Words I never dared to say - by Rahima Suleiman

Title: Words I Never Dared to Say---Chapter One: The Silence Between Us I always thought silence was safe. It wrapped around my truths like a blanket, muffling the parts of me I wasn’t ready to share. But I learned too late that silence can also be a wall, and walls don’t keep things out; they keep people in. Her name was Elara. She had a way of walking into rooms as if she belonged to them, as if her presence was the final piece of a puzzle no one realized was incomplete. I met her on a rain-washed Tuesday, the kind where the clouds hang low and the world smells like endings.I never told her that.---Chapter Two: Coffee and Conversations The first time we spoke, it was over lukewarm coffee and a shared joke about the absurdity of adulting. I watched the way her laughter lit up the space around her, how her fingers curled around the ceramic cup like she was holding something sacred."Do you ever feel like you're just pretending to be a grown-up?" she asked.I nodded, but didn’t say what I wanted to: that with her, I didn't have to pretend. I could've said it then. Should've.But I didn’t.---Chapter Three: Almost There were a thousand almost-moments. Almost kisses in dim hallways. Almost confessions under star-salted skies. Almost touches that hovered, hesitant, afraid to bridge the distance.Every time, I swallowed the words. Not because they weren’t true, but because they were too true. I feared that saying them would make them real, and reality had a cruel way of taking beautiful things and tearing them apart.So I said nothing. And she began to drift.---Chapter Four: The Goodbye That Wasn'tWhen she left, she didn’t say goodbye. Just a note on my desk: "Sometimes, silence is the loudest answer."I stared at it for hours, the weight of everything unsaid pressing into my chest like a fist. I thought of all the words I had rehearsed in the quiet corners of my mind, all the feelings I had folded and tucked away.I never told her I loved her. I never told her she saved me. I never told her I was afraid.---Chapter Five: Words I Never Dared to SayYears passed. I built a life with walls of routine and windows of regret. People came and went, but none stayed the way she did, even in absence.Then one day, I found her again. A bookstore in the city. Her hair shorter, eyes older, but still her.She looked at me, and for a moment, the years melted away."Hi," she said.And this time, I spoke."I never stopped loving you

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