Shared Sternum
Day 1 Love and War
Nails leave parallel lines across the bridge of skin between collarbones.
Blood wells along the cuts.
Lips follow, pressing, tasting copper, pulling back wet as the blood stiffens dark.
One chest rises. The other answers half a beat behind.
Warm breath presses from one mouth to the opposite throat.
The skin breaks open along the seam.
Red threads stitch down the shared ribs, tugged tight, then tighter.
Fingers spread over the fused cage, palm flat, then curl.
Knuckles pale.
They stop an inch away, then close the distance anyway.
Faces tilt until foreheads almost meet across the narrow divide.
One exhale lifts strands of hair on the other's temple,
carrying hot brine.
Eyes flick left, right, tracing invisible fractures, choosing where to press.
A whisper starts in one throat, travels the airway, ends as breath against the other's earlobe.
The next word is bitten off, caught between jaws.
Silence follows, thick enough that swallowing makes a small click.
One shoulder shifts forward an inch.
The opposite shoulder pulls back the same distance.
Hands slide along the shared ribs, grip, hold too long.
A burn runs the seam.
A fresh line opens, thin as thread.
Pain forces a voice out and snaps it in half, the remains trembling through the chest.
The sound reaches the fused bodies as vibration through bone.
One set of eyes searches the other's, waiting.
The other's search back.
No one blinks first.
Minutes pass, counted by the slow, sticky drip.
A warm thumb brushes it away,
first from one side, then the mirrored side.
The thumb presses harder than necessary, steady and insistent,
until the bleeding dulls to nothing.
Faces remain inches apart.
One strand of hair crosses the gap, caught in the other's eyelash.
Neither pulls free.
Neither apologizes.
Their heartbeats stutter, pounding against wet ribs from the inside.
Neither body moves to change it.
They remain locked, fused, in that sweat slick cage,
every shallow inhale dragging the pulse higher,
each holding the other in place,
refusing to let go.
If you would like to participate in Bradley Ramsey challenge, figure it out, because idk how to make the link work.
I would genuinely love honest thoughts on this. What worked for you, what didn't, and where it lost you, if it did. I'm here to learn, not to be flattered.🖤
Yeah I was caught in the moment, so good.
Visceral writing. I found my own breath caught while reading.