"Well, isn't it lonely? I'd do anything to make you want me."

Hayden was the kind of boy who would bend the world if it meant keeping her smile, giving without counting, loving without fear. In the beginning, everything felt easy—late laughs, shared silences, the comfort of knowing he was her choice. But as time passed, something in her began to change. She grew distant, not because he lacked love, but because she was searching for something she couldn’t quite name—attention that felt new, words that felt different, a version of herself she thought she had lost. Somewhere along the way, she started looking toward someone else, mistaking unfamiliar warmth for happiness.

Her replies grew shorter, her presence lighter, until one day Hayden realized he felt nothing at all. The love he fought to protect had slowly worn him down, leaving only silence where devotion once lived. And that was when she finally understood. When he stopped asking, stopped trying, stopped waiting—she saw what she had taken for granted. Panic replaced distance, regret replaced certainty, and for the first time, she wanted to fix what she had broken. But he no longer wanted her like the first time. He had already learned how to let go.