Always Been You Novels & Stories

The words from that morning ten years ago rose without permission. *You took advantage of me.* *Stay the fuck away from me.* *You were supposed to be my best friend.* I closed my eyes. The ache was old and familiar and still sharp enough to cut. “Volchonok” I whispered into the quiet room. The name felt heavy on my tongue. Private. Mine.

The tiny, folded slip of paper , Ethan Grant’s phone number , had become my personal religion. For fourteen agonizing days, it had lived tucked deep inside the stitching of my uniform apron, a burning coal against my skin. Two weeks. I had survived two weeks of perfect silence, two weeks of scrubbing floors and polishing secrets, pretending the warm pressure of his lips on my cheek had been nothing but a fever dream.

“Yes. We are. No matter what happens, or where we go—home is always here, with the people who love you.” TO BE CONTINUED

This is always. The always of a thing that has been decided and keeps being decided, daily, in the ordinary quiet of a morning kitchen with the coffee and the FT and the space without collision. The always that is not permanence imposed from outside but the accumulation of choices—each morning, each Tuesday, each choosing to stay and to show up and to be here. The always that is the opposite of the contract—the contract had a term, had an end date, had a built-in expiration. They always have no term. The always is the choice that has no expiration, that must be made fresh every day, that cannot be assumed or taken for granted or treated as permanent simply because it has lasted this long.

That was the last promise he ever made to me. Tomorrow came. He didn't call me at all. I tried calling him, but his phone was Do Not Disturb. The day after, I told myself he was busy. “Julian was always busy. He thrives on responsibility.“ By the third day, my texts remain unread. By the fourth, my calls went straight to voicemail. On the fifth day, I realized something terrifying. He wasn't unavailable. He was silent on purpose. Silence is power when you know someone is waiting for your voice. I did not cry immediately. That would have meant I understood what was happening. Instead, I defended him in my mind.

How cute, Cakeu. All I want to be, yeah all I ever want to be, yeah, yeah Is somebody to you All I want to be, yeah all I ever want to be, yeah, yeah Is somebody to you Everybody's tryna be a billionaire But every time I look at you I just don't care 'Cause all I want to be, yeah all I ever want to be, yeah, yeah Is somebody to you "Yeah you!" Oh, god! Don't tell me right from the start, it was all his plan? From the system 'breakdown' and the silence of everyone and everything... it was his plan? Am I right? It is!

She was still not used to his gentle actions. "I know we haven't known each other for long but the moment I saw you, I felt lively. I felt like something that had been missing in my life for a long time had been recovered. I've never felt that way before. The feeling of being possessive over something. I just wanted you, to spoil you rotten, care for you, dote on you and make you the happiest woman alive.

Her brothers stood so they could also walk in with Alexi. Alexi – There was a knock on my door, my mother turned to answer it. It was my dad in his Royal robes, trying to hold his own tears back as he lovingly smiled at me and put out his arms. He led me downstairs and out the back the music started to play the song “Always and Forever” my eyes welled up again in tears. The song was so correct, “each moment with you has made all my dreams come true. I know tomorrow will still be the same. We have a life of love that won’t ever change” Nicolas must have selected this song and is perfect depicting our eternal love we have for one another. “This is like a dream to me that somehow came true” The

he walked to me, his face expressing his pain. "Time has changed. Our situation has changed and that situation changed me. People change, Carl. Just like you. You're not what you used to be. You've changed," I stated. "I'm not here to talk about what used to be. I'm here to hear what you want. Why do you keep making things hard for me? Why are you holding onto a past that no longer exists?"

I was never bad enough to mind In the middle I will do my best Take me in your arms and leave the rest I will give you anything to Say you want to stay, you want me too Say you'll never die, you'll always haunt me I want to know that I belong to you Say you'll haunt me Together, together, we'll be together, together forever Little variations on my page Little doors open on my cage Little time has come and gone so far Little by little who you are I can see the patterns on your face I can see the miracles I trace Symmetry and shadows I can't hide I just wanna be right by your side I will give you everything to Say you want to stay, you want me too Say you'll never die, you'll always haunt me I