Tangled In Me

Grief doesn't leave.
People tell you it softens - that time dulls the edges until the ache fades to something you can carry.
They're wrong.
It doesn't fade.
It buries itself deep beneath your ribs, breathing quietly until something - a memory, a scent, a song - rips it wide open again. And then you're bleeding all over the floor of your own life, pretending you know how to survive it.
I thought I was doing okay.
Or maybe I just convinced myself I was.
Until him.
Until Jake walked back into my apartment - into my chest, into my veins - like he'd never been gone.
The man I loved. The man who left me drowning when I needed him most.
And the moment I saw him, I hated him for it.
I hated how badly I wanted to fall apart in his arms anyway.
But Jake isn't the same man I lost.
His shadows are darker now. His scars run deeper. And somewhere inside all of that pain is the boy who once promised me forever - the boy who couldn't stay.
And while my heart still beats his name, someone else has been holding me together.
Justin.
The man who stayed when Jake didn't. The one who steadied me when I shattered.
But even he can see it - the way my pulse changes when Jake's in the room, the way my silence fills with all the things I'm still afraid to say.
Two men.
One heart I don't even recognize anymore.
I thought losing Kyle was the worst thing that could ever happen to me.
I thought nothing could break me again.
I was wrong.
Because grief doesn't leave...
And neither does love.