Elara sat on the edge of her unmade bed, the static of the radio filling the gaps where a voice used to be. The lyrics of a song she’d heard a thousand times—one about holding breath and hoping for a miracle—looped in her head like a broken record. Fingers crossed.
She closed her eyes and pictured a kitchen filled with steam, the smell of burnt toast, and a laugh that sounded like bright yellow paint. She held that image behind her eyelids, squeezing her fingers until they throbbed. A floorboard creaked behind her. billie eilish - fingers crossed // lyrics
In the "Before," that phrase was a joke. It was what you said when you hoped the coffee shop hadn't run out of oat milk or that the rain would hold off until you got home. Now, it was a religion. Elara sat on the edge of her unmade
The lyrics echoed back: You really think I’m gonna let you go? She closed her eyes and pictured a kitchen
Elara didn’t turn around. She couldn’t. If she turned and the room was empty, the hope would evaporate. But if she stayed exactly like this—breath held, eyes shut, fingers crossed—he was still there. In the silence, in the song, he was just a second away from saying her name.