Wrap your teeth around the pavement

M  A   E    A I talked to God to no avail Said, "If you won't save me, please don't waste my time." What did it mean for a bar owner to close down early just because she almost shed a few tears? That he might empty his establishment and loose the few last scraps of revenue over a girl's broken heart? Quite a lot, it seemed. Maea did not resist as Sunjata pulled her out of the chair and lifted her onto the counter, easy as if she was a child or an oversized doll. Coming closer to his eye level, she found it impossible to escape his gaze, and the care she saw in them just... broke the dams she had worked so hard to build up. For over a year, ever since she had returned home to an empty house with blood on the threshold, and only the echo to answer her desperate screams as she called the names of those who should have been there. "I don't know," she told him, tears welling up into her eyes, teetering on the edge but held caged by long, white lashes. Her lips looked swollen, as if she'd been chewing on them again, and there was a quiver to the chin, her voice a tremolo in the sudden stillness. "I just.. feel so lost, Jata. What am I even doing?" She'd never used his nickname before. It felt as strange, as awkward on her tongue as the knowledge that she'd done something irrevokable now. Something she could never turn back from. Maea had sold her home. Where did she belong, now that it wasn't there?