Chapter 16-SOME ENDINGS DON'T END
376 Words
It was Friday again.
Rain tapped gently against the classroom windows, the kind of soft that made everything feel slower, quieter, like the world itself was exhaling.
Tara closed her locker gently. Tyler leaned against the wall beside her, his bag slung lazily over one shoulder.
“You coming to art club later?” he asked.
She looked at him, thoughtful.
“Maybe. You?”
He smiled. “If you’re there.”
She rolled her eyes, but her lips twitched.
Later, they sat side by side under the almond tree not saying much. Just existing together. Close but not clinging. Healing but not rushing.
Tara let her head rest on his shoulder for a moment. He didn’t move.
And just like that, the chapter didn’t close with fireworks.
No confessions shouted into the wind.
Just a quiet presence.
And that was enough.
That night, Tara sat at her desk, the warm glow of her reading lamp soft against the page. Her sketchbook lay open beside her, a rough pencil drawing of two hands reaching but not quite touching.
She opened her diary and began to write.
NOVEMBER 15
We never said “I love you.”
But we said other things.
We said “I missed you,” and “I waited.”
We said “Are you okay?” and “You make it lighter.”
We said “Stay.”
And maybe that’s enough for now.
The truth is… I don’t know what this is.
Us.
Him and me.
Me and me.
I just know it’s something.
Something real.
Something quiet.
Something that didn’t break even when it bent.
I don’t know what happens next.
I don’t think I’m supposed to.
But I know this
I’m not hiding anymore.
Not from my feelings.
Not from my fears.
Not from the maybe of love.
He came when it mattered.
He stayed when it got hard.
And I…
I let myself be seen.
That’s a beginning too, isn’t it?"
She closed the diary slowly, ran her fingers across the spine.
Then looked out the window , the rain still gentle, the world still moving, her heart still unfolding.
Some stories don’t end.
They just breathe.
And wait.
-The end .......or maybe The story has just Begun
- Writer
