Wounds

From the way he tightly held her in his arms, she knew it would be the last time. She firmly gripped his neck, embracing the thing she couldn’t go days without receiving. Deep down she knew she would most likely go a lifetime without it from him ever again. She never knew before today how much of an impact his hugs had on her. She never knew how something so simple could encapsulate all of the emotions words could never hold.

“Ada—“ he said, his voice trailing. The moment the delicate sound of her name left his lips, tears streamed down her flushed rosy cheeks. She tried to pull away because she didn’t want him to see her broken especially since he was the reason, but he only clung to her tighter. “I will love you, forever and always,” Harlow continued.

Those words only made her cry harder. Shaking in his arms she realized how unlovable she felt and just how much she needed him to be there for her in a way he would never be able to be. Adaline sunk into a pool of endless deep sorrow that she knew she would drown in if she didn't back away from him now.

The pain he inflicted on her felt like a knife, vigorously thrusting into her side. Adaline knew every time she saw him from that day forward, she would feel the subtle twist of the knife in her side. On those occasions where their paths would serendipitously cross, the knife would not pierce her delicate body as it did when it was first put there, but the stinging sensation would reignite and serve as a reminder of the excruciating wound. Eventually, she would have to come to the realization that the only way to move on would be to rip the knife out of her body and finally bandage the old wound. Only then would she truly be able to heal from the ways in which Harlow had so nonchalantly caused her pain. But feeling his body melted perfectly to the shape of hers in that last moment of embrace, Adaline only wondered why she had ever given him the knife in the first place.