“He’d built altars in his chest for her, and she’d barely knelt once.”

<aside> 💔

You wanted to meet him?

You wanted the soft one? Read it slow. JD doesn’t bleed quietly.

</aside>

/image

Inside that too-small, too-familiar space— Where memories hung like pictures on the wall, even though they were never framed. Where silence used to mean comfort, not tension. Where she’d once laughed in his shirt and kissed him like she meant it—before everything got so fucking complicated.

Was a girl who didn’t love him. Not like he did. Not in the way that sears. That stays. Not in the way that makes you fight like hell just to be seen.

Not the way he loved her. Not with every goddamn breath. Not with the kind of ache that made it impossible to want anything else. He’d built altars in his chest for her, and she’d barely knelt once.

And if he stayed? If he let her back into that last, trembling bit of him that was still standing?

If he crossed that threshold? If he stepped into her world again, knowing he wasn’t the one she was choosing?

He wouldn’t make it out intact. He’d walk in as JD— And leave as something less. Something hollow. Something she never even noticed was gone.