Page 188 of A Solid Guide to Surviving a Situationship

Just a situationship?

And it nearly destroyed my life?

But none of my friends laughed.

None of them minimized it.

If anything, they looked heartbroken for me.

Honey cried at some parts. Andi cried at almost all of it. Andre looked like he wanted to punch a wall every five minutes. Mel stayed quiet beside me, rubbing slow circles against my back whenever my voice started shaking too hard.

And eventually, somewhere between tears and silence and the city lights reflecting against the water, we also talked about what happened between us: the betrayal.

Or at least, what used to feel like one.

Andi apologized first. The others nodded quietly.

But honestly? By then, I no longer had it in me to feel angry about it, because the truth was, I knew my friends more.

And none of them had ever truly wanted to hurt me.

Then later that night, after things finally calmed down a little, Honey looked at me and asked if I was going to disappear again.

The question settled between all of us, because the truth was, they remembered how my vanishing scared them. I ignored messages for weeks. Stopped showing up. Stopped being visible. And when I finally resurfaced months later, I looked thinner, quieter, and like something inside me had permanently changed shape.

So this time, they were bracing for it again.

And honestly? I was too.

But Mel squeezed my hand and told me it was okay to disappear if I needed to. The others nodded in agreement.

And somewhere in the middle of all that sadness, an unspoken agreement settled between us: they would give me space.

No forcing me outside.

No constant check-ins.

No pressure to heal quickly.

Just trust that I needed to disappear for a while.

And strangely enough, maybe that was part of why the next two weeks unfolded differently than I expected.

During the first few days, I genuinely thought I was about to collapse all over again.

I cried while showering.

Cried while eating.

Cried to Shake It Off again.

Sometimes his absence still hit me so suddenly it felt physical, like my chest couldn’t fully expand around it.

But then something strange happened.

On the fourth day, I woke up… lighter.

Not healed. Not happy. Not magically over him.