I Stayed Until I Disappeared
There was a time when I would notice the smallest change in your voice, the silence between your texts, the weight behind your “I’m fine,” and I would sit there for hours trying to love you gently enough to make your pain feel lighter. I cared in ways you never had to ask for. I stayed when leaving would have been easier. I listened when you spoke about everyone else but never really listened to me. I made excuses for your distance, called your neglect “busy days,” and convinced myself that love meant being patient through everything. But slowly, I started realizing something painful— people can be loved deeply and still choose not to value the person loving them. You grew comfortable with my presence. Comfortable with knowing I would always understand, always forgive, always remain. And maybe that was my mistake. I loved you so consistently that you forgot I could be hurt too. There is a different kind of loneliness that comes from feeling unseen by the pe...