Friendships Lost

I waited for you.
But you never came back.
And somewhere between the years and the silence,
I learned how absence can take up more space
than your presence ever did.

We once walked side by side,
believing time would always bend
to keep us friends.
But life has a way of pulling threads,
quietly at first,
then all at once,
until the fabric you trusted
is just loose strings in your hands.

I kept a place in my mind for you,
not out of hope,
but out of habit;
a small corner of my life
where your laughter still echoed
long after you had stopped laughing.
But corners gather dust,
And even memories get tired
of being the only ones who show up.

Some friendships don’t end. They fade,
like a photograph left in the sun,
still recognizable,
but missing the color
that once made it real.

And still,
on certain days when the past feels close,
I feel the ghost of the friends we were
brush past me,
as if checking whether I’m still here.
I am.
But I’m different now.
Loss does that.

I waited for you.
But you never came back.
And maybe that’s the part
I’m finally learning to accept,
that not every story
gets the ending it deserved,
and not every friend
is meant to stay.

wcd