Once upon a time, in the chaos of 2020, a troubled girl from a met a boy who was kind in ways she didn’t think still existed.

The world was uncertain back then, loud with fear, quiet with isolation. But somehow, he reached her. And somehow, she let him.

They had very little, but it didn’t matter. They had laughter. Cracked phone screens. Free walks. Dinners scraped together with hope. Love doesn’t always start with fireworks, sometimes it starts with someone handing you a piece of their peace when you didn’t even know how to ask for it.

He showed her a whole world, of things she’d never seen, never believed she could do, never thought she deserved. And she wanted to see it. She really did. But love isn’t easy when your heart is still learning it’s allowed to feel safe.

So her fear became an anchor. It dragged behind her, quiet at first, then louder. It whispered things like you’re not enough and don’t trust this. And even though the boy stood by her, always, eventually that fear swallowed her whole.

And in doing so, it swallowed what they had.

She broke his heart.
Not once. Not twice.
But in ways he didn’t deserve.

He stayed for as long as he could, gentle, loyal, open-hearted. But the girl, back then, didn’t know how to love him the way he needed. Not because she didn’t care. But because she hadn’t yet learned how to care for herself.

Years passed. And in the pieces of her own becoming, she started to understand.

Not just what she lost, but what she had.
Not just who he was, but who she could have been, had she loved him in the way he deserved.

And by the time she returned, she found a boy changed.
Tired. Guarded. Quiet.

She doesn’t stand by his side now to fix what she broke.
She stands there because she still sees him. Because no matter what he feels for her now, he deserves love, not the kind that fears, but the kind that stays.

Even if she’s no longer his future, she will be a soft place to land, for as long as he needs it.
Because that’s what he always was for her.

And maybe that’s how you love someone, when it’s no longer about being loved back, but about giving them peace, finally, without fear.