It feels like someone telling you you're beautiful, like you're floating, like you fall asleep smiling at the memories, like when you're cold, and you picture their arms around you, warm, like you're having conversations in the shower with yourself that you'll never have, like you're checking the phone hoping they'll text first because you're too afraid, like you're eating well and exercising well because you want look well for them because, they make you feel well. like you don't have to lie anymore like you can grow higher than ever like you can smile in a photo and not delete it seconds after, it feels like all of these things together, when you know they do not do the same. it feels like you're holding your chin up, pretending you can just be friends, pretending your heart didn't decide, that they could make you happy, and whole. It feels like, with every breath, pretending you don't love them. it feels like it hurts.
unrequited affection is a silent, slow heavy kind of hurt.