We have to give it back. I KNOW we have to give it back. But when I'm holding it as the only thing I have, whether it has meaning or not, I can't. We look at each other and study each other's eyes. I stare deep into her light blue, contemplating eyes as I push my eyebrows up from where they sat. I need to look sure. I need my own eyes to say "I know what we're doing. This is right." But truthfully, neither of us were ready.

She puts one hand on the box I'm holding and the other under my bottom hand. She rubs it with her thumb and stares even deeper into my eyes. The blue is so consuming that it's all I can see. An ocean of secrets, yet I still feel comfortable sailing over top of them and wondering of their depths.

"I'm ready," I say, almost in a whisper. One corner of her mouth turns upward. It is a happiness of our perseverance, but also a hard truth of what we must do next. She takes one breath, saying "okay," as she does. One more swipe of her thumb goes across my hand before she pulls her hand away and onto the top of the box. My hand feels cold now. I try to focus back into the depths of her ocean eyes.

With a few large steps uphill, we are on our way. I feel her eyes burning a hole into my cheek. I hold back a smile and try to continue forward.

"I couldn't do this without you," I tell her. I leave my stance forward. She turns forward now too.

"You know," she says, "you wouldn't HAVE to do this. It's all because of me." This time a turn back to her. I stop our uphill tread.

"What?" She asks as if she's unaware of why I stopped.

"Let's sit," I say. "My legs are tired and the chest seems to get heavier with every step I take." She knows this isn't true, or, at least, she should. She knows I want to sit and talk and get lost in her again. I want to make her feel better, to stop her self-blame. To heal her heart by giving her a piece of mine. I want to give her all of me.

We rest the chest on a stone to stop it's downhill fall. I sit, crossing my legs over hers. We are silent. It's just us, the sky, the mountain, the breeze pulling its way through the summer air, begging to give some relief. And the chest. It sits there against the stone as we both stare it down.

"As long as this journey is a journey with you, I'll continue trekking on."

She turns back to me again. Her hand cups my hot cheek, pressing her emotions and truths and secrets into my lips. We shift until her outstretched legs hit the stone away. The chest falls.