Anywhere With You

by Ellie Palmer

It was one of those rare, perfect instances when I knew I was living in a moment I’d always remember while it was still happening.

But best friends get it all—our best selves and our darkest versions—even when they’ve never asked for it.

“Now that I have you, this whole other part of me has finally come alive, like the best things only exist when you’re a part of my life.”

There’s a sad sort of beauty in the way grief goes liquid and takes different shapes to fill the body it’s in. The emptier someone leaves you, the more your insides swim with their loss. Some endings are about mourning what’s gone and some are about accepting what you never even had.

To me, love was this…delicate thing. A rope that could slip right through my fingers if my feet weren’t firmly planted on the ground and the conditions weren’t exactly right, and it was up to me to make it right. But you…” I step forward, feeling emboldened by his nearness. “You love me, and it makes me braver. You make me feel like I can jump off cliffs.”

For now, it’s nice doing things for no other reason than that they make me happy.