There was a girl, and there was a boy. The girl was, in essence, a hot mess. The boy was, bluntly, a complete ass hole. But let me tell you, that hot mess, made that a** hole sugar, and that a** hole, made that hot mess a neat freak. When they walked down the street everyone felt obligated to stop and stare at the cactus with feathers for thorns, and the kitty with shattered glass for fur. Of course they didn’t notice. They were stuck in the clouds. One day, their cloud did, as clouds do. It rained. Her shards of glass fell out with every water droplet, exposing the kitty for what it really was. His feathers were replaced by thick thorns threatening to pop the atmosphere. They fell, and they landed hard. With the hot mess intertwined in that a**holes arms. They were left to what they are, not what they made each other. They hated every bit of themselves. Piece by piece his thorns fell out, and piece by piece her soft fur floated to the floor, leaving them with nothing. That is until one day, when he saw her walking down the street floating on clouds, because she saw him. One single feather sprouted from one of his empty holes that day, and she found one single shard of glass protruding from her hairless spine. From that day on, their cloud was a little closer to earth, and made out of titanium. So that even a thunderstorm couldn’t shake them from the place they called home, each others arms.

The beginning of the middle

Their titanium cloud is sailing through love, and jealousy, through thick, and thin, through fights, and i love you’s. Granted it has a few dings on it, but there is no way it is going anywhere. Her thick mane of shattered glass tickles his feathers as they dance with the sunset on their bulletproof cloud. His stiff body glides with her cat like reflexes as they sail the stars. Comments and asteroids sailing past sprinkling them in stardust. A few comments get to close for comfort leaving their cloud with more dents, but they were nothing.

The middle

They left home  with only their titanium cloud in one hand, and each other in the other hand. Sure they set sail on a dinged up cloud, but things like that didn’t worry them as long as they had each other. No harm could come to them as long as they had each other. Sunsets were never brighter and with every shooting star that passed they both wished for the moment to never end. What they should have wished for instead, was something to prepare them for what was coming

The end of the middle

Fallen stars and sirens in the sea had only made their journey better. That is, until now. A fallen star had hit a little too close, and a siren had sung a little too loudly. Drawn to what they shouldn’t have been, the cactus with feathers for thorns lost a few feathers, and the cat with shattered glass on its back’s fur started thinning. They strayed from their titanium cloud leaving it to be taken care of by the comets and asteroids that had caused the initial dents. Thoughts raced through their minds about how one night couldn’t hurt.

The beginning of the end

The cat left trails of shattered glass scattered on the sun set. The cactus left trails of feathers in the stars. Dings and dents covered the cloud as they sat on separate sides, dropping a sad ocean over the people who couldn’t help but to stop and stare.

The middle of the end

Sticky heart shape band-aids cover the dings left there, but sometimes the dings are too big to be covered. They just sit there, and dig at the hunk of titanium that no longer resembles a cloud. Like clockwork a new bruise arrives each day and a new heart is placed over it. People who see them walking down the street no longer stop and stare. All they see is a cactus with thorns painted like feathers and a cat with its fur cut like glass. They were no longer what they made each other, but disguised as such. They didn’t hate what they had become.

The end

They were no longer floating, but dragging. Sparks shot off of the titanium that can no longer carry the weight of the fights, the jealousy, the screaming, the lies, and the hatred. One step at a time the cat and the cactus stepped closer to the edge and further from one another. And once they reached the edge, they jumped.