How to say "I Love You" to someone you don't love
You say it. Three words, eight letters. You look into their eyes, and you find no meaning. You don’t feel your heart swell with emotion as compared to when you said it to someone you loved. There’s no electricity that runs through your spine as you think of saying it. It simply rolls off your tongue, devoid of feeling.
You say it. And as the words leave your lips, you smile to mask your empty bullets. You’ve done it again, you’ve lied to yourself. You’ve lied to them again. You think that maybe they won’t notice your hollow heart. Maybe they won’t notice the invisible question marks you put after the end of that 3-word sentence. Maybe they won’t notice how your eyes shift away as you tell them, but maybe they will. You say it anyway.
You say it. You say it with hesitation, you say it with maybes. You say it to appease them, you say it to make yourself feel better. You say it, hoping that the words will come to life, hoping that maybe, you do feel the same way. You wait for your heart to feel.
You don’t, and you say it anyway.