"𝑩𝒆𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒚 𝒎𝒆𝒂𝒏𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒇 𝒊𝒕'𝒔 𝒓𝒐𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒏 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒊𝒅𝒆."
~
She's beautiful on the outside but on the inside, there's nothing that's considered beautiful. On the inside, it's rotten, cruel and vile. That's the word...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
There is nothing that tethers one to another than the past. Every second, minute, hour and day that turned to months and years. Especially with that one person. The person you opened yourself to showing the most vulnerable side of yourself.
It felt like a chain holding you down, not allowing you to go any further.
And sometimes you allow it. Most times you don't even want to move, afraid that if you walk far enough it will all be forgotten.
A faded memory.
Despite the torture of being in the same space together you crave their presence. Danielle thinks of it like an addiction, you know it's killing you, but you can't help but think of it or want to be close enough to subside the withdrawals. Some days are easier, others are harder, some are simply impossible.
When the addicts have made progress staying away from the drug, they feel accomplished as if they could actually continue moving forward with their life without looking back. That isn't until the universe decides to test you with this one person who is either smoking or drinking showing no struggle in the addiction that drove you mad. That one person is standing in front of you holding that drug and they offer it to you not knowing the struggles of the past.
You stand there simply looking at it, remembering the good and bad. You tell yourself that it would only be one time and the next day moving forward it won't happen again. Then it goes to back to square one.
But for others they have better self-restraint, they deny the offer and simply just watch. For smokers the smell alone is enough to contain the urge, same goes to alcoholics. You order a drink having no intention on drinking it, simply looking at what you could have. Its right in front of you and one decision can ruin you or free you.
Danielle considers herself the second one. Whenever she is near Max everything rushes back all at once. The voice that was once soft reserved just for you, the eyes that stared at you fondly as if you were their entire world, their touch that was a risk of pain and rejection holding each other's hands as a balance swaying above the abyss of fear walking through it together.
Now it was the voice that shouted at you with hostility, the eyes that stared at you with hatred, the touch that burned your body as a warning from allowing you to relish in it like before.
Danielle allowed it, how could she not.
She had stayed away showing restraint, lived her life without looking back, she played all the cards right.
But it was those invisible chains that didn't allow her to move, especially when she was the one who placed them there herself. Invisible, yet their weight is felt like delicate threads. They do not restrain or set you free, simply there wrapped around your heart while you're holding the key.
A key she always kept but never used.
The key Max had given her.
Max gave her a way out; she gave her the key to be free, but Danielle wouldn't use it.
