Grey Street // H.S.

Chapter 36: "Staring out onto Grey Street."

Ellison Frances Grey,

I wish I didn't have to leave like this... but I can't stay. I can't stay while everything about this town reminds me of you. I hope you know that I want everything good in life to happen for you and I hope so dearly that'll you find your happiness.

Thank you for giving me the best summer of my life. I will truly never forget these months. You helped me be myself again and I will forever be grateful for that, regardless of how things are ending between us.

I've been working on this for a few weeks now but until recently I haven't been able to figure out how it ends. You're right, endings are important and I think that is why I have been struggling with this for as long as I have. I wish our ending didn't have to be like this but I know things don't always turn out the way you imagine them. I've never shared any of my poetry with anyone, I wasn't sure if I felt confident in it enough to do so, but this one is important.

All my love,

Harry Edward Styles

I read over the first paper at least two more times. The words make Harry's departure truly concrete for me, until now there was still a small hope that he hadn't left. This letter denies that hope, causing a crushing feeling in my chest every time I reread it. I move the first paper behind the second. I can tell it's been ripped out of his notebook by the small letters that are crammed onto the page.

Grey Street

There was an ineffable feeling surging through my bones the first time I saw Grey Street,
I stared down its colorless road, trying to figure out how something so broken could be so beautiful,
The man walking by warned me, he said it was dangerous, no one had lived there for years,
But how could something so empty be dangerous? I thought. I was already enthralled.

Despite the garbage piling at the entrance, despite the shattered windows on the buildings, despite the old man's warning,
I ventured in.

It appeared that I was the first person to step foot on this street in years, the only sign of human existence were old newspaper clippings that were scattered on the sidewalks.
It felt exhilarating,
Exploring something old as though I was the one to discover it,

Once getting past the closed off entrance and deeper into Grey Street I realized that I had been right,
It truly was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen.

It didn't take long for me to understand the potential this shattered street had,
Past the inhabitable appearance at the front was a world as colorful as the picture books of a young child,
Past broken windowed, grey buildings, were houses covered in exquisite paintings,
Covered in colors that represented what was once here,
what might still be here.

It was at this moment that I grasped the history of this street, it had been left behind in a time when it most needed love, it had been abandoned by those who once took care of it,

It wasn't the streets fault that garbage lined the entrance,
It was simply left to fend for itself.

And Grey Street couldn't hold it together, no matter how hard it wanted to try,

Grey Street wanted to survive on its own but it was struggling without the care of others,
This is when I dedicated myself to the street,
I couldn't stand to see something with so much potential beauty be swallowed up by the world.

Grey Street tried to reject me at first,
It threw up all of its defenses, tried anything it knew to get me to leave,
I persevered and even when Grey Street thought it didn't want me there, I stuck around,
I stuck around until it got used to my presence, and accepted my settlement,