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"Into My Loneliness" by Edward Jackson

I was there because "there" was the only place I could go to escape the loneliness. For the first time since the breakup, I felt happy. There was a distraction, but then I saw her. She was walking in my direction. I tried to ignore her, but she had this deliberate strut that screamed, "You will look at me, and remember every painful detail!" She was a mirror reflecting everything I didn’t want to see and making me wonder where he was at that moment. Was he still with that guy I saw him with at Cobalt? Why did he turn out to be such a dick? What's wrong with me that I didn't know? With her every step, my head became increasingly muddled with reminders. She continued down the sidewalk blissfully unaware that her mere existence was dragging me, kicking and screaming, out of denial. And when she got to the alley, the long, empty alley, I waited for her to fall in. I expected to see her arms flailing, her legs kicking, and to hear her desperate, hopeless screams as she was sucked into my loneliness.