"...but I love you!" Do they really? All this time they have. Like the sun rising over the leafy canopy, the light splitting onto the mossy floor. It's anything I could ever trust. It always has, and always will be. "G, I can't. Don't you understand?" "Why not, love? If you're worried how people will see us, we can-" "No, that's not-" I have to tell them, but this is cruel. Leaving them like this? Telling them that it was all... "Amor, I can't bring myself to say I love you when I know it isn't true." There, in their eyes. Realization, hurt, betrayal. The one good thing that had happened to them. How can I not compare myself to a man, destroying the earth? Using it for what I will then discarding it as if it's something just to please me. Like I'm wounding the most precious being on this planet. "I'm so, so sorry-" My eyes start to sting as I speak, unaware of the pain my twisted heart was in. This is the second and *last* time I will leave them. "You have to leave me behind, okay-? Move on. I know you can, I've done it more then enough times." "Why did you stay, then?" Why did I? Maybe I was in love, sure. But I could never bring myself to appreciate their looks, the way they talked, the way they smiled- the way I could read their mind. I was in love with how they touched me, their gentle fingers through my hair in the night, watching my face with some kind of... affection. A type of affection I know I can never hold. "You'll- you'll find someone else to love, someone who will do the same to you. If anyone deserves your love, it's *you*. I've made up my mind." Before they can say anything else, I'm gone. I'll let them go like I did everyone else, even if their touch stays a ghost in my memories, something I can't forget. They deserve more then I could ever give them. They will learn that soon enough. They *have* to. ~dex