“You’re breaking up with me?” I say, the words turning hollow in my mouth. Sunlight streams through the window, rolling over the table where we’d once been eating breakfast in silence. Now, my girlfriend of three years, Adelyn Ross, stands with arms crossed above her scrambled eggs, face lined with finality. “I’m breaking up with you,” she says, voice flat. For a long time, I just stare at her. My ears keep ringing. “Why?” She pulls at the loose threads in her sweater, eyes not meeting mine. “A warning.” I let out a heavy sigh. “Okay, I know your friends don’t like me—“ “It’s not about /them/!” she hisses out, lips curling. Then she exhales. “I had a…premonition.” My eyebrows raise slightly. I would’ve laughed if my heart weren’t beating so fast. “A dream,” she whispers when I don’t respond. “I kept trying to get out of bed, but every time I blinked, I was lying back down again, next to you. I thought it was real.” I tighten my hands on my chair. “You can’t be doing this just because of a /dream/,” I say, voice rising, betraying my passivity. Of course I’ve noticed the way she always looked out the window, the way we’d slowly stopped talking to fill the silence. When I glance up again, she was looking at me. Our gazes meet and she looks away quickly. “Trust me, I want to stay,” she breathes. I just shake my head. have seen those eyes many times before, in the dark, in the light. But now, they were too glossy, too soft, too fragile for her words. So when she starts walking away, I let her go. She presses a soft kiss on my cheek before grabbing her bag and leaving the door open. I hear the elevator ding but then it’s lost to the echo chamber in my mind. There’s a sinking pressure in my stomach, nothing more. It hurts more than it should. The truth is, I’m not a good person, not a good man, not for someone like her. I know that too well. But as I stare out the window, the sun rises, the train crosses the tracks, people talk and laugh and drink coffee, and I just stay here, waiting for it all to be over. Because I can’t move on, forward or back—I’m a lamppost, still standing, tethered to the ground, constantly flickering, waiting for someone to fix me. Because I don’t want to get undressed, not for someone else, not ever again. ** this is based on the song undressed by sombr - its also in the proj so i highly recommend you read w it playing ! ** i *might* write a part 2 to this story since i didn't base it entirely on the song , lmk if thats smt you'd like to see !! though this one's a little short, surprisingly this took me a while - i was kinda struggling w the dialogue & trying to make the guy's pov less passive </3 the process was super fun though , if ur dealing w a block or if u js want to be creative in general i'd def recommend writing based on a song ^^ as always, any critique + feedback r appreciated , js make sure to ask me b4 u do ! <33 the lyrics i used : you had a dream, you wanted better you were sick of all the holes in your sweater you looked to me and wondered whether i was the lamppost to which you were tethered i'm looking at you, and you're looking at me but the glimmer in your eyes is saying you wanna leave you're saying to me what you're saying to me but the glimmer in your eyes is telling me other things i don't wanna get undrеssed for a new person all ovеr again i don't wanna k1ss someone else's neck and have to pretend it's yours instead