I think I stayed loyal to memory more than reality

Dear Delyara, That was the deeper problem. I wasn’t staying because the current friendship felt balanced and safe and mutual. I was staying because memory still felt sacred. I was loyal to old versions, earlier tenderness, the shape of what had once been true. I kept letting history speak louder than the actual present. Eventually reality became impossible to ignore. But by then I was already tired. I think some endings hurt less because of what happened and more because of how long we defended their earlier versions against what they had become.