Status Updates From Everlong

What’s the point in writing stories if you’re never going to share them?”

Books are something that time has not erased; humanity will always crave a world outside their own. What better way to immortalize Sam than to share him with the world?

Lil’s opening line: She sits at the same bench, in the same park, every night.

“Being ready is…knowing that you have lived your life well. It’s taking every moment as it comes and being grateful for it, and knowing if you were to die tomorrow you would die content.”

“Just tell me what you need.”
She needs Sam 😭🥺💔

“There are nights when the loneliness is all encompassing, that there are moments where she misses him so desperately that she searches the apartment for a trace of his scent. Sometimes she wakes up from dreaming, confused and disoriented, wondering why the bed is cold…there are dozens of moments throughout the day where she misses him so keenly that she feels like she is breaking.”

“I’m scared. I’m scared to live without him.”
“It’ll get easier.”
“Easier is not the same as better.”

“And Lily stops counting” 😭😭😭

“I’m sorry I worried you. I’m sorry I almost left. I’m sorry I can’t stay forever.” ~ damnit, here come the tears 😭

“Another year on top of eternity is not worth celebrating, but another year with him is…there is only one thing she wants, and she knows it is something she will never get. Time is fickle like that. She wishes for more of it anyway.”

“I’m going to be pushing your child out of my vagina in about a month. Tell me again how lucky I am?”
“You tell him, girl! Take no prisoners!”
😂😂😂

“Fiction should always be a basis for reality.” 😂😂

“And I sure as hell don’t need a piece of paper to love you till I stop breathing.”
…
“Til death do us part?”
“Til death do us part.”
The whisper is loud between them, heavy in a way that only the most important promises can be.

“I don’t want to remember my life without you in it. I don’t want to think of how broken I will be when you’re gone. But you don’t understand what you’re sacrificing.”

“Nothing I’m not willing to.”

“There are tears stinging in her eyes. She blinks them away, angry that he could ever believe he is a footnote when in reality he is the only part of her life that has been worth reading.” ~ the way their relationship started with telling stories. Lily telling stories of the past and Sam giving them stories of their future…and how they’re tying back to their love story now…omg, it’s just so poetic.

“I want to paint the future with you.”

I’m dead…melted on the floor. A blob.

Oh dear..”I’m just…a footnote for you. Maybe a chapter - I don’t know. But, I’m ok with that. I am, really. I just - damn it, Lil. I just want a life with you in it.” 🥺😭😔

“Sam has always been so eager to disregard what she is in favor of who she is.” 🥺

“Hey Beautiful”
It is not the endearment that makes her uncomfortable, it is the compliment. The one she was used to hearing in her old life was too similar - uttered from mouths of men and women alike as if being beautiful was all a girl in her position could aspire to. As if that was all she was worth. She doesn’t want Sam to call her beautiful- she just wants him to call her his.

“Sam?”
“Yeah?”
“I think I’m in love with you”
“Welcome to the club”
“I don’t know what that means”
“It means I love you too”
😏🤭🙃

“She won’t risking crossing the carefully drawn line between friendship and more without him there to hold her hand as they jump.” 💓🫠💓

“Staying friends will not make losing him hurt any less. Kissing him will not make him leaving any more crushing. From the moment he took her home - fed her and brought her back to life - he had rooted himself so deeply into her heart that there was no hope of ever untangling him.”

Gently she runs her fingers through his hair and is relieved when the action is rewarded with a sigh. There are words resting on his tongue - she can tell by the way he inhales deeply; as if to fuel his courage, only to sputter soundlessly. She waits patiently, because if anyone understands the elusiveness of words (particularly the important ones) it is her. - I mean…COME ON. How poetic **sigh**

…she weaves him dreams with thread so fine it would fall apart between his fingers should he ever try to escape. He never does. He would make a home in her if she would allow it; wrap himself in the blinking stars and inky skies she paints for him and never let go. Lily knows better than to let him. He has dreams of his own to paint; dreams that will never be realized if she continues to rob him of the brush.

“There are night when she can’t sleep either; when her attention is torn between little truths and bigger fears.”

These simple yet so insightful exchanges are everything. I’m so impressed by how this author captures so much in so few words. How one or two simple and short sentences make my heart ache so deeply. Like how?!

“It is not his fault that what he thought to be an act of mercy ended up being a dose of slow, bitter poison.” 💔💔💔