She had been born into the world knowing she would not always be enough. And she had grown believing that it didn’t matter, so long as she was enough for herself. Her father had run from her and her mother, but Noel had never stopped searching. She had only wanted to understand what made him run. She had always admired her mother for her ability to weather the storms in her life. Had always sought to emulate it.
But that had never stopped her from wondering why he ran.
For a while though, it had ceased to matter. She hadn’t forgotten, but it had been pushed so far back she may as well have. Until now. Until the moment Nashua utters the words that tears her entire world apart. Until the man she had trusted with the entirety of her wary heart shredded it to bits.
Now she understands why he had run.
She doesn’t move, her eyes unblinking as she stares at his achingly beautiful, painfully familiar features. She has never wanted to flee so badly as she did in that moment, but her legs refuse to move. As his words fade away, she can only stare. Her disbelief gives way to a curious blankness. She should be crying, she thinks, but her cheeks remain dry.
She had given him everything, but she couldn’t even give him her tears now. For a long time, she can’t seem to summon any kind of response. But when she finally manages to unstick her tongue from the roof of her mouth, when she finally manages to swallow the lump threatening to choke her, she can only manage one broken syllable. “Why?”
He had told her how it happened, but that told her nothing. That did not tell her what had been in his heart. That did not tell her why she hadn’t been enough.
- noel
@Nashua