Page 176 of Goodbye Note

hold me to those words i never said

places we never went.

words scream louder than actions

and i’d rather not be another notch in your belt

a distant memory in a life lived without me.

we invite them in with the words we sing

secrets about our lives

exposed in art

i can’t find another way to bear my heart

and i wish you knew what these words mean

but that’s the thing, questions leave you wanting more

Untold stories in our echos

and I’m still, i’m still another notch in your belt

a distant memory in a life lived with someone else

fade in, fade out

you’re just a different ghost

go haunt someone else

Music played in the background, but instead of singing the interlude, Arik spoke it.

how many more times can I say goodbye to you without dying inside?

i tell Myself this will be the last time, but the next time you show up with a knock, I’ll Still let you in, knowing how it will end

left Standing at the hotel checkout, i go back to all those nights we whispered promises between sheets only to face the morning leaving

the divide between us growing every time i let You use me.

i’ve written so many notes and letters i’ll never send

i can’t bring myself to put it On paper and admit what i need to say.

so i’ll sing it to you instead all the words left Unsaid

I inhaled audibly, and every eye in the room was on me. He’d never alluded to our years of hookups in his writing, and I’d never told anyone. I thought it was a secret we’d take to our grave.

Val paused the record. “Ex-fucking-cuse me?”

“I plead the fifth.”

“You know this isn’t a courtroom,” Bronx said.

“The Geneva Convention says I don’t have to incriminate myself.”