Maybe it was jealousy.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡp6pNyRCs0R
Or maybe… it was something harder to name.
That quiet ache in your chest when someone you care about starts smiling a little more —111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmkxOzOKOCw
but not because of you.
I kept asking myself:111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAZRxGGqwx6
Was I being possessive? Was I trying to cage something that was never mine to begin with?
But no.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvvDKO4Dnfi
It wasn’t that.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOPGazwNsl8
It never was.
I wasn’t trying to protect you from someone.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXQMsXl1Wd7
I wasn’t trying to compete.
I was just scared.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZWRitWf4x5
Terrified, actually.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkFD0miQXQy
That maybe... Ren would take you away.
But then —111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTOPyNS3Tst
one long evening, sitting with my thoughts louder than the world around —111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRbeMZ31ptK
I understood something.
People don’t get stolen.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0eSIGbPfyE
They drift.
Toward what makes them feel lighter.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn0H9HqlbEE
Toward the sun they didn’t know they missed.
And sometimes love —111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8Hl5IJkOBx
love makes us believe that there’s nothing brighter than what we have right now.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9YeaM0TVqo
That this, this, is the brightest moment the world can ever offer.
But that’s a lie love tells.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI3lK0Nzp8n
Because love is blind,111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkQr0qSHbS8
and people are not.
And so I questioned it all.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaOMiLPckPl
Not love.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB6V39LGS0I
But the things we confuse for love.
The need to be someone’s only.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP48QS0FVB3
The quiet wish that they’ll never find better than you.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1AkdPTHfX1
The fear that if they do — they’ll forget you ever existed.
Is that love?111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5PMtysSifq
Or is that greed in disguise?
Maybe the worst kind of greed —111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOBLQPgx98f
the one that wants to own a heart that was only meant to be held gently,111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv2gRS4LeSb
not gripped tight.
You see,111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6mddkm8S4b
I wasn’t jealous.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0TZLl2gAsa
Not really.
I was just scared of losing us.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡU1H7kTmjuT
The us we created in tiny moments —111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSoMeZcK11X
walking beside buses, laughing at nonsense,111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiPc91YtJvh
holding on to silences like they were the most honest things we ever said.
I was scared of losing that version of you I named Forevermore.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmSaiAc77Gn
And the version of me that only ever existed around you.
But then —111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4TMcUGZbHd
I also realized something else.
It’s not someone else that breaks two people apart.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOlvQx5joIu
It’s not Ren. Or time. Or coincidence.
It’s us.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQiUu5IQEWr
Me. And you.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwYjNS0zElJ
Choosing, or failing, to hold on.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuzRbmxmNZE
Letting go, not because someone better came along…111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡES5w7PgFq6
but because we forgot how to see each other like we used to.
And that’s what broke my heart the most.
ns216.73.216.6da2
