Two pages of the same book

The silence in Rose's apartment was suffocating. It had been days since Kalix's last message, a short "Hope you're okay" that had left her feeling more alone than ever. She couldn't even remember the last time they had a real conversation. What had happened to them? To the connection that had once seemed so unbreakable? Now, every word they exchanged felt forced, like a hollow echo of what they once had.

She had tried to fill the emptiness with work, burying herself in design sketches and meetings. She spent hours drafting ideas for her new fashion line, but the joy that had once flooded her heart whenever she created something was now absent. It felt like all her passion, all her energy, was drained away by the heaviness between them. Even in a room full of people, Rose couldn't shake the feeling of being utterly, desperately alone.

She had to admit it to herself-she was losing him. Slowly, imperceptibly, like sand slipping through her fingers. Every time she thought they were close to reaching out, every time she thought there was a chance to fix it, there was a wall-an invisible barrier that neither of them knew how to break down.

It wasn't just the distance that hurt. It was the silence. The absence of the warmth in his voice. The way his presence no longer filled up the spaces between them, leaving nothing but cold air where there used to be love. She had stopped texting him first, because every time she did, it felt like she was begging. She was tired of begging for his attention, for his affection.

A buzz from her phone broke the quiet. It was a text from Jessie. Her heart sank a little. She'd been avoiding talking about Kalix with anyone-especially Jessie-because deep down, she knew Jessie would ask the questions Rose didn't want to answer.

"Hey girl, you still alive over there? Haven't heard from you in a while. How's it going with Kalix?"

Rose's fingers hovered over the screen. She felt the familiar pang in her chest, the ache that had become her constant companion. She typed a response, but before she could send it, the words seemed too heavy, too truthful. She couldn't tell Jessie the truth-not when she barely understood it herself. Instead, she settled on a simple reply.

"Just working a lot. Everything's fine."

But nothing was fine. Nothing at all.

After a long pause, Jessie texted again. "Rose, you can't keep doing this. You need to talk to him. You're not gonna figure anything out in silence."

Rose swallowed hard. She wanted to scream, to throw her phone across the room. She wanted to tell Jessie that she had tried-she had tried so much, but nothing ever seemed to work. She wanted to tell her that the silence wasn't just the absence of words-it was the absence of everything that had once made her feel alive. The laughter, the closeness, the late-night conversations that went on for hours. It was all slipping through her fingers like the sand she couldn't hold on to.

But instead of replying, she stared at the screen, her chest tightening as the weight of her emotions overwhelmed her.

She couldn't do this anymore. The uncertainty was eating away at her. And deep down, she knew it wasn't just the physical distance that had come between them-it was the emotional distance, the gulf that neither of them had been brave enough to face. Not yet, at least.

---

Later that afternoon, after a long day of working hars.She had promised herself she would come home and call him,talk to him, and get the answers she needed. She had to. There was no more running from it.

She stared at her phone and Called him.The phone started ringing

He picked up..
"Hey," he said softly, his voice betraying the tension between them.

"Hey," Rose replied, trying to smile, but it faltered before it even formed.

She stepped inside, her eyes scanning the room. It felt the same, yet everything was different. The warmth that once lived here was gone, replaced by an emptiness that seemed to swallow her whole.

Finally, Kalix broke the silence. "Rose... we need to talk, don't we?"

Tears welled up in Rose's eyes, but she quickly blinked them away, unwilling to let him see the cracks forming. "Yeah, we do," she whispered, her voice thick with emotion. "But I don't know what to say anymore. I don't know how to fix this."

Kalix took a deep breath, looking away, as if the weight of it all was too much for him to bear. "I feel it too," he said quietly. "This... this space between us. I don't know when it happened. I don't know when we became strangers."

The tears that Rose had been holding back finally spilled over, running down her cheeks like a river she couldn't stop. She didn't even try to wipe them away. "Kalix, I'm so scared," she whispered, her voice breaking. "I'm scared that we've lost each other. I'm scared that I gave everything, and now... now it's just gone."

Kalix's eyes softened, and for the briefest moment, Rose saw the boy she had fallen in love with-the one who had been there for her when everything else fell apart. But just as quickly, the sadness returned to his eyes. "I never wanted to hurt you," he said, his voice barely above a whisper. "But I don't know how to fix this. I don't know if I even can."

"Then what are we doing?" Rose sobbed, her heart shattering as she spoke the words aloud. "What are we doing, Kalix, if we don't even know how to fight for each other?"

Kalix stepped closer, his face etched with pain. He reached out to touch her arm, but the gesture felt distant, as if there was a barrier between them they couldn't cross. "I want to fight for us. I do. But I'm so lost, Rose," Kalix confessed, his voice trembling slightly as he looked at her. "I don't even know where to start anymore. I've messed up so much. I've hurt you so many times without even realizing it. I don't want to lose you. I can't lose you."

Rose felt a deep ache in her chest as his words cut through the air, but she couldn't help the swirling pain inside her. "You've already lost me," she whispered, the tears now streaming freely down her face. "Not because I don't love you anymore, Kalix. I still love you, more than anything. But it feels like... it feels like you gave up on us before you even tried."

The raw honesty in her voice hit him like a punch to the gut. Kalix's eyes filled with guilt, his hand dropping to his side. "I never meant to give up on us. I just... I didn't know how to handle it. I didn't know how to deal with everything. And the last thing I wanted was to hurt you, to make you feel like I wasn't there. But I was so caught up in my own world, in what I was supposed to be... I didn't realize what was slipping through my fingers. You."

Rose took a shaky step back, her heart heavy with the weight of it all. "I needed you, Kalix. I needed you when things were falling apart, when I was dealing with things I couldn't even explain. But you were so focused on what everyone else wanted from you, I felt like I was invisible. And now... now it's too late to go back. We're already broken."

Kalix's voice cracked, and for a moment, the strong exterior he always showed cracked, too. "Please don't say that," he begged. "I know I've messed up. I know I've hurt you more than I can ever fix. But I swear, Rose, I never wanted this. I never wanted us to end up here, where everything's falling apart."

Rose shook her head, the tears falling uncontrollably now. "But it's not just you, Kalix. It's me too. I... I kept waiting for things to change, for us to get back to where we were. But I can't keep waiting for something that isn't coming. I can't keep pretending like everything's okay when it's not."

The room was silent for a long moment, the two of them standing there, consumed by the weight of their words. Kalix's face twisted in pain, his breath shallow as if he were holding back his own flood of emotions.

"I never wanted to lose you," he said again, his voice barely audible. "But it feels like we're already so far apart. And I don't know if we can ever get back to where we were. I don't even know if I deserve to."

Rose closed her eyes, her chest tight with the effort of holding back the sobs threatening to escape. She could feel her heart breaking all over again. "I don't know, Kalix. I don't know if I can keep doing this. If I can keep loving someone who's slipping away from me."

Even with such complexity in thier relationship,rose remembered kalix was having a birthday after some weeks
She was wondering,what would be the best birthday gift for him?

The birthday gift is me!
I'm so smart-Rose said to herself.