The sun hung low in the sky as I made my way through the streets, the light catching in the cracks of the pavement, illuminating the smallest details of the world around me—a drifting leaf, a fraying edge on the hem of someone’s skirt, a patch of moss clinging stubbornly to a brick wall. The sky seemed too blue, the kind of brightness that mocked the heaviness in my chest. It was as though the world refused to recognize my grief, continuing its relentless beauty despite the ache that had burrowed itself into the marrow of my bones.
After class, I’d wrestled with the decision, second-guessed it a dozen times before finally slipping into the quiet inevitability of it. Visiting Drew wasn’t something I’d avoided out of indifference—it was the opposite, really. I hadn’t seen his grave since th
