Echoes Of A Lonely Heart

Chapter 13

Chapter 13: Drowning in the Unsaid

There are words I should have said to you. Words that sat on the edge of my tongue but never made it past my lips. I wonder if they would have changed anything, if they could have held you here a little longer, anchored you to me instead of letting you drift away.

Regret is a strange thing. It does not come all at once—it seeps in slowly, filling the spaces between thoughts, curling around memories like smoke. It is in the moments when I reach for my phone but stop myself before dialing your number. It is in the times I catch myself talking to you in my head, answering questions you will never ask again. It is in the quiet, when I replay our last conversation and wonder if there was something more I could have done.

The truth is, I was always afraid of saying too much. Afraid that if I let the words out, they would be too heavy, too desperate, too real. So I swallowed them, buried them under silence, convinced myself that you already knew.

But now, I am left with nothing but the things I never said.

The "I miss you" that I hold inside my chest like a secret.

The "I still love you" that lingers in the spaces between my breaths.

The "Please don't go" that I never had the courage to say.

And now, it is too late.

I wonder if you ever think about me. If there are things you wish you had said. If you ever hear my name and feel something other than distance. Or maybe I am the only one drowning in the unsaid, lost in the echoes of words that will never be spoken.