she and he

01. she didn't break his heart, so much as show him what it meant to be in love again.
02. once she told him a story about a white knight, and a princess that didn't need saving. am i the knight? he asked her. no, she answered. you're the person i'm telling the story to.
03. stay, he asked her, not meaning forever.
04. you're so beautiful, she said, you're so beautiful. he closed his eyes, and whispered to himself, i know.
05. she made no mention of recent events, and how he might be the force behind them.
06. if you had me, you wouldn't want me, he said. try me, she said. he smiled. i already have.
07. he imagined holding her wrists, and not letting go, until he was done.
08. she calls, only to know that he is there. and it pleases him.
09. when he told her that he needed her, he meant that he needed her to desire him.
10. what you lack in experience, he grinned menacingly, you can make up for with enthusiasm.
11. he explained himself to her. not through what he said, but by what he refused to admit.
12. she reminded him of a place that he was almost sure he would never see again.
13. she was not foolish enough to attempt to save him from himself, despite his obvious need for grace.
14. do you practice that smile of yours? he asked. which one? she smiled back.
15. you'll never know me well enough to know what it is that i really need, she wanted to say.
16. he watches her apply, wipe off, and reapply her lipstick, yet again, and licks his lips at her compulsion.
17. i just want to say thanks, she said. for me just being me? he asked. no, she replied, for not mussing my hair.
18. she asked for more, but she wouldn't take what he had to offer.
19. was it good for you? he asked. yes, she said. et tu?
20. i'm not sure you've turned out to be the man that i thought i was falling in love with, she said, but you do have your moments.
21. stop thinking, he said. you stop thinking i'm thinking about you, she replied.
22. she was unwilling to substitute fascination for trust, or beauty for sincerity.
23. she brought her lips to his, then curled them into a mocking smile.
24. you used me, she told him, and then laughed at her assertion.
25. her face was made more beautiful by wisps of hair which he would brush from her cheek.
26. they held each other, dreaming together, but their dreams were not shared.
27. she walked in on him reading her journal. what are you doing? she asked. listening to you, he replied.
28. i don't like that one at all, she said. if a guy said that to me, she said, i'd hit him.
29. she wanted answers to questions he did not understand.
30. it's not me, it's the clothes, he said. does it really matter? she asked.
31. i think i love you, he said. is that what you think, she said.
32. she wondered why the shortest possible distance between him and his dreams was straight through her.
33. he was all surfeit and surface; she was all reason and reflection.
34. i want to be in love with someone like you, he said, holding her closely, and laughing.
35. it's all tricks and mirrors, he said, and then one day you disappear in a puff of smoke.
36. she told him that she wanted him to leave, but forgot to mention when she expected him to return.
37. she knew him, because she knew his failings.
38. as she reddened her cheek, she wondered if he'd bother to shave, or cut his fingernails.
39. just because you can't love yourself, she said, doesn't mean you shouldn't love me.
40. at the point she understood his motives she no longer understood her own.
41. he flinched, then looked away from her. they're just words, he said.
42. she wanted to know his sadness, but could only touch his tears.
43. i love you now more than ever, he said. what are you trying to say? she asked.
44. each time, they acted as if the ending were near, forgetting that it was already over.
45. she stopped longing for him when she stopped belonging to him.
46. you're always clinging to cliches, she said. you may be right, he said. but you have to admit, it's better than talking in riddles.
47. she saw, in the distance, a place where she didn't hurt. but she couldn't tell whether she was looking ahead, or behind.
48. don't worry. we'll still be friends, he said, even after you don't want to talk to me anymore.
49. you're just like bubblegum, she said. how so? he asked. i'm so tired of spelling everything out for you, she said back.
50. when he told her he had waited too long, it was then that she knew that she loved him.
51. she opened her eyes, and saw him next to her. if only for a moment.
52. (it's not the way you toy with my affections), he said. when did you learn to speak in parentheses? she asked.
53. she would close her eyes and imagine herself as someone else, someone who possessed him.
54. they would read the personals together, feigning humor, making mental notes.
55. she kept the love letters he had sent her, to help mark the passage of time.
56. why do you always have to find something to criticize? he asked. it's one big house of cards, as it is.
57. she forgot that the only way to love him was to make him fall in love with her.
58. it's as if we were interrupted at some point, she said, and then we never quite got back around to finishing our story.
59. she reached out to hold his hand, but touched only air and sky.
60. i was so wrong, he said. that doesn't mean that now you're right, she said.
61. avalanche, she said to herself, using a secret language that only she and he understood.
62. he stole her heart, and kept it in a box, by the bed. she found it, one day, and asked him what it was. oh nothing, he replied.
63. you're not like her, he told her. that's right, she said, i'm still here.
64. you think i like this? he asked. i don't think you know anything else, she said.
65. do you love me? he asked. i'm not going to write a song about it, if that's what you mean, she said.
66. he thought of the special face she made only for him, and all the others.
67. i don't know how i could live without you, she swore to him, on a stack of travel brochures.
68. she almost believed it all, until he told her that he believed in her.
69. the world may not revolve around me, he said, but i could go supernova at any moment.
70. i can forgive you for being unfaithful, she said, but not for being indiscreet.
71. the present is just so many possible futures, waiting all together, in a crowded room, she told him, as she moved away.
72. because he reminded me of someone i used to be, she told him.
73. she wasn't able to forgive him for what he hadn't done.
74. you're the one with the steering wheel, she said. i've just got the pedals.
75. sometimes, you make me feel like christmas, she said. and other times? he asked. the rest of the time, she said, i remember how you forgot my birthday.
76. do you ever wonder if we'd be more in love if we'd never had sex? he asked her. no, she said, of course we'd be.
77. i suppose i should have known that when you told me you needed your space, that you'd find it in somebody else's closet, he said.
78. she gave of herself once more, to show him how cruel he could be.
79. he realized he had gotten old when sleep seemed more important than making things right.
80. she never knew what it was that brought him back to her, or if she had anything to do with it.
81. tell me about him, he said. in a lot of ways, she said, he reminds me of you.
82. if you always knew how it would end, she said, you might have at least saved us both the trouble.
83. if you're very quiet, you can sometimes hear the stars, she said. you're not listening to the sighs of stars, he whispered, but to the impossibility of desire.
84. is he going to take the place of me? he asked. don't flatter yourself, she said.
85. you've made all those promises before, she said. the least you could do is come up with some new ones.
86. can we role-play? she asked. who do you want to be? he asked. i'll be her, she said, and you'll be you.
87. he never knew when to stop, she said, but i suppose that was part of his charm.
88. we could try something new, she said. i thought you already were, he said. what was his name, again?
89. he couldn't love her, not even enough to stay away.
90. sometimes, it feels as if we're repeating the same mistakes only to forget the ones we've already made, she said.
91. the women on television never wear mismatched underwear, he said. yes they do, she told him, but they're often talking, in those scenes.
92. alone, she thinks of his touch, but then remembers how he would only fill her with emptiness.
93. all of my thoughts are of you, he said, and of the way you would hurt me time and again.
94. when i try to remember what we had, he said, all i can really remember is what we wanted.
95. i don't really see how your need for closure necessarily entails fucking me one last time, she said.
96. there's nothing left, is there, she said. i think there's a pop-tart in the cupboard, he said.
97. you've found the right words, she said, it's just that you never quite discovered the right order.
98. you could stop, she said. and do what? he asked. something else, she said. he threw up his arms. that's exactly what i was doing before i started doing this, he said.
99. i still love you, he said, to no one.