I still remember how often I’d deny
The feelings I held for you,
Though everyone saw them—
Even you.

How I’d bristle when they mocked your name,
Shielding someone I could never claim.
I’d sit with you, your head on my shoulder,
Cursing the boy who dared make you cry,
For that’s all I was good for—
Never enough to make your spirit fly.

I’d race up that hill, poem in hand,
A confession penned in devotion's strand,
Only to find you, eyes aglow,
Falling for yet another shadow.

How often I feigned joy when you’d moved on,
My heart crumbling as I played along.
I’d sit and summon resentment's hue,
To craft a lie I could hold as true—
That I deserved better than loving you.

But how could I hate you?
The only person I knew,
Who turned my pain into soft starlight.