we met like a whisper

“we met like a whisper that turned into a memory before either of us could call it real. you didn’t even see me at first— not really. but i saw you like someone sees the ocean for the first time, not with their eyes, but with the part of their chest that suddenly remembers what it’s like to breathe after holding it in too long. you were laughing at something i couldn’t hear and i remember thinking, that sound probably feels like sunlight to someone. i wanted to be that someone. i didn’t know your name but i knew the shape of it fit somewhere inside me like a puzzle piece i had been trying to find in strangers for years. and suddenly, there were too many poems in my head and not enough courage in my spine. so i looked away, like every coward in love does. but the world has a strange way of folding around moments like that. like fate holding its breath just long enough to make you believe it could mean something. our eyes met. for maybe a second. but it was enough to make a year out of it in my mind. you smiled. and it wasn’t for me— but god, i wore it like it was. like it belonged to the part of me that forgot how to feel until you reminded it with a glance. you walked past me, and i didn’t say a word. but my silence wrote novels i’ll never publish. stories that end with you turning around and staying. because the truth is, i fall in love like it’s a secret i’m afraid the world will steal. and you— you looked like a secret i wanted to keep forever. i don’t even know if you noticed me. but i noticed you. and that’s enough to write this. enough to remember even what never happened. sometimes, the people we never touch still leave fingerprints on our lives. and i know you’ll never know the story you started. but maybe, that’s the kind of magic you were always meant to be. just a moment. just a feeling. just a whisper— loud enough to echo for the rest of me.”