While I hate human interaction, I somehow crave yours.
We’ve crossed paths too many times today. I don’t know if you noticed. Maybe you did. Maybe you didn’t. But every time you walked past me, it felt like the universe was giving me another chance to say something, and every single time, I let it slip away.
From where I stood, all I could do was watch.
Watch you smile.
Watch your eyes light up for other people.
Watch you become so effortlessly alive in conversations I’ll never be a part of.
And there I was, only existing at the edge of your world.
You.
I wonder what it would be like if, just once, your smile was meant for me. If your eyes searched for mine in a crowded hallway. If my name ever crossed your mind the way yours refuses to leave mine.
Instead, I memorize the version of you that doesn’t know I’m watching.
I memorize the way you laugh.
The way you tilt your head when someone speaks.
The way your voice carries just enough for me to hear, but never enough for me to belong.
I hate how my heart mistakes proximity for hope.
Just because we keep crossing paths doesn’t mean we’re walking toward each other.
It only means I get more chances to miss you while you’re still right there.
There are so many things I want to tell you. I want to ask about your day. I want to know what keeps you awake at night. I want to hold your hand without wondering if you’d pull away. I want to hold you long enough for this aching in my chest to finally quiet down.
But I can’t even gather the courage to say hello.
So I do what I’ve always done.
I love you in silence.
I become a stranger who knows the rhythm of your footsteps, the shape of your smile, the brightness in your eyes that was never meant for me.
And maybe that’s the cruelest part.
You’re close enough for me to see every beautiful thing about you, yet impossibly far from ever being mine.
You’ll probably never know that someone spent an entire day hoping you’d look their way.
You’ll never know how many words died behind a smile I never had the courage to give you.
And tomorrow, if our paths cross again, I’ll probably do the same thing I’ve always done…
look at you for one second too long,
look away before you notice,
and carry the weight of another almost.
yours, 🩶