Her voice resignated throughout the all too familiar halls. familiar to her at least- i had never stepped foot in that place in my life. All the people, every one, practised a foriegn tongue; one i had been so exquisitely fluent in long before. How he watched her...her every move was a silk rose to the hard wood floor; her eyes were rubies caling to a treasureless man, one weary from a tireless search but unwilling to reveal such before the ignorance of man. She was breaking all of her own rules now. And i had foresaken all of mine.

A group of some of my other friends, brought me to a house that reaked of stale whiskey and forgotten promises. There were men there- ones who'd grown up too quickly-and their eyes were predators, theives in a high priced market. They were told they couldn't touch us. But they wanted to. Slowly, one by one, i watched each of my friends pair off with another faceless worldy man over a game of hide and seek amoung cards. I took my place in the shadows. That would not be me. Never would i allow that to be me. Even the slightest brush of hands made me queezy. We werent suppose to be there, i know it. they didnt have to tell me; i didnt have to ask. I left. They stayed, and painted themselves into the world of boys become men smelling too srongly of cheap cologne, with beer on their breath and lust in their eyes, ever searching without resignation and making haste to their demise. I left. They stayed.