once in twenty lifetimes

Late nights, all entwined
Made a promise to never say goodbye

Too late, Tal; Sohalia was already spiraling. A single tear trickled down her cheek as Tal wrapped an arm around her, and she leaned into his hold gratefully as she forced herself to twitch her line again. "It's not that," she said, her voice watery as she swiped at her cheek with one hand. "I mean, it is, I guess, sort of, but..." She bit her lip, worrying it between her teeth as she gathered her thoughts. "I could accept if he didn't want to be friends," she said after a moment. "It's just..."

It was just that being friends or not didn't seem to be that simple, not when they kept running into each other over and over again. Not when Koa seemed unable to let her do arguably stupid things on her own, and not when she couldn't stop worrying about what he thought of her. It was the dissolution of her friendship with Jude, and the last words he'd spoken to her that day in Torchline, months and months ago now. It was the culmination of all that she'd been through, all the heartache she'd endured, and all the pain she'd caused. "Tal, do you think I'm selfish?"

I replay it in the back of my mind
Over and over again

Sohalia