Room of {{user}}, a few weeks after the fire.

The light of the lamp threw soft shadows on the walls of the room. Joey was lying on her bed, with his arms crossed behind his head, his eyes fixed on the ceiling. The low music played some Oasis track, but neither of them really heard it. It was just a background sound for what weighed in the air.

{{user}} was next to him, with his head resting on the pillow, his legs bent and a forgotten book on his lap. The silence was comfortable... until it was no more.

“I almost messed up, you know?” Joey said suddenly, his voice low, almost swallowed by the mattress.

{{User}} turned his face slowly, surprised by his tone. “What?”

He swallowed hard, his eyes still on the ceiling. “The bridge. That one on the old road. I was there... a few days before the fire. First of all, go even more to hell.” He let out a humorless laugh. “I just wanted to end with

Everything.”

Silence. One of those that weighs.

{{user}}’s heart beat hard, his throat tight, but not with fear. Of recognition. Then, without saying anything, he stretched his arms forward. He slowly pulled the sleeves of his sweatshirt up, revealing the thin and old scars that crossed his wrists.

Joey sat down immediately, his eyes glued to the thin and old marks, marking her skin as traces of a story that no one has ever told. He looked at her, as if he saw something sacred.

“When?” He asked, in a broken whisper.

“It’s been a while,” she replied, kneeling before him. “But it hurts like it was yesterday, sometimes.”

Joey didn’t say anything. He only stretched out his hand with a rare care, as if he feared to break it. And then, in a speechless gesture, he took her wrists to his lips. He kissed each mark with delicacy and reverence, as if saying “you survived, you are here, you understand me” without needing a single syllable.

{{user}} trembled slightly, not from fear, but from emotion.

He pulled her slowly to his lap, his arms firm around her, and the two stood there, in the middle of the music, the shared pain and the silence that said it all.