Love Me for Me

She needed Pete’s hug. She needed him to hold her hand. No one else could make the hurt any better. But she couldn’t have any of it. The reality of that was like a boulder on her chest.

This hurt. It hurt more than anything she’d experienced.

Please don’t put me in this situation, she thought. I don’t have the strength to push you away anymore

That wasn’t the Pete she’d known as a girl. She’d lost him as much as he’d lost her. They were just two strangers who shared common memories.

She didn’t want to have to think about him any more than she already had.

Like many high school romances, they had gone on in different directions in life, and now they were caught in the empty space between reality and the past

while waving madly at her with her free hand. Libby smiled despite herself

The feeling of not being able to fix it consumed her—she couldn’t go back in time and make it right. She took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, but it did nothing to lighten the guilt

everywhere she looked she saw reminders of people she’d known—people she’d left—and it hurt. Terribly.

Being there, she was forced to face her memories, and they were coming back—all of them at once—like a giant tidal wave