𝐑𝐄𝐍𝐄𝐆𝐀𝐃𝐄𝐒 ~| 𝘓𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘰 𝘕𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘴

It'll Be Okay

~'~

𝐈 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐚 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐞 𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐝𝐞

𝐈𝐭'𝐬 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐞 𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐤, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐰𝐞'𝐥𝐥 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐧 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐞

𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐦𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮'𝐫𝐞 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐈'𝐥𝐥 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐢𝐭 𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐲

𝐈𝐟 𝐰𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐧'𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐩 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠

𝐖𝐞 𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐟𝐢𝐱 𝐢𝐭, 𝐰𝐞 𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐲

𝐈 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐞𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐚𝐲

‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿

Lando

I didn't move for a long time after she left.

Maybe I didn't know how.

I just stood there.

Still. Like maybe if I didn't move, I could freeze this moment. The last moment she'd still been here. The air still held the shape of her.

I walked over to the table. Just to do something. Just to move. But the second my eyes landed on it, I stopped breathing.

The ring.

Small. Gold. Softly glowing in the low light.

My fingers hovered over it like it might burn. The second I touched it, I swear I could feel her pulse in the metal. All those moments we thought would last forever, compressed into something that could fit in the center of my palm. Christmas morning. Her laugh. Cold hands. Warm skin.

She was the only thing worth remembering.

And now it was over.

I closed my fist around the ring and sat down on the edge of the couch like the weight of it was too much to carry standing up.

I didn't blame her.

How could I?

She had always deserved more than what I could give her. More than my mistakes and the damage and the history that kept bleeding through the cracks. I loved her too much to be angry. Loved her too much to want to keep her if staying meant she had to lose herself again.

Even now, if she needed distance to find herself, I would give her the whole world to run across.

I looked down at my hand, the little golden ring pressed into my palm. My chest tightened, not with panic or guilt, but with something slower. Something quieter.

Grief.

She had my locket. I slipped it into her hand along with the keys, foolishly hoping maybe one day she'd hold it and remember, not the pain, not the ending, but the pieces of us that had been real. The moments that had been soft. The kind of love that lived between the fights and the fractures.

I'd loved her in a thousand different ways.

And I'd still love her.

Even if the only place she existed now was in the shape of a ring in my palm and the imprint of a goodbye on my lips.