jade shore-fray. 1. cbd2.

You know I’ve never heard my parents say “I love you” before?

At least I can’t remember if they have. Not to each other, not to Jasper, most certainly not to me. I’d be sad about it, maybe, if I were younger. But I think I was born with this understanding that it just wasn’t something they were capable of. Like we were formed in the womb sombre, not knowing anything else but. You can’t miss what you never had, right?

Sometimes when I close my eyes and hover in that space between putting my head on my pillow and drifting off to sleep I can feel my Mom creep into our room, sit at the edge of my bed, and slowly brush her hands through my hair. She thinks I’m asleep, I’m pretending. It’s strange, but comforting, this silent affection.

And then as I float away I can hear her, just a whisper -

“I love you.”

But then I wake up and decide it was simply just a dream.