Because He Was With Me (If He Had Been With Me)

Recovery wasn't easy. There were scars. Visible and Invisible. He blamed himself for what happened, both to him and Sylvie, and for the choices that led them there. I blamed myself for waiting so long to tell him I loved him, when that was truly the only thing I knew for sure.

One afternoon, when he finally came home, we sat on his porch. Staring at the sunset, the waning time. He broke the silence. "Autumn, remember when I said you were the first on my phone. Well I don't have it in alphabetical order. I knew I would call you if something like this ever happened. And my heart breaks that it did."

"Oh Finny. It was dark out, the road was slippery. It wasn't your fault." I say, firmly.

"Maybe it wasn't. But I thought about you the whole time I was in that car, and I thought that if I made it out, I wouldn't waste a single second."

"Neither will I. I won't take anything for granted and I know that time isn't infinite, but when I'm with you it feels like...forever."

"That's because it is Autumn. Because you are my forever."

"And you are mine."
I leaned down onto his shoulder, watching as the sky got dark. Summer will turn to Autumn. Handwriting will fade on paper and buildings will crumble to dust. Time changes things.
But it won't change us.
Till our last words and our dying breaths, and even beyond that, we will always be Finny and Autumn.
Autumn and Finny. It will eternally be us.