excerpts

13.5

HEARTBREAK is a 3-letter word

It's in the way that your smile lilts to the side and your eyes shine. The eyes that you tried to wish away so you could have brand new ones. It's in the way you'd just know what to say, or when to say nothing at all. I could sit in silence forever if you were by my side. The number of times that I've dreamed of everything we could be became an insurmountable pile of let downs. Every word of the promises you spoke tied me back together because I truly believed that you'd stay, and my foolish heart began to heal. You grew vines to cover my scars. It was too late when I realized they were covered in thorns. Everyone leaves. Everyone left. You did too. When you went, the ties slipped from me and I fell apart again. My foolish heart had learned yet again not to trust. I piled bricks high above my head so that you'd never get in again. But here you are once more. Back for a second chance. I hid and peered through a crack in my wall. I told you I couldn't let you in. You said that you'd pour out more promises to patch my broken heart. And I said that I didn't need your consonants and vowels and bulky syllables when heartbreak is a three-letter word-

Y-O-U.