I crave every part of her, not just the smile she wears in daylight for the world, but the silence between her sobs when the night presses too heavy on her chest. I want the rawness in her breath when pain steals her voice, the anger she keeps caged behind her ribs, the secrets buried beneath her insistence that she’s “fine.” I want the scars she won’t name, the ones my fingers trace like prayers. The shame others turn away from when it begs to be held. The flicker of old memories in the mirror that still make her flinch. I want the parts of her even she’s afraid to love. Because real love doesn’t live on the surface, it digs deep, waits patiently in the shadows, learns the shape of locked doors and kisses bruises no one else knows exist. She’s been told she’s too much, but they only ever saw the outline of her being. I’ve memorized the weight in her voice when she lies and says, “I’m fine.” And I believe her, not the words, but the weight of the burden she carries behind them. If she let me, I’d carry it all. They love her like a still photograph, pretty, posed, and flat. But I love her like a novel, long-winded and tangled, pages missing, ink running into the margins. What I feel isn’t fleeting infatuation; it’s a quiet knowing, a deep-rooted truth. She was etched into the marrow of me long before fate ever brought us face to face. And if she runs, I’ll be sure to follow, not to catch her, but to remind her that she’s already home.