Till it’s gone.

You didn’t realize quite how fond of your time together you were; not till now. Not till you were to never again hear their laugh save for that of a recording. Never again to see their smile. Never again to brush shoulders as you double over in laughter next to one another. You remember their face so clearly, but won’t behold it across from you in the days to come. You replay your last conversation together in your mind for the millionth time and not the last. You didn’t realize how many of your plans you never followed through on, you didn’t comprehend how many of the inside jokes would now seem like a wound to recall.

You didn’t understand how much pain the laughter that had passed between you would would cause you now. You hadn’t ever suspected how much you had wanted to go first, so that you may escape the world that would be should they pass before you, leaving a sadder realm behind them.

You didn’t know that being in a certain room could bring you such agony without them there to fill it beside you, and you certainly didn’t know that every picture you took with them could feel like a hot dagger in the chest upon viewing them.

You never suspected how much weight a memory could contain, not till now; not till it was their last laugh, their last word to you, or their last embrace you shared. Not till it was gone.