Page 49 of One More Time

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‘No.’

‘God,’ Kim said under her breath.

‘I don’t …wantto,’ Lucy sputtered, feeling childish and weak.

Kim pulled her phone from her back pocket and typed furiously with her thumbs. She propped the thing up against the flower bouquet and scrolled.

The lyrics to ‘The Breathing Room’ glared up at them in glowing black and white. Lucy didn’t really need to read them; she knew all the words by heart though she avoided the song at every possible opportunity.

Kim placed her hand over Lucy’s, a tangible reminder of the unwavering strength of the nearly forty years of friendship and support between them.

For the first time, Lucy read the lyrics – really read them.

‘The Breathing Room’

Music and Lyrics by Nick Broome

Gazes like smoke and whispers

Strokes of sparks like wishes

Sharp breaths, panted names

Beginnings and endings

Sometimes feel the same

Doubt like ocean wind within

Burdens and hassles without

Weight lifted under the weight of you

Wanted to spend all summer

In that breathing room

There with you, that was it.

It was the calming.

It was the fit.

In the Breathing Room,

You gave me breathing room.

Praises like balm, a zephyr

A draft to ease the pressure

Soothed and strong over the heart of you

Should have spent all year

In that Breathing Room.

There with you, that was it.

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