The Secret I Never Meant To Keep

I can't say I was innocent.

Maybe guilty is the better word.

Because I liked him.

No….

I loved the way he found his way into my thoughts,

into the quiet spaces I never meant to share.

It happened so suddenly.

No warning.

No permission.

One moment he was simply there,

and the next, he was everywhere.

I should have walked away.

I knew that.

I told myself I would.

Yet every step back somehow became a step closer.

They say once bitten, twice shy.

So why did I reach for the flame

knowing exactly how fire behaves?

The truth sits heavy in my chest.

I betrayed her.

Not with intention,

not with malice,

but betrayal all the same.

I borrowed a dream that was never mine to hold,

cradled feelings I had no right to keep.

And still…

the cruelest part is that sometimes,

when he smiled,

when he looked at me,

when the world softened around us,

it felt as though he belonged with me.

As though fate had written his name beside mine

and forgotten to tell everyone else.

But some things are not ours,

no matter how perfectly they fit in our hands.

And so I carry this secret quietly…

the ache of wanting,

the weight of knowing,

and the sorrow of loving something

I was never meant to love.