here & there

She drags her graphite across the off-white sheet, creating a winding gray line across that textured surface. Perhaps this is a start of another successful piece, she hoped. If not, at least she'd created another channel for her creative emotional outburst for that night. Another line parallel to the last one. One etched after another for shade. And so the lines continued to fall upon the page. With them, all the words he uninhibitedly hurled at her that night fell away.

Now, she steals glances down at her iPod in hopes of choosing the perfect playlist for this long drive home. The Republic Tigers? Whitest Boy Alive? Some '90s love songs? Anything will do in order to drown out the sound of passing cars, distracting her from revisiting the past few hours. Not knowing her fault, she endured another night of his severe and uncivil manner. And so she accelerates, taking herself and her thoughts into the dark blue night on a winding gray road across that earthen surface.