After the fire, sifting through ashes.

-Remember how we met?

-The 50s throwback burger joint. Jane told me to go with her because she didnae want to be a billy no mates.

-Yeah. I was starstruck by your eyes.

-I noticed and that’s why I was distant.

– Playing hard to get? That’s so not you.

-Ow, watch the sarcasm, mister.

Cars roll by fast, knowing they are blocking the way. Him and her. Met decades ago, reunited by circumstances that are hard to explain when you’re young. They don’t look at each other, only the spectacle in front of them. Their snow cones melt with the humid weather and the thin napkins they got weren’t up to par. He gets a couple of hankies from his messenger bag, offers her one.

-At least it wasn’t from the pack on you backpocket.

-People change, girl.

-I know, after 18 months you did.

-Ow, that hurts.

-Things didn’t go so well, right?

-Mistakes were made- he agrees nodding and sighs. He didn’t expect the conversation to go sour so fast.

-No grudges, though, right?

-I want to say I agree, but you’ve brought the topic up a few times.

-Sometimes you need a barrier.

-I’m not applying for a comeback tour, woman.

-I didn’t meant the barrier was from you.

-Ah.

The sirens gets louder. A perfect example of the Doppler effect, he reasons. Only took 4 minutes. Nice to see the services see the urgency a situation like this deserves.

-Are we in trouble?

-When weren’t we in trouble?- he retorts.

-First kiss. No trouble there.

-Says you. I was having a panic attack.

-I noticed. And you were my first boyfriend and first kiss, I’m assuming I wasn’t the first woman you kissed?

-First one that didn’t smoke, so that’s a plus.

-Oh. Thanks, I suppose.

Their awkward pause is drowned by the crowd and the loud claxons.

-I had a song replaying in my head all the time too. I hate that.

-Sorry?

-When we kissed. A song was stuck in my head.

-Earworm? At least a good track?

-I think it’s a defence mechanism from my brain.

The fire lorry screeches to a halt, leaving a streak of burnt rubber over the asphalt. The firemen jump, axes in hand, cracking the doors and checking for people inside.

-So…why were you panicking? I wasn’t your first kiss. Cigarettes or not.

-It felt wrong to kiss you.

-How so?

-It just felt wrong. I mean, I wasn’t with anyone, I had remorse about what I was doing. As if I was taking advantage or something.

-You’d be counting less teeth if you had been.

-That’s reassuring.

-Do you get that feeling a lot?

-Guilt when kissing? Yeah, I think all the time. It’s weird. I look forwards to it, but when it happens, I just feel…weird. And then I get antsy, thinking I did something wrong and I don’t enjoy anything on the relationship.

-You could’ve told me then. Save me a year and a half.

-I didn’t want to hurt you.

-So you chose to hurt yourself.

-And ended up fucking everything. I’m sorry. Again.

The fire brigade starts hosing the blaze. Our shaved ice has a slight burnt wood taste. Maybe we should move back a little more? People with their mobile phone cameras try to get a perfect shot, some fake-panic for their followers. Others livestreaming for likes and shares.

He takes one more bite from the snowclne.  Perhaps should’ve gone for cherry instead of lemon-lime. The one on his hand tastes like dettol. Or fabuloso.

– Which song?

-Pardon?

-Which song were you thinking of when we kissed?

-The thirty second intro to Trespassers William’s Different Stars?

Her look is as fiery as the conflagration in front of them.

-I don’t choose the songs in my head, I’m sorry, they just pop up. It can ruin songs for me as I attach them unwillingly to bad memories. Same for good memories.

-Am I a good memory or a bad memory?

-Good one.

-I wish I could believe you.

-Belief has nothing to do with it, woman.

The crowd starts clapping as the fire subsides.

-At least it wasn’t the U2 cover, I guess.

-It’s a good cover, but no, it was the beginning, not the bitter end.

-You were like a grapefruit.

-Ruby red, I hope?

-Aye, right.

She goes quiet. The smouldering pieces of the building sizzle and the water vapour turns the are dark. He sighs.

-I can’t hear Lie in the sound.

-Pardon?

-The track after the intro. Intro reminded me of our first kiss, Lie in the sound reminds me of when we broke up. That whole the day we spent together, fully knowing we were no longer going to be a couple. The walk, the food, the movies, the ice cream. We did it all for one last time.

-Not everything.

-You know what I mean.

-Aye, right.

-Lie in the sound just popped in my head as I closed the gate and you left on your grey car. I sat and had to listen to it 10 times in row. It was cathartic, I guess, but now I can’t listen to it. In fact, I’m sure I haven’t listened to the band since we broke up. And I was addicted to them.

She doesn’t say anything and just leaves the shaved ice on the floor.

-It wasn’t good anyways- she says as she shrugs.

Some people tap a fireman on the shoulder. He turns around and they point towards us. Chickens come home to roost, I guess. It’s over.

-Sam J. Valdés López