after him, your kisses felt strange, your lips too chapped and your tongue intruding. after him, your body felt awkward, ended too quickly, with no finish line in sight. after him, your story felt old, run over too many times. after him, your love felt alien, a stranger that could never be friended, a ghost never gone. after him, you felt like a memory, a bruise upon the heart, still there, but fading.