Taste Of My Tears
by David Heulfryn

The air smelt fresh and humid, the rain having broken only ten minutes ago, and the warm summer caused the ground to smoke as the moisture began to vigorously evaporate.

I stood in my bedroom looking out of the window at the houses that overlooked me. All those people looking at me, I needed to leave this place. I hated it. And it hated me, and what I was. My mother was scared for me and had bought me some time before my father came home from work. She knew what his reaction would be, as did I.

My small rucksack was on my bed, packed full of what I thought I might need but knew it wouldn’t hold everything I needed. It looked lonely on my single bed, a bed I wouldn’t sleep in again; in a room, I wouldn’t call my own anymore.

The tears that rolled down my face had long since dried up, and I was resigned to losing my family. When I woke this morning, I never thought the day would end like this. I or I should say we had been caught during lunchtime in a classroom. That alone would have given us both a detention, but it was what we were caught doing that would get us expelled and a letter being sent to our parents. But first, a phone call was made, and our mother’s turned up at school to take us home.

Checking my watch, it was time to leave, and I threw my suck sack over my shoulder and walked deliberately down the stairs. I couldn’t see where my mum was, and I didn’t try to find her. I just opened the front door and left.

Walking down the street, I burst into tears. I ran out of the estate like my life depended on it, down a muddy path to the local woods. I didn’t care that about the wet. I found a fallen tree and sat on it, my tears not stopping, and my breathing became irregular. I was as scared as hell.

When my digital watch beeped at the top of the hour, I started walking the path to meet him where two paths merged into one.

He stood waiting for me, and I ran over to him. We hugged each other hard, not wanting to let each other go and a few more tears strayed out of my eyes. I thought we’d be together forever, but this was really goodbye. He was staying for he wouldn’t get the bruised ribs or the black eyes from his father. He would just get a lecture and subtle re-education until he finally left home.

I begged him to come with me, but he was too afraid to lose everything he had. For a brief moment, I hated him for his cowardice but knew how difficult it would be for him to leave.

Reluctantly, I broke away from him and pecked him on the lips. Turning, I walked the lonely track, never looking back and tasting the tears as they moistened my lips.

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