[WP] Close your eyes. Relax. Now, Think of an image. Anything at all. Now write about the image you thought off.

Peppermint.

Her lips tasted of peppermint.

In a that moment, all of the world could have burned and crumbled away, but it wouldn’t of mattered. Time was at a standstill and all meaning of existence seemed to disappear. For him, she anchored and enveloped his entire being. If there was a single event in his life in the past five years that could be redone, it would not be the partying that was occurred, nor was it going the Army or deciding which college to attend. It would be that one night in high school where he had stayed the night at her place but never kissed her. He had plenty of opportunity, they had even goofed around and wrestled in her basement. At one point he had her pinned and his face was inches away. But he never kissed her. That single moment was all he desired to change.

Every other girl he had ever dated tasted of peppermint, almost like it was a sign that it was going to work out. But this kiss, this girl, this taste of peppermint would never work out. She was taken by another, someone who loved her and she loved back. Yet there was always a spark, ember, from that night in the basement five years ago. Just as any ember can stay warm and restart a fire, their spark became a raging inferno, for that kiss had so much passion behind it that threatened to consume and overwhelm them. It was a kiss of the ages, one that would never leave his mind. It was as though every question he had in the world was answered and he was saved by her. He had found paradise and it was in that inferno. It was her.

But just as Adam and Eve were casted out, Eden was lost to him. Just as any fire needs oxygen to stay alive, they soon ran out of breath. They stopped, the taste of peppermint was gone. Pulling apart they looked at each other and let go. They stepped back, both of their mind’s going into overdrive as they inhaled fresh air. What had happened? How could they do this? She was taken and dating his best friend. He cared for both of them deeply, how could he betray two of the closest friends he ever had? What were they doing? They looked at each other, and words spewed from their mouths. She loved her boyfriend with her entire being, they were going to get married. She was sorry she had just kissed him and that it was her fault. He apologized profusely, saying that it was all his fault and that he was sorry he did that to her. But he wasn't, and neither was she. That ember began to grow warm again.

It was as if the sky had broken and it was a monsoon. There was no holding back this downpour of feelings. He wished he had never dated that girl in Senior year of high school. She wished she had been more straight forward. He had been afraid of how hard it would have been, how it would have challenged who he was and what he wanted it life so he took the road most traveled. He was fearful, scared, a coward but most of all, he had been naive. Back then he was a stupid boy who had thought it would never last, that it was a phase, that the girl who tasted of peppermint would move on and that he would move on too. They never did.

In that unfinished house on that shore their true feelings for each other were made clear as crystal. She had loved him and still did, but she could never be with him, it would never workout. He threw himself into his studies at college and his work for the Army, all in an attempt to avoid being in a room alone where the sound of silence and his own loneliness was at its loudest. He always hated being home since that was when he never had any work to do. At least that's what he had thought for the past four years. But he was starting to rethink that.

/r/WritingPrompts Thread