HEATHER
Send A Flower: Closed
…protect your muse. You count how many times you’ve had a best friend on one hand. You keep wavering on if you need to a put a finger down or not because technically you haven’t lost the last one but it still feels like you did and it feels like your fault so you bend one finger at the second knuckle because that seems accurate, half down, half up, half heartbroken over the concept of considering someone as anything other than their full selves anymore, half just heartbroken in general. It starts to all feel the same so you don’t think about that even though you understand you can’t, that even when you’re not actively thinking about them you are. But then you look at your hand and think about raising another finger because Noel pulled you from the wreckage of everything going on with his kind eyes and soft voice and he doesn’t judge you for how you flinch when something good finally comes into your life. Noel is warm and polite and it terrifies you because the impermanence of your existence makes it hard to ignore the idea that he could disappear one day and you would be left there waiting for him to put his hand on your spine like he always does in the wake of all of the difficulty and that reassurance would never come. It terrifies you because you think about all of the things he’s done so far to nurture all of your disjointedness and wonder how you could ever return the favor, but then again it’s Noel and you know he would never expect any form repayment from you. It terrifies you because you look at your fingers, all scarred and calloused and that one you raised in question somehow holds so much hope and so much risk. “What are you doing?” You vaguely collect from the mumble into your shoulder, one eye open to you staring stupidly at your hands in your lap. The breath stops short of your lips, going back to hiding them in your sweater pocket. “Nothing. I’m sorry if I woke you.”










