handprints on my soul - jaylor oneshots

did the love affair maim you

Tracing her finger over a ticket stub, Taylor felt tears well in her eyes. She looked at the pictures next to it, how happy they had seemed that night. Turning to the next page, Taylor was faced with pressed leaves and ever-so-slightly blurry pictures of them on a hike, laughing as the self timer captured the memories. A recipe on the next page, a drawing on the one after that. Each with pictures to go along with it.

That was one of the first things they'd realized they had in common. Both loved having photographs of the time they spent together, as if to keep it all safe from ever fully disappearing. And Taylor had been overjoyed to find this similarity out, and had spent hours putting the memories in order, with beautifully and thoughtfully decorated pages.

This was why, Taylor realized, she could picture everything crystal clear in her mind, even still. Even three months down the road, the pain was still just as present, and the moments brought to life by the pictures were still replaying in her mind like a film reel.

To be fair, their breakup hadn't been a clean break. There wasn't a clear time it had snapped, instead Taylor counted three months since she knew there was no salvaging it. Their breakup was more like a fade out, the most painful fade out Taylor had ever lived through.

In a way, Taylor was grateful for the scrapbook. She'd always know their story, how things had come together and later fell apart. Because the later pages had become a sort of journal, a way for her to say all the feelings she couldn't explain to anyone but herself.

Flipping to the next blank page, Taylor picked up a pen and sighed. She wanted to do this, she knew it. To just write about these moments she remembered all too well could be helpful to recover from them, just to have the events laid out the way she knew they happened.

Dear Diary,
The stop in documenting everything was abrupt, I'm aware. But I haven't had the strength to come back and write it all down until now. These are the full stories behind the pictures, starting with the first page I have: dinner at his brother's house. Just a week after starting our relationship, and already we said we knew the other was "the one." I remember walking in, holding hands and feeling absolutely invincible...

"I'm excited," Taylor said as they stood on the front porch.

"I'm glad," Joe smiled, wiping a raindrop off her cheek.

The door opened, and they simultaneously turned to face the woman standing there.

"Oh, come in, come in!" she cried happily, stepping aside.

Hand in hand, Taylor and Joe walked into the house. She smiled at him, and though her nerves were aflutter and the chill followed them in, she felt at home with him.

"You must be Taylor, hm?" asked the woman, after hugging Joe. "I'm Elizabeth, this one's mum. It's so wonderful to meet you!"

"It's a pleasure to meet you as well, Mrs. Alwyn," Taylor said politely, and hugged the older woman.

"Please, call me Liz," said Elizabeth, patting Taylor's shoulder. "Here, let me take your coats."

"Thanks, mum," said Joe, slipping out of the heavy jacket he was wearing due to the weather outside.

"No problem, dear," Elizabeth said, and hung both his and Taylor's on the coat rack. "Here, come along. Dinner's almost ready; Taylor, you can meet the rest of the family."

As Taylor followed Joe and Elizabeth through to the living room, she slipped her scarf off from around her neck and hung it on the stair rail, not noticing it slip off.