I think I hate the cold because it always feels like the day you left. I feel myself dropping off your things and I see you light up the cigarette you just developed a habit for as you walk me to my car, as if we aren't now strangers. I prayed desperately that you'd change your mind at the sight of my face as you always would before, that you'd remember that you needed me to feel alive and to show you all the ways that you change the world just by staying. You were supposed to be as broken as I was, take shelter with me under the covers and lie with me, face to face, tell me through your tears how much you've missed me and how you made a mistake so that I can stare back at the face I've been dreaming of holding in my hands again, the face with eyebrows pressed and that look of I-can't-believe-how-much-I-love-you and why-haven't-you-given-up-on-me, and I can convince you to forgive yourself so that I can love you, because I'd already started and it was much too hard to stop now. I was supposed to show you the space between my ribs that you left wide open and the holes in my chest where all your butterflies escaped and the torn pieces of the wings that left too quickly, and you were supposed to show me the emptiness in your bones and your eyes that could only see in black and white and the glass far away where all the color hid itself from you. But that's not how it went and you didn't change your mind this time. You didn't need me to feel alive because you had your cigarettes and your new friends and your high. And you weren't as broken as I was and you had no tears and your face was a shade I didn't recognize and it didn't read at all how you loved me. My words drew no more expression from your face than a sorry for the hurt and you wouldn't forgive your own brother if he made me ache the way you did. I showed you all the things that broke when you left and all the things essential to my being that you stole away along with you, but you didn't show me your bones or your eyes and you didn't have to because I saw them anyway despite your efforts to shield them. Your bones were as empty as they'd always been and your eyes were empty, too, but you weren't going to let me wrap around you anymore when you're too brittle to stand and you weren't going to let me keep painting the world in colors you can see. You were all locked up and you wanted to be, and my fingers were always bleeding just trying to unlock you. And you weren't going to heal them with your lips and show me the secret anymore. You wanted me to shiver outside with my bleeding hands and frozen tears and unanswered prayers. And that's exactly how you left me. I think I hate the cold because it's much colder now. I hate the cold because every day feels like the day you left.