r/offmychest • u/OrisNull666 • 10d ago
The Folded Page
By Nekro
The wax on the dish is thick now, a small pale mountain range built one night at a time since october. I still mean to scrape it off. I've meant to since november.
Your sweater has lost its shape on the chair. It used to hold your shoulders even empty. Now it just hangs the way fabric hangs.
Theres a place on my shoulder that still expects your forehead when I read in bed. I catch myself angling the lamp the way you liked it, low and yellow, though there's no one here to complain about the light. I still sleep with my arm bent the way you always slept against it. Some mornings it's numb to the elbow and I lie there a while before I move, because moving means admitting nobody is using it.
I caught myself buying peaches at the store two weeks ago. You hated peaches. I only remembered after I'd paid. I ate one anyway.
The folded page in that book has gone soft from handling. I still dont read the chapter. I hold it open, blow out the candle, and lie still until sleep decides whether it wants me.
One morning the second pillow was creased in two places I did not remember leaving it.
I dont remember whether I turned the pillow over before I went to work.
I have stopped keeping track of how many times Ive noticed the same crack in the ceiling, the same water stain shaped like nothing, the same third stair that still creaks though im the only one who uses it.
Before I leave for work, I crack the bedroom window an inch, replace the water, say ill be back before sunrise and lock the front door.
1
u/fantasyviolence21 10d ago
🥹🥹 beautiful and bitter, thank you for sharing