The swell of tears in my eyes starts again, but this is too happy a moment for them to fall. They hang there, bright and sparkling in the twilight, as my smirk melts to a smile.

Please—stay in my dreams at least.

I love you.Did you know that? Even if you did, I wanted to say it one last time.But no one is ever really gone.I wish you the happiest of lives. A long life, too. But not too long. You know how I feel about eternity.Wherever you go, I will be.

Everyone in my life taught me to swim in the ocean of myself.

That’s what a soul is: a root. It’s memories and love and feelings. And that can’t be destroyed. I promised you then and I promise you now—no one is ever really gone.

You are the sun, I try to say, You are the most important. You are the only light that's ever truly pierced my armor. You are the happiness and the spark and the one girl who never ran, who never cowered, who saw through my facade. I will never meet another girl like you, I will never want anyone as much as I want you. I don't deserve you.

I am not a friend, I am a home.

Before now, I never knew an embrace between two people could feel like one trembling body, one trembling heart, one person made from two, made from nothing, made from chance and choice and love.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned to admire about humans, it’s that when there’s nothing left, they become strongest.