Under The Bleachers

He took me home one year to meet his family and to show me where he grew up.
We spent days and days exploring every corner of his childhood.
One afternoon we stopped by his old high school.
They’d closed it down years prior.
Forgotten.
Abandoned.

So of course we snuck in …

We explored room after room while he relived a hundred different memories. I loved watching his eyes light up as he spoke of a carefree youth, Friday night lights … and girls lol

As we walked out to what was once The Hornets football field, he pulled me under the bleachers … where we made out like a couple of teenagers.

A few years later while he was back home, he sent me a photograph of that same football field … and of the empty space where The Bleachers once stood.

They’d been torn down.

Up until then, I’d often wondered if that moment meant as much to him as it did me.

Clarification came in the form of that photo.

In some parallel universe, in some snippet of time, The Bleachers are still there.

And on a perfect summer afternoon, he and I are still together —
Listening to the wind blowing through the trees, the crickets chirping in the background, and the smell of freshly cut grass.

And he’s wrapping his arms around me and pulling me in for that kiss … under The Bleachers.

Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.