When it has been five days since anyone told you they loved you and no one has held your hand in four months and you cannot remember the last time you felt wanted, remember this.
People aren't meant to say I love you. Those three words mean so many things but somehow they mean nothing and eight letters thrown together into a combination of lines and spaces is not an accurate representation of feelings.
They say I love you in the way they smile when you laugh at their jokes and they say it in the way they shake their head when you make a bad pun and they say it with every text message in all-caps at two twenty-four in the morning because something incredible just happened and they had to let you know and they say it with every hug and high-five and punch in the arm and with the way your name bounces off their tongue like a child making poor judgement calls on a trampoline and
they will not tell you happy birthday this year and they will take four hours to text you back because they got distracted and they will call you an ******* (because you are one, sometimes) and eat all your lunch without saying please or thank you and they will forget to tell you they love you when they say good night,
because people are not meant to say *I love you.
For my friend, and anyone else feeling unwanted or underappreciated.