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The Only Sin I Committed Was Thinking You Were the Answer
Love may not be the balm everyone needs.
It was a long time between the spark and the burn when it came to you.
You stayed a stranger, just another face, for what felt like infinite stretches of my life. We waded in and out of each other’s spheres, but I always tried to find it in myself to smile at you (even though we both know I struggle with that).
It didn’t matter. My kindness wasn’t a clear pathway toward your heart. You were a locked box with no key, and everyone tried to chisel you open, bit by bit, till you revealed all the things you held so close.
We could exchange conversation and laughter, waiting for the match to light, but that wasn’t your plan. It’s only now, all these years later, that I realize I was probably just a challenge to you. No one could pry my secrets out like you could. You might even have laughed with all your friends that this girl, this silly and nervous and awkward girl, thought she would ever be enough for you.
You paraded your social life like it was the itinerary of a king. Bragging may not have been your style, but all the girls in your life ran up lists of praise because they thought you were the only one who could understand.
