Dear MB,

It’s been over six months since you broke my heart in more pieces than I could possibly count. It’s been six months since I lost hope in ever loving again. It’s been six months of thinking about you in the moments in which I wake to start a new day and ache to find sleep in the solemn night. It’s been six months of refusing to date, to open my heart, of trying to convince you that I forgive you and that you should forgive me, too.

I looked at the picture of us we took, kissing on top of the entire city of London and stared at it for over an hour. I couldn’t will myself to cry tears that used to voluntarily spill for you. Instead, I smiled and laughed knowing that although I loved you with every inch of my being, and I still love you and I will always love you, I have finally let you go. All your memories and phantoms, pains and pleasures have been dismissed. I’ll never forget you but I will love again, laugh again, be again. I wish you well, with or without me.

J, age 21