oliver and madeline.

he said his name was oliver.

_{he was painted with the colour of lies and had puppet string fingers. He smelt of burnt wood and methylated spirits. his eyes were uninhabited; there was nothing there. under the moon light you couldn't tell that his teeth were just slightly yellow, but under the sunlight you could tell that he was breaking. he was falling apart. he was vacant. he was, everything but beautiful.}

he held her hand.

-

she said her name was madeline.

_{she had golden hair that curled in little ringlets around her waist. she had skinny legs and slender hips and a smile that could stop traffic. she couldn't bear to watch people suffer and she liked to re-write reality, the way she wished it was. she knew though, on the inside, that she couldn't re-write her lost forever and always}

she pressed her lips to his cheek

-

he lived by night.

_{the walls of his room were painted beige and he had messy hair. he had always been attracted to lip-piercings and black hair. his father lived in the next state and sometimes visited. his mother was normal, sure, but home ate away at him; it wore him down. he had read about california, there was nothing he wanted more than to sit on the beach with everything he ever needed. he liked how she could just re-write things and they'd change for her.}

his reality couldn't be re-written

-

she tried to save everything.

_{every night, after dancing, she would hang her ballet-shoes around her neck and ride home. she would let her hair dance in the wind and she would sometimes take the long way home to ride past where he would hang out with his friends. when he was there, he'd smile and run after her, and her heart would pitter-patter like rain. she saw that when they were alone, his eyes had something behind them}

she told him to exist where he wanted to.

-

he only knew how to exist in one reality

_{he didn't understand her writing. it was confusing, and scared him. the alley behind the bar was his reality, was all he would ever be.}

_{'madeline, don't close your eyes' he'd tell himself 'you might see something thats not there'. only then did he realize, that's all he really was. a love story, existing only in her mind}

he packed his life into his car and drove.

-

she cried herself to sleep

_{somewhere inside of her, something broke. she stopped existing in non-existence. she wanted to put his puppet-fingers in a box and never play with them again; save them. she spoke with quiet words. her golden hair faded to a dirty blonde and she couldn't save anything any more.}

she couldn't even save herself.

-

he tried not to think about her, when he drove

_{the girls here had skin the colour of oranges and hair as white as the sand.}

_{no girls here rode bikes and they didn't hang ballet slippers around their necks. he missed the way she smiled. california was as vacant as he was.}

he realized when he reached california; he had nowhere to go.