Pages of a One-Sided Heart

seven

All this time, I had carefully guarded my feelings, allowing them to simmer quietly beneath the surface. Each message I sent was a delicate dance, a balance between hope and restraint. I had convinced myself that maintaining our friendship was enough, even as my heart continued to hold on to a thread of hope.

But one day, I couldn’t keep it in any longer. The weight of my feelings, which had been pressing on my chest for so long, became too much to bear. I took a deep breath and typed out those simple, trembling words: “I like you.”

The response came almost immediately. My heart raced with anticipation as I opened the message, only to find a picture of a woman. There was no accompanying text, just a single emoji—a heart, pink and filled with affection.

In that moment, my world seemed to crumble. I had braced myself for heartbreak, for the possibility that he might not feel the same way. But seeing him with someone else, knowing that he was in a relationship, was more painful than I had imagined. The woman in the picture, the loving emoji—it all felt like a cruel twist of fate.

The reality of his happiness with someone else was a jagged edge against my heart, slicing through the hopes I had clung to for so long. I had anticipated the heartbreak, but this was a different kind of ache, a sharp realization that my feelings had been unrequited all along.

I was left with the fragments of my emotions, scattered and raw. It was a bitter pill to swallow, the finality of knowing that he had moved on while I had remained in a space of longing. Yet, even in my pain, there was a small part of me that knew it was time to let go, to finally accept the end of a chapter I had held onto for so long.